Biden for President
National Weather Service Employees Organization (NWSEO)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 27, 2020

ICYMI: National Weather Service Employees Organization (NWSEO) Endorses Joe Biden for President  

Over the weekend, the National Weather Service Employees Organization (NWSEO) endorsed Joe Biden for President of the United States. NWSEO, representing 4,000 employees ranging from meteorologists, technicians to other scientific and support personnel, highlighted Joe Biden’s support of labor movements and Federal employees throughout his career.

NWSEO issued the following press release:


(Washington, D.C., July 24, 2020) - The union that represents the meteorologists, technicians and other scientific and support personnel at National Weather Service offices nationwide today endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for President in the 2020 election. The union had not made a formal endorsement in the 2016 presidential race.

According to the union’s President, John Werner, the union’s executive board voted to make an endorsement in the 2020 election because of the President Trump’s proposed cuts to the National Weather Service and because of his efforts to curtail Federal employee collective bargaining rights, and well as Federal employee retirement and other benefits. “In his 2020 budget request, the President proposed to eliminate the jobs of 365 operational employees of the National Weather Service, all of whom were classified as essential personnel, including 248 front-line forecasters who issue severe weather warnings at the nation’s 122 Weather Forecast Offices,” Werner explained. “In addition, the President proposed to close forecasts offices at night and on weekends and to close one of the nation’s two tsunami warning centers.”

“Astonishingly, even though these reductions were soundly rejected by Congress last year on a bi-partisan basis, the President reintroduced them in his 2021 budget, which is still pending before Congress,” Werner said.

The union’s endorsement also noted that the former Vice President has supported both the labor movement and Federal employees throughout his career, and that Biden has promised to immediately revoke President Trump’s executive orders that illegally curtail Federal employee collective bargaining rights.

The National Weather Service Employees Organization represents 4,000 employees at the Weather Service, as well as employees elsewhere in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including the civilian crews of the agency’s hurricane hunter aircraft, the men and women who track the nation’s weather satellites, hurricane researchers, and the attorneys who enforce the nation’s fisheries laws.

National unions representing a range of other workers and professions have also endorsed Biden, including AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Pride at Work, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART), the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS), Communications Workers of America, (CWA), American Postal Workers Union (APWU), the United Steelworkers Union (USW), Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' International Union (BCTGM), Transportation Trades Department (TTD), International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC), United Farm Workers (UFW), Transport Workers Union (TWU), International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots (MM&P) and the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association (MEBA), International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), United Auto Workers (UAW), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), National Education Association (NEA), International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers (IW), Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Operative Plasterers’ & Cement Masons’ International Association (OPCMIA), and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), American Train Dispatchers Association (ADTA), National Nurses United (NNU), American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), and the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).