MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WCHS) — The labor movement is trying to push back against federal job cuts with more than 200 of them hitting the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown

The news came early on April 1 that about 200 people were losing their jobs.

The Reduction in Force or RIF at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is part of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s plan to fire 10,000 federal workers under his agency’s umbrella. The layoffs will impact 873 of NIOSH’s roughly 1300 employees in Morgantown and three other cities.

“I think that the attacks on public health, medicine and science are going to have far reaching effects,” Hunter Snoderly, former NIOSH researcher, said. “I think we are going to feel the echoes of those cuts for decades to come and I’m deeply concerned about the future of this country.”

“Nobody gets into the public health field unless they really care,” Cathy Tinney-Zara, American Federation of Government Employees Local 3430 president, said. “They really are trying to help, and this is just devastating.”

West Virginia’s two republican senators did not seem overly concerned so far. Shelley Moore-Capito applauded President Donald Trump’s effort to right size government but worries safety research for miners might suffer. She said she did talk with Kennedy about how important miner’s health is.

Sen. Jim justice said he’s in favor of cuts to waste in government and is sure Kennedy understands how important coal miner health programs are to West Virginia. NOISH does research to prevent work related illness and injury.

Estimates indicate about 23,000 federal workers are in West Virginia. Some of their union officials plan a news conference tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. outside the House of Delegates at the Capitol.