In June of 1998, NAATS formally notified the agency that they would no longer participate in the partnership due to the unilateral decision of the FAA to disband a joint committee of the parties working on a complete new reclassification, pay and compensation system for the labor organization's entire bargaining unit. The committee, working at the national level, was dealing with this issue using a consensus based decision-making process. All the principles of partnership were not only espoused but also actively used, until the agency made its decision to disband the committee. Thousands of hours of research, discussions, and a true belief that the two parties were working together honestly were abruptly halted. This had a profound, significantly deep impact on all the labor organization's members because of the complete breakdown of trust, causing NAATS to have no other choice but to discontinue the NFP process.