Air Traffic Controllers helped end the last government shutdown and may again : NPR
A shortage of air traffic controllers may have played a key role in the end of the last government closure in 2019. These controllers could also be in a powerful position this year.
Ailsa Chang, host:
Washington legislators are not closer to an agreement to end the government closed early this morning. The previous closure, six years ago, lasted 35 days, and he had consequences for the country’s air traffic controllers, leading to great delays in commercial aviation. The NPR Transportation Correspondent, Joel Rose, reports that these air traffic controllers could again play a crucial role.
Joel Rose, Byline: More than a month after the end of the government, a few air traffic controllers finally reached their breakdown. There was only a slight increase in sick leave in two facilities in Virginia and Florida which manage high altitude traffic, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, but that was enough to throw airports from the East Coast in Chaos.
(SoundBite of Mounting)
Reward of unidentified news # 1: an endowment shortage of air traffic controllers today, causing major delays in airports here in Tristate …
New new news # 2: It is because of the government’s closure. There is a shortage of air controllers. They called the sick because they are not paid.
Phil Lebeau: Stop on the ground was in Laguardia. It was the only ground stopping earlier this morning.
Rose: It was January 25, 2019. On the same day, President Trump agreed with a measure of financing the temporary government, effectively putting the longest closure in the history of the United States. The quantity exactly of this disruption of commercial aviation had to do with the federal financing agreement remains open to interpretation, although some observers think it was an important factor. What is not questionable is that government closures are bad for the American air travel system. Dennis Tajer is a longtime pilot for American Airlines and a Union spokesman who represents his 16,000 pilots.
Dennis Tajer: It doesn’t take long before the system slows down. The safety margin is always protected, but what is happening is that we have the amount of aircraft that the system can contain.
Rose: Unlike the last closure, the Ministry of Transport says that it will keep the organization of the FAA of the air traffic controller opened as part of its efforts to hire more controllers. However, the government closure will harm nearly 14,000 current controllers who must work there, even if they will not be paid before the end.
(Soundbit of archived registration)
Nick Daniels: We have people who will have to decide, do I take a second job? Should I do Uber? Do I have to find a source of income during this period?
Rose: It’s Nick Daniels, the president of the air traffic controllers union, in a video message to members published on Sunday. Daniels said the closure adds more risks to what is already one of the most stressful jobs in the world. But he also urged controllers to be professional and not to engage in a type of coordinated professional action, as this could encourage the Trump administration to try to award the union. Here is Daniels during a recent meeting with the members.
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Daniels: Our professionalism and our credibility will be – examined. And not only is your career at stake, but the right to have a union will be at stake during this period.
Rose: The union denies having a role in the slowdown in the country’s airspace in 2019. But as we have seen, even a small number of controllers calling for patients can have a significant impact. NPR spoke to a current air traffic traffic controller that manages the approach and departure of traffic in a large American airport. He asked us not to use his name because he is afraid of the FAA reprisals. This controller said that morale on the job market is lower than it was six years ago, because the endowment shortage has won and the remuneration stagnated. He thinks that air traffic controllers again call for patients.
Unidentified air traffic controller: it does not even need to be organized. I think that enough people will individually make the decision they do not want to go to work, that it will not last a lot of time.
Rose: The controller said that he could afford to miss a pay check at most and called on the government’s closure, quotes “a disaster for me”. But it expects it to be shorter than the last.
Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington.
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