Dozens of Minnesota federal workers fired in latest cuts, with no severance

Kate Severson’s boss told her Friday morning she was critical to the short-staffed team at Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota and she should not fear a widescale firing of federal workers still in their probationary periods.

By 4:30 that day, she had received two termination notices, “effective immediately.” But first, she had to tell another worker she supervised that he too was being let go.

And she had to tell her husband, who with her relocated from Colorado seven months ago for a federal job maintaining ice roads and trails. He hasn’t received a notice yet, but it could be coming.

The cuts are part of President Donald Trump’s widescale effort to downsize the federal workforce, specifically an edict from the self-styled Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, to fire all probationary employees. That includes new employees and also experienced federal workers who took new positions, including promotions, within the past year.

There are about 20,000 federal civilian employees in Minnesota. It’s not known how many of those are probationary, but roughly two dozen spoke to the Minnesota Star Tribune about losing their jobs and all knew of others in their departments who had been dismissed. Many did not want to be named because they hoped to be rehired, were looking for new jobs or feared they would be harassed for speaking out.

Nationwide, some departments were hit harder than others. More than 2,000 workers were fired from the Interior Department, which includes the national parks, while close to 400 were laid off from the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the New York Times.

In all, 220,000 federal workers had been on the job for less than a year as of March 2024, according to the Office of Personnel Management. And according to a Feb. 13 order, almost all were mandated to be cut.

Severson said she knows two other federal parks and forestry probationers who were let go Thursday and Friday. Two others who thought they were about to get terminated applied for Trump’s buyout offer and retired. All were experienced parks and forest workers who recently relocated into new roles or from other states.

“The awful thing is our termination letters say it was because of performance [and] not meeting performance needs. This obviously isn’t the reason,” Severson said.

She said she is going to appeal her firing, “even if it’s an empty gesture.”

So will Duluth native Morgan Smith, who added that she is also considering legal action. She has worked for three years in Minnesota, Michigan and Wyoming and was fired with 30 other workers who conduct research at Grand Teton and Voyageurs national parks.

“It’s just not right. I worked hard for my job,” she said. “And it’s not like keeping my job is going to balance the federal budget. I make $19 an hour. And the work we do is important to humans, especially in Minnesota, which is a big fishing state.”

Those who spoke to the Star Tribune worked in wide-ranging jobs, from assisting military veterans and people with disabilities to helping fulfill small-business loans. All said they received no severance, and some who chose to take an earlier offer of a buyout with pay through September said they no longer qualified.

Several described the process as chaotic and said their departments were not informed of details of the layoff plans.

“No one had any clue what was going on,” said a Moorhead resident who worked as an equal opportunity specialist at a division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The woman lost her job on Friday. She said there were no separation papers, just instructions to leave her computer at the office if she did not want to be charged for it. Unsure whether she still has health insurance, she tried calling human resources, but the voicemail was full.

“It seemed very undignified,” she said.

Several employees who were interviewed said it was their dream to work for the federal government on behalf of the public, often forgoing higher salaries in the private sector.

“I spent 10 years in the private sector and took a pay cut to come to the federal government because my wife and I just started a family, the hours are flexible, and the people are great,” said a Minneapolis man who just lost his job as a fire protection engineer for the General Services Administration.

The notice came as the man, who requested that his name not be used, and his wife were with their newborn twins in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Some employees said they reached out to Minnesota’s congressional representatives and senators for help.

Several unions representing federal employees filed lawsuits to block the firings. On Thursday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., denied their request.

Fourteen state attorneys general, including Minnesota’s Keith Ellison, challenged the mass terminations. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., declined to halt the firings.

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said in a statement that Tuesday’s court decision was a setback, “but it’s not the end of that fight.”

Some employees were exempt from the job cuts, notably air traffic controllers, although about 300 other employees at the Federal Aviation Administration were let go nationwide.

Airport screeners at the Transportation Security Administration, including those who work at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, were not affected by the recent terminations. More than 100 airport screeners at MSP currently on probation still have jobs, according to AFGE union officials.

Other airport workers responsible for critical jobs such as keeping runways and surrounding areas free of wildlife said they were initially fired but later told efforts were underway to rehire them.

Chris Wicker of Minneapolis said his experience is an example of the chaotic nature of the terminations.

Wicker, Minnesota’s deputy director for the Small Business Administration (SBA), was fired Feb. 7, rehired days later when the government said it made a mistake, and then fired again last week.

Wicker was hired in July as the SBA office’s second in command. He said it was his dream job to help build small businesses, following several years in the private sector as a financial adviser and business owner.

Wicker’s second termination notice said the action was prompted by performance issues. Like others fired, Wicker said he was shocked by that characterization: “I was doing great; I had good performance reviews.”

Wicker keeps seeing comments by Musk and Trump administration officials that federal employees are part of a massive, inefficient bureaucracy.

“I keep hearing over and over again, ‘Get the bureaucrats out of here,’ ” he said. “Who are they talking about? These people are patriotic Americans who are doing the best they can. I worked with great people.”

Matt DeLong of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.