Fired FAA Workers Reinstated

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union says 132 of its technicians, inspectors and maintenance will return to work Thursday after a judge ordered their reinstatement last week. The workers, all probationary employees, were let go Feb. 14 but their dismissal, along with thousands of other probationary employees in various other government departments, was found to be illegal. They will be paid for the month's work they missed.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/fired-faa-workers-reinstated
1 Like

The chainsaw has been jammed and rendered silent, even if only temporarily. At this point I’ll take any win I can get.

Dismissed illegally by a lie on Valentines Day was stunning and morally reprehensible. Glad they’re back at work.

6 Likes

Yep, “morally reprehensible” pretty-much describes both of them.

Also, “hubris” is another term that comes to mind. Anyone with a semi-smidgen of sense knows that you don’t take a fiendishly complex mechanism like a supercomputer, a human body, a federal agency or, for that matter, a Marvel-Schebler carb, and go hacking into it and yanking things out willy-nilly, and expect it to run better after you’ve dicted with it.

In the immortal words of a local gas station attendant back in the day, “Sur-prise, sur-prise, sur-prise…”

4 Likes

I agree with the comments, this was indeed “morally reprehensible” and reeks of shortsightedness. Aviation safety isn’t something you patch together with duct tape and a prayer. It takes continuity, experience, and trust to keep things running right. Tossing essential personnel out without cause doesn’t just bruise morale, it drains the spirit out of the whole system. The reinstatement is a win for safety.

4 Likes

OK, put them on the 11pm to 7am shift and issue them a toothbrush to clean the bathrooms at whichever government building they work at. Make them want to quit until the legal BS by overreaching judges ends.

I am sorry a few deserving employees may be let go but the bloat and excesses of government has to end before the bankruptcy arrives. This BS can not continue!

3 Likes

So probationary employees provide experience and stability…….in what world?

3 Likes

And the taxpayers are looking for wins also and if it means a few government workers (±1 million) have to find a real job I’m ok with that.

We are ONLY $37,000,000,000,000 in debt why would we NEED to make changes to the way government works.

3 Likes

I think a lot of the people that were let go were “work at home” employees who refused to come to an office. Hard to oversee safety from your basement. My hope is that this jarred them into realizing they need to actually do the work and not surf the net all day.

2 Likes

No on is saying we don’t need to make any changes in the way government works - just that the “take an ax to it” approach doesn’t work.

4 Likes

Using tweezers won’t work now, we are too far down the rabbit hole. You are right don’t use an axe or chain saw, use an earth mover.

2 Likes

They can borrow my chainsaw anytime.

1 Like

Wife: Honey, there are droppings under the sink. We have mice.
Me: I’m on it
10 minutes later . .
Wife: Honey, I smell smoke.
Me: I’m on it. Burning down the house to get rid of the mice.

3 Likes

Hmmmm, I once bought land with a 100 year old home on it. The first thing we did was bulldoze the house and build one that was bigger, more efficient and worked much better for our needs. Sometimes burning it down is a good thing!

1 Like

Bob. The FAA tech areas are not exactly training grounds. They have requirements for extensive experience in what ever the job is about before hiring a person. And because it is a good job, they have lots of very qualified persons applying. They are probationary only because that is what a first year employee is assigned in their job description. . Probably some exceptional folks were kicked out the door. But you knew that.

3 Likes

SO! In the real world probationary means you can be fired for no reason whatsoever. And BTW, government worker unions are BS, even the socialist FDR knew that.

“ All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management.” FDR

You are right on. Trump or no Trump, if the US economy collapses you GA aircraft will only be worth the price of scrap aluminum.

At this stage we need to scrap it and start over. The national debt interest is rising $1 trillion a year.

It’s worse than that. Janet Yellen created a situation where we are truly in peril since a great deal of that debt matures in a very short period of time. A spike in rates could be disastrous with so much of the debt with short term maturity. That Trillion in interest could easily become double that or more. The malfeasance is astounding.

That activist judge is way out of line. She at least agreed that the Trump administration had the right to fire these people. She just didn’t like the way it was done. They will be fired twice if they come back. If they are smart, those fired would be looking for work in the private sector, for instance replacing all the illegals now self-deporting.