Jobs restored at local federal agency

Patricia Gallagher Newberry Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY NETWORK

Afederal agency with hundreds of local employees and 55 years of Cincinnati history restored its workforce this week. ● The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, known as NIOSH, told about 400 employees across the country that it was reversing its earlier “reduction in force” directive. ● “That notice is hereby revoked,” an email sent the afternoon of Jan. 13 read. “You are not affected by the RIF and remain employed in your position of record.”

The union representing local NIOSH staff called the restoration of jobs a victory.

“This moment belongs to every single person who refused to stay silent,” Micah Niemeier-Walsh, vice president of Local 3840 of the American Federation of Government Employees and a NIOSH industrial hygienist in Cincinnati, said in a press release. “Every rally, every media interview, every petition signature, every act of solidarity by NIOSH employees and our partners in the labor movement led to this victory of saving NIOSH.”

Well-being of Americans remains ‘top priority,’ government says

Last March, NIOSH officials told The Enquirer it had 403 local employees. That included 189 at its Alice Hamilton Laboratory for Occupational Safety and Health in Pleasant Ridge and 213 at the Robert A. Taft Occupational Safety and Health Laboratory in Linwood.

NIOSH laid off all of those employees in June and July as part of a large-scale restructuring launched by its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

It was not, however, immediately clear how many people in Cincinnati were called back to work this week, Niemeier- Walsh said.

The union said the nationwide layoff impacted about 1,000 NIOSH workers, with 328 reinstated in May.

Asked why NIOSH restored the jobs and how many employees are back on the job locally, a NIOSH spokesperson provided this statement: “Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, the nation’s critical public health functions remain intact and effective,” HHS press secretary Emily G. Hilliard said via email.

The statement continued: “The Trump administration is committed to protecting essential services, whether it’s supporting coal miners and firefighters through NIOSH, safeguarding public health through lead prevention, or researching and tracking the most prevalent communicable diseases. Enhancing the health and well-being of all Americans remains our top priority.”

Landsman advocated for NIOSH with Kennedy

U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman, the 1st Congressional District Democrat who lives in Cincinnati’s Mount Washington neighborhood, began advocating for NIOSH when Kennedy announced plans to cut about 20,000 of the Department of Health and Human Services’ 82,000 jobs.

“We immediately got to work, organizing more than 100 members of Congress to get HHS’ attention and prioritize these jobs,” Landsman told The Enquirer this week.

He pressed administration officials about NIOSH in three letters – two of them co-signed by more than 100 members of Congress – and won Kennedy’s verbal commitment to consider reinstating jobs during a June Congressional committee meeting. In one letter, he said internal NIOSH data from 2024 put the economic impact of Cincinnati’s NIOSH operations at $108 million.

“Seeing these jobs reinstated is a huge deal,” Landsman said.

Members of Congress should “go hard for the people” they represent, he said, adding, “We never took our foot off the gas.”

‘Future is bright’ for NIOSH at 50th anniversary

NIOSH began operating in Cincinnati in1971. Most recently, the 400-plus local employees worked for three divisions:

● Compensation Analysis and Support, providing scientific support for claims involving Department of Energy workers with cancer caused by exposure to radiation, beryllium and silica.

● Science Integration, providing recommendations to prevent work-related death, injury or illness. Over the years, it produced worker safety curriculum for middle school and high school students, the NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards and other materials.

● Field Studies and Engineering, focused on preventing work-related illness. It worked on reducing workplace harm to hearing, tracking lead exposure and studying workers’ compensation issues.

Local NIOSH employees have also played a leading role in the National Firefighters Registry for Cancer, aimed at understanding and reducing the risk of cancer among U.S. firefighters.

“We are proud of our past in NIOSH Cincinnati,” said a 2021 posting on the NIOSH web page celebrating the agency’s 50th year in Cincinnati. “The future is bright.”

Federal officials had been planning a new $100 million NIOSH building for Cincinnati for nearly two decades. The Enquirer could not immediately confirm the status of that project with the reinstatement of local jobs.

“We never took our foot off the gas.”

U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman

Who advocated against job cuts at NIOSH