SEATTLE — The stressful career of an Air Traffic Controller became more so on Tuesday.
Controllers received a paycheck of $0 since the federal government shutdown began on October 1.
“You have to figure out how you’re going to provide for your family, you have to figure out alternate ways of getting income. We do know that there’s air traffic controllers that are going and working six days a week, ten hours a day,” said Mark Raush, with the National Air Traffic Controllers, as he handed out flyers detailing the issues to passengers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Raush points to that kind of mandatory overtime being the norm for Controllers for around a decade as the FAA estimates thousands of controllers need to be hired to make up for the deficit and cover impending retirements.
The lack of pay is making a job that requires 100% attention 100% of the time even more stressful, Raush said.
“Do you want [Controllers] to have this distraction of a shutdown where, in the back of their mind they’re worried about where the next meal is going to come from, or are they going to be able to put gas in their car so that they can get to and from work?” Raush said.
Flyers passed out call on Congress to end the shutdown, point to potential safety concerns, and urge people to call elected representatives.
It comes as the FAA has reported a 25% increase in runway incursions from 2013-2023.
“To fix those issues, we need to fix a staffing issue,” Raush said, “We can’t get back to fixing the staffing if the government is shut down.”
Passengers were mainly sympathetic to the plight of Air Traffic Controllers on Tuesday.
“Air transport is vital to the United States of America and I don’t think that we should be delaying paying people working the jobs,” said Dylan Chouinard.
Susan Tanabe said she was surprised to see no delays on her travel and a fully staffed TSA line during the shutdown.
“I was feeling a little better aout that and also feeling terrible because they’re all still here,” Tanabe said, “Everytime I go through I say thank you to everybody that is working that isn’t getting paid. I mean, I couldn’t imagine.”
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