Federal Employee Spotlight: Matthew Kolodzie

(Federal Workers Alliance)

For this month’s federal employee spotlight we check in with Matthew Kolodzie, a firefighter at the Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, NY.

Kolodzie started working for the federal government in 2003 as a firefighter for the Department of Army. What he didn’t know at the time was that we federal firefighters work many more hours than the municipal firefighters. They are required to work 72 hrs a week, whereas the private sector works a 40 hr week. “Those extra hours keep me from my family, but we have an important job to do, and I’m glad to do it.”

He takes issue with the fact that politicians and certain members of the media claim that federal workers are overpaid compared to their counterparts outside of the federal sector “I make actually less money than a five year employee at FDNY, than with my 8 years of service with Uncle Sam. The attacks on federal employees have to stop! People really need to do their homework before thinking we are all just fat cats rolling in money.”

Now with his pay frozen he and his fellow federal firefighters will be even more behind in pay than local firefighters. “As a federal firefighter I am protecting those who serve America! Why am I getting made out to be no good, when I am doing so much for those who serve America?”