Furloughs hit workers supplying services to JBLM. Government shutdown blamed
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- Tessera furloughed 85 janitorial workers at JBLM after Army funding lapsed.
- Furlough began Nov. 1, and will continue until Congress restores appropriations.
- Most affected workers with the entity belong to SEIU.
A company that provides janitorial services to Joint Base Lewis-McChord is the latest to be affected by the federal government shutdown.
Jessica McLoughlin, regional vice president of Tessera, stated in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification letter to the state’s Employment Security Department that 85 workers would be furloughed.
The notification stated that “the recent government shutdown has resulted in a lapse in Army funding for janitorial services.”
The letter added, “We received notification from our government customer on October 30, 2025, that funding is not available for these services past October 31. As a result, we are unable to sustain our current staffing levels.”
The furlough began Nov. 1 “and is expected to continue until Congress passes appropriations to resume services,” it added.
The Kitsap County-based nonprofit formerly known as Skookum Contract Services rebranded to Tessera in March. It works to create jobs for people with disabilities and provides various services, such as facility maintenance and management and public works services for large military installations.
Tessera employs more than 1,700 employees across 14 states in contract work for federal, state and local governments, all branches of the U.S. military, higher education and various corporations.
Of the 85 employees affected in the temporary layoff from their JBLM work, the majority are represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), 6 Property Services, Northwest, according to the letter.
“While we hope that the planned action is expected to be temporary, we do not know whether the planned action is expected to last longer or shorter than three months,” the letter stated.
The notification also stated that the layoff “will not result in the relocation or contracting out of Tessera’s operations or the employees’ positions.”
This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 11:18 AM with the headline "Furloughs hit workers supplying services to JBLM. Government shutdown blamed."
