FAA Surveys Workers About Relocation

For Immediate Release: October 3, 2012
Contact: Audrey Hinton at ahinton@cghtech.com or (202) 580-7427

As reported in New York Newsday recently, the Federal Aviation Administration is surveying employees who work at radar buildings in Westbury and Ronkonkoma to gauge attitudes about the possibility that the agency would permanently move their jobs to the Albany metropolitan area or elsewhere.

The FAA is using an online survey developed, deployed and maintained by CGH Technologies to test employee reactions to the FAA’s plans to build a new regional air traffic control building that would replace two older buildings in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The first question on the survey asks workers if, given financial incentives, they would consider moving off Long Island to “a lower-cost area.” Other questions ask what factors would keep employees from moving as soon as 2017, and where the workers would prefer the new building. The choices are Nassau, Suffolk or the Albany area.

FAA officials said no decision has been made on where the facility would be built. As the agency continues shaping plans for a new building as part of its change to a satellite-based aviation navigation system called NextGen, employees will be included in the planning, the officials said.
“As we plan for the new facility, the agency is engaging with stakeholders, including labor organizations, to establish metrics and other criteria,” said Kathleen Bergen, an FAA spokeswoman. “While the FAA has completed some preliminary work for the new facility, a final location has not been determined.”

”We are honored that the FAA is using our survey technology to solicit the opinions of a broad spectrum of FAA employees as it moves forward with its planning,” said Cindy Troutman, CEO of CGH Technologies. “No matter what the outcome, we have found that decisions are always better received when managers use surveys of this kind to invite the input of their staff members.”