FAA Shifting Jobs Out of Kansas City
The Federal Aviation Administration is moving jobs out of its downtown facility, and union leaders fear the regional operation that has employed about 400 people will close.
Thirty-four local FAA employees were notified this week they were being transferred to Fort Worth, Texas, as part of a national air traffic organization consolidation plan, said Scott Lueckert, local union representative for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
The union has organized a letter-writing campaign to the local congressional delegation asking for help. The letter states that almost 110 jobs are being ?dissolved? out of Kansas City. The FAA moved into its current facility at 901 Locust St. in January 1999.
Besides the 34 employees just notified, 41 accounting employees have been transferred to Oklahoma City, 21 air traffic positions have been shifted to Fort Worth, and 10 to 15 contract employees are expected to lose their jobs, according to the union letter.
"We've known about this for quite some time," Lueckert said. "But management has been cagey about the numbers."
The Kansas City FAA office referred inquiries to Tony Molinaro, an FAA spokesman in Chicago. Molinaro had no specific numbers for the staff reductions in Kansas City, but he said his agency had no plans to close the regional office in Kansas City or anyplace else.
"What the FAA is doing is responding to a congressional request for performance-based air traffic operations," Molinaro said. "It affects air traffic management in regional offices and technical operations management in regional offices."
Elected officials are vowing to get answers about the FAA's long-term plans for the downtown facility.
"We expect more than a vague commitment by the FAA that they will ensure that jobs remain in KC," said Rob Ostrander, a spokesman for Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican. "Senator Bond is very concerned about the loss of these jobs, and this raises questions about the overall direction of the FAA reorganization plan."
Bond is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, which has jurisdiction over the FAA.
"Unless FAA becomes more responsive, ends the ambiguity and addresses these issues in short order, Senator Bond's subcommittee will be taking a much closer look at the agency's overall reorganization plan," Ostrander said.
Danny Rotert, a spokesman for Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, said his office had been contacted by the union.
"We've heard about the 110 jobs and the speculation of the closing, but nothing has been confirmed yet," Rotert said. "We'll fight for every job here."
Mike MacDonald, a Boston-based official with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the union believes the FAA is planning to ultimately consolidate its nine regional offices into three offices in Atlanta, Fort Worth and Seattle.
"What's significant is that priorities for Kansas City won't be set by people in Kansas City, they'll be set in Fort Worth," MacDonald said.
Kansas City narrowly avoided losing its FAA regional office in 1993. At that time, the agency was considering moving to Chicago or Dallas, but Bond lobbied the organization to not only stay in Kansas City, but also invest in a new $28 million facility next to Ilus W. Davis Park.
The letter to members of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association suggesting they write to their congressional representatives describes the consolidation program as "misguided."
The effort "will not result in cost savings, increased efficiency nor decreased overhead," according to the letter.
"The work that was recently completed at the St. Louis International Airport and Kansas City International would not be accomplished to the detail and efficiency that occurred if any of the projects were run out of Fort Worth."
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