Air Traffic Controllers Ask Public For Donations As Shutdown Drags On

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Air traffic controllers who missed their paychecks for the first time on Oct. 28 during the ongoing government shutdown gathered at several airports nationwide to ask the public for donations.

Controllers passed out leaflets at 20 airports to also ask people to call their congressional representatives and urge them to reopen the government.

The effort was organized by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents nearly 20,000 controllers, engineers, and other safety-related professionals across the United States.

Association President Nick Daniels joined Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday for a press conference about the missing paychecks.

The shutdown has strained the nation’s network of air traffic controllers, causing flight delays and cancellations as staff shortages leave some towers without enough support, officials reported.

The extra stress of worrying about putting food on the table and paying rent has exacerbated the crisis, according to Daniels.

“America’s air traffic controllers are now having to focus on how do they put gas in their car? How do they take care of their children? How do they pay for child care?” Daniels said. “That makes the system less safe.”

He urged people to contact their congressional representatives to take action and end the shutdown.

“These hardworking men and women are showing up to do their jobs,” he said.

Duffy said many long-serving controllers can survive without this first paycheck because they have planned for days such as these. But many new controllers who are still in training can’t handle not being paid.

Some controllers have taken on second jobs with Uber, DoorDash, and other services to get through the shutdown, he said.

But missing another paycheck would be devastating for most of them, he said.

“Almost every controller can’t make it [without] two paychecks,” Duffy said.

The demonstrations at airports this week were meant to send a message to Congress, he said.

A bill was presented in the Senate on Tuesday that would have allowed the shutdown to continue and also provided pay to critical workers, such as air traffic controllers. The bill failed after Senate Democrats voted against it.

“Controllers and those other critical employees need our government to be open, and they need to be paid,” Duffy said.

The shutdown could create long-term problems for the Transportation Department, even if the government reopened this week, Duffy said.

Some trainees have left the air traffic control program, and instructors at the academy are not being paid.

“This truly can drive people out of a profession where we’re trying to build more numbers instead of taking numbers away from us,” Duffy said.

Duffy estimated the department had about one week left before it runs out of funding for the air traffic control academy.