Federal Union Slams Montana GOP Senate Candidate’s ‘Disdain’ For Wildland Firefighters | EUROtoday

A union representing 1000’s of federal wildland firefighters excoriated Montana GOP Senate hopeful Tim Sheehy after he accused firefighters of dragging their ft to place out infernos and “milking” disasters for extra time pay.

“Sheehy’s comments are not only unfounded and disrespectful of wildland firefighters across the country, but they also show a severe lack of understanding of the essential and dangerous work these brave men and women do to defend our country from devastating fires – especially communities in Montana,” mentioned Randy Erwin, the nationwide president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, in a press launch dated Thursday.

“Sheehy’s disdain for firefighters is out of step with true Montanans and the rest of America,” he added.

Erwin’s blistering takedown comes about two weeks after HuffPost first reported that Sheehy, who made thousands and thousands operating an aerial firefighting firm that depends closely on profitable federal contracts, has repeatedly claimed, with little proof, {that a} vital variety of boots-on-the-ground firefighters are standing round whereas wildfires rage.

In the 2023 guide “Mudslingers: A True Story of Aerial Firefighting,” Sheehy described an encounter with firefighters battling blazes in Idaho in 2015. He wrote that one firefighting pilot advised him of the blaze: “We don’t want it to go too fast. … There’s a lot of overtime pay to be earned out there! We put it out, it’s back on salary!’”

That dialog “smacked less of concern or common sense than it did laziness — or, worse, greed,” Sheehy wrote. “I wouldn’t call it malevolence; anyone who climbs into a plane or picks up a shovel to fight wildfires clearly has a capacity for goodness and a desire to help. That said, even in positions that are demonstrably service-oriented, there is the potential for self-interest, if not outright corruption, leading to a response that is not necessarily in the public’s best interest.”

“If there is no fire, there is no money,” he added. “And the faster that a fire is extinguished, the sooner the money dries up or goes elsewhere. It might seem ridiculous to worry about a shortage of work to keep the wildfire industry busy given the extraordinary expansion of the season in recent years, not to mention the gnawing sense that firefighters will forever be overmatched against nature. But old beliefs and protocols die hard, and clearly there were some in the industry who saw nothing wrong with milking every fire for what it was worth despite the risks and the blurring of ethical boundaries.”

It’s not the one time Sheehy has hurled such accusations at public servants who work in the identical area as him. Sheehy is the founding father of Belgrade, Montana-based Bridger Aerospace, an organization that has a fleet of firefighting plane, and he has persistently highlighted his firm’s work in marketing campaign advertisements and speeches. At a guide signing in Huntsville, Alabama, in April, months after launching his marketing campaign towards three-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, Sheehy advised attendees, “There’s a very real dynamic in wildfire that a lot of those people don’t want to put the fire out.”

“They don’t want to put the fire out because that’s where they get their overtime, that’s where they get their hazard pay,” he added.

Wildland firefighters are notoriously underpaid for a job that’s turning into more and more harmful amid worsening local weather change.

In an October publish on X, previously Twitter, Tester referred to as Sheehy’s feedback “insulting.”

On its web sitethe National Federation of Federal Employees notes that its advocacy for wildland firefighters contains “fighting for a permanent, competitive pay fix, enhanced mental health and physical wellbeing resources, adequate housing, and more.” In Thursday’s press launch, Erwin mentioned that NFFE represents many federal wildland firefighters throughout the nation, together with in Montana. And he highlighted the myriad challenges these employees are going through.

“Wildland firefighters have been doing more with less for decades, and the current shortage of firefighters places them and other first responders at greater risk while they work longer deployments fighting hotter and bigger fires each year,” Erwin mentioned. “Sheehy and his arial company have profited heavily from taxpayer-funded contracts to fight wildfires while many wildland firefighters struggle to pay the rent because of low pay.”

He slammed Sheehy’s remarks as “elitist and self-serving.”

“Federal wildland firefighters and other first responders deserve better, as do all the residents of Montana,” Erwin mentioned.

When HuffPost reached out to Sheehy’s marketing campaign final month, a spokesperson referred to as HuffPost’s reporting on the GOP candidate “embarrassing” with out addressing particular questions on his feedback — a tactic his marketing campaign has more and more turned to in latest months amid a seemingly limitless stream of controversies.

While polling beforehand confirmed Sheehy with a commanding lead over Tester, a ballot launched final week confirmed the 2 in a useless warmth.