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NFFE-IAM activist and smokejumper Sam Forstag is taking a strong working-class message to voters across Montana’s 1st Congressional District.
Forstag is a former U.S. Forest Service smokejumper who spent eight years in wildland fire management. He also served as vice president of NFFE IAM Local 60 and has been active in organizing and advocating for working families.
Forstag says federal workforce cuts were a major reason he decided to run for Congress. According to his campaign, 360 Forest Service employees lost their jobs on the first day of the cuts, while the agency eventually lost between 20 and 25 percent of its workforce.
He says many of those affected were frontline employees responsible for maintaining roads and trails, protecting public lands and supporting forest management.
Forstag also says he repeatedly reached out to Congressman Ryan Zinke about the impact of the cuts but received no response.
“So, I decided if he’s going to come after my co-workers and my members’ jobs, I’m going to come and take his,” Forstag said.
Forstags campaign is focused on affordable housing, healthcare, childcare, education, public lands, tax fairness, retirement security, higher wages, and stronger labor rights. He is also campaigning without corporate PAC money, relying instead on grassroots support.
Forstag has received backing from the National Federation of Federal Employees, the IAM Union, and the AFL-CIO.
At a recent campaign gathering in Missoula, union members, firefighters and labor leaders came together to support his campaign. NFFE National Vice President Bob Beckley, a retired Forest Service employee and former smokejumper, presented Forstag with a custom Pulaski firefighting tool in recognition of his support for federal workers, which is inscribed on the handle “One of Us for all of Us”!
NFFE-IAM National Secretary-Treasurer Max Alonzo also urged union members to support Forstag, calling him both a labor leader and a union brother.
