Air Force civilian workforce restructuring impacts Luke

  • Published
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  Air Force officials announced several adjustments to the civilian workforce today, including the elimination of approximately 9,000 civilian positions. The local impact at Luke Air Force Base will be the loss of 46 civilian authorizations for Fiscal Year 2012, 15 authorizations for FY 2013 and 7 authorizations for 2014. The positions are in a variety of fields.

To help mitigate these cuts, the Air Force offered eligible employees the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority and Voluntary Separation Incentive Program. Ten civilian employees from Luke AFB were approved for these programs.

"Our people are our greatest asset, and we'll do everything we can to take care of our civilian employees who may lose their positions in this restructuring," said Brig. Gen. Jerry D. Harris Jr., 56th Fighter Wing commander. "The reality is in this fiscally constrained environment, we have to find more efficient ways of doing business. Team Luke will continue our mission of training the world's greatest F-16 fighter pilots and maintainers, while deploying mission-ready warfighters."

These personnel adjustments reflect several initiatives designed to align limited resources based on Air Forces priorities. This process is an ongoing effort to increase efficiencies, reduce overhead and eliminate redundancy.

"We can't be successful without our talented and experienced civilian workforce," said Michael B. Donley, Secretary of the Air Force. "We are making difficult choices about how to deliberately restructure and posture the force and will continue to look for new ways of accomplishing the mission. We can't afford business as usual."

For more information, see the following article from SAF/PA, located at http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123278268.