Stephanie Heath
The recent government shutdown has affected many people across the country, leaving them wondering how they will put food on the table. While specific jobs were able to send their employees home amid this chaos, others are deemed essential, such as air traffic controllers. Now, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is telling air traffic controllers to go back to work amid the government shutdown.
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The Details: Following the recent government shutdown, several major airports are experiencing significant staffing delays. Unsurprisingly, people don’t like showing up to work when they aren’t getting paid.
- The NY Post shares that as air traffic controllers are putting in unpaid hours, more and more of them are calling out sick.
- This, in turn, leads to a shortage of workers, which means more delays and canceled flights.
- Now, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is pleading with air traffic controllers, imploring them to return to work amid the government shutdown.
“You Need To Go To Your Job”
During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had this to say.
- “I’m encouraging air traffic controllers to show up for work.”
However, his encouragement doesn’t appear to be enough. An increasing number of air traffic controllers are calling in sick, fed up with their current situation. Being short-staffed and not receiving a paycheck would be enough to aggravate anyone. Nevertheless, the transportation secretary reminded America of the importance of these workers.
- “They need to go to their jobs,” he shared with Tapper. “They need to control the airspace.”
I assume some of their responses may be that you need to reopen the government and then give us a paycheck. In that regard, Duffy showed remorse. He acknowledged that it must be frustrating and stressful to pay bills and get food on the table without any pay.
The NY Post shares that “staff will receive back pay once the shutdown ends and government reopens, but are on their own as it continues.” A nice sentiment, but not very encouraging, given the uncertainty of how long this shutdown will last.
Secretary Sean Duffy Tells Air Traffic Controllers Go To Work Amid Government Shutdown
During an interview on FOX News Channel’s “The Will Cain Show“ Duffy continued to share his message. He shared the serious uptick in staffing issues with air traffic controllers amid the government shutdown.
- “Historically, there’s about 5% of delays attributed to staffing issues in our towers,” he stated.
- “The last couple of days, it’s been 53%,” he later shared.
Despite his supposed understanding of these workers’ grievances, Duffy made his message very clear. He even used it as the caption of his tweet.
- “My message to the air traffic controllers who work at @USDOT: Show up for work. You have a job to do!”
More than 14,000 air traffic controllers have been working without pay since the government shutdown on October 1. I wonder how they will take to Duffy’s message.
