Washington (CNN) An Environmental Protection Agency scientist confronted EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler about agency working conditions and how it is approaching the climate crisis Wednesday morning at an award ceremony in Washington.

"Administrator Wheeler, I'd like to ask you to please support a fair contract for EPA workers," Loreen Targos, an EPA scientist in the Great Lakes area, is seen saying in a video provided by the union. "Please reward my award-winning labor by negotiating a fair contract."

Targos was receiving a Silver Medal award on stage at EPA headquarters when she unveiled a banner reading "Care about EPA workers having a fair contract to address public health & climate change, Do you?" She also criticized the agency's recent unilateral change to the master bargaining agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees, one of several unions representing EPA employees.

Targos said a fair contract is needed to continue research into "fighting climate change."

This comes on the back of several instances where government workers have spoken out against the administration's policies, including when employees of the Department of Agriculture turned their backs to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue at a meeting last month in protest of the announced office relocation to Kansas City.

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