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On Friday, Feb. 14, several hundred FAA workers received termination notices, as reported by the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) union.
“We are troubled and disappointed by the administration’s decision to fire FAA probationary employees PASS represents without cause nor based on performance or conduct,” said PASS national president David Spero in a statement. “Several hundred employees have been impacted with messages being sent from an ‘exec order’ Microsoft email address, not an official .gov email address. Messages began arriving after 7 p.m. ET on February 14 and continued late into the night.”
The layoffs predominantly affect probationary employees — those with less than a year of service lacking full job protections — rendering them susceptible to the administration's workforce reduction strategies.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said fewer than 400 FAA employees were fired and ''Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go."
The recent FAA terminations are part of a broader federal initiative to streamline government operations, which has included offering buyouts to nearly 3 million federal workers and implementing a hiring freeze across various agencies.
These staffing cuts occur in the shadow of a tragic mid-air collision over the Potomac River on Wednesday, Jan. 29, involving an army helicopter and a commercial airliner, resulting in 67 fatalities.
An internal FAA report highlighted that, on the night of the collision, a single controller was managing multiple critical duties, a deviation from standard staffing protocols.
Critics argue that the administration's aggressive cost-cutting measures, particularly within agencies pivotal to public safety, could exacerbate existing vulnerabilities.
The PASS union has voiced alarm over the potential degradation of safety standards, emphasizing that the terminated employees play essential roles in ensuring the reliability of the nation's aviation infrastructure.
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