KSHB 41 reporter Charlie Keegan covers politics on both sides of the state line. If you have a story idea to share, you can send Charlie an email at charlie.keegan@kshb.com.
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Liv Alvarado was three weeks away from ending her one-year probationary period as a new hire with the Internal Revenue Service when she got a call Wednesday.
The call told her to bring all her government-issued items like keycards, badges and computers to work with her Thursday as she’d be fired. At work Thursday, she got an email confirming the end of her employment.
“I came in today, checked my email and the same thing; just turn in my stuff and see ya later,” Alvarado recounted.
President of the local chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union, Shannon Ellis, told KSHB 41 News about 100 probationary employees lost their jobs at the Kansas City campus Thursday.
“We’ve got people who are fighting cancer and other things. This health insurance is why they work here,” Ellis said. “Now they’re going to lose all of that. I can’t even describe how heartbreaking this is to watch.”
The layoffs are part of an executive order President Donald Trump signed last week. It calls for federal agencies to implement the Department of Government Efficiency’s Workforce Optimization Initiative.
“This is tremendous savings for our government,” Trump said Friday. “We want to downsize government, but make it better, run it better.”
Local IRS union leaders feel like any downsizing should have been more strategic.
“I feel like a grenade is being used when a scalpel would be appropriate,” said NTEU Local 66 Vice President Daniel Scharpenburg.
He said about 6,000 people work for the IRS in the Kansas City area. He’s unsure if future layoffs are coming, but credited pressure from Congress for keeping Thursday’s layoffs from reaching too high of numbers.
Ellis, the union president, warned cutting too many employees could delay tax returns this season.
The IRS did not reply to an email seeking clarification on the reasons for the layoffs and the total number of employees affected in Kansas City.
“I’m upset, I wish it would’ve been handled a lot better than it was,” Alvarado said. “I wish they would have looked at performance and not just the date I started. That would’ve been a lot better.”
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