As if flying through the shutdown weren’t nerve-wracking sufficient, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is now threatening to punish air visitors controllers who name in sick as a result of they’re not getting paid—due to Republicans.
Throughout a Thursday interview on Fox Enterprise, Duffy singled out air visitors controllers who name out sick as “problem children” and warned that those that accomplish that might lose their jobs.
“If we have some on our staff that aren’t dedicated like we need, we’re going to let them go,” Duffy mentioned when requested about again pay for controllers, who’re required to work with out pay through the shutdown. “Again, I can’t have people not showing up for work.”
Duffy did supply a sliver of reassurance for vacationers, saying it’s “a small fraction of people who don’t come to work.” However he additionally blamed that fraction—the “problem children”—for “this massive disruption,” which he mentioned is already “rippling through our skies today.”
His powerful discuss comes throughout every week of mounting delays. Since Monday, staffing shortages have snarled air journey in Chicago, Denver, and Phoenix, amongst many different main cities.
Whereas the scenario to this point has not brought about nationwide gridlock, it stays unsettling. Duffy insists it’s “safe” to fly. However after a yr marked by critical aviation security considerations—together with a lethal collision in January between a industrial jet and an Military helicopter—there’s loads of motive for vacationers to be uneasy.
Duffy additionally praised the “90% [to] 95%” of controllers who report with out being paid. However that reward is a pointy distinction to the division’s personal struggles to rebuild a workforce that’s been stretched skinny ever since then-President Ronald Reagan fired air visitors controllers en masse for putting. The pandemic solely deepened the pressure, leaving the FAA about 3,500 controllers in need of its staffing objectives.
Notably, the Nationwide Air Visitors Controllers Affiliation, a serious labor union, is urging staff to remain on the job.
An American Airways jet takes off previous an air visitors management tower at Dallas Fort Value Worldwide Airport, in Texas, on Oct. 2.
“Participating in a job action could result in removal from federal service,” NATCA warned. “It is not only illegal, but it also undermines NATCA’s credibility and severely weakens our ability to effectively advocate for you and your families.”
Duffy additionally used the Fox interview to push false, partisan speaking factors, claiming Democrats brought about the shutdown to increase well being care advantages to undocumented immigrants. That’s not true.
In the meantime, flight delays are piling up. Since Monday, there have been greater than 15,000.
“The average was 5% of delays in the national system was from controller staffing shortages in the past,” Duffy advised Fox. “At this time, it’s 53%. So, a massive rise in the delays is coming from controllers who aren’t coming to work. It’s a problem.”
The present pressure is surfacing sooner than through the earlier main authorities shutdown, in 2019, which stretched to 35 days throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period. At the moment, rising absences amongst controllers and Transportation Safety Administration officers pressured authorities to sluggish air visitors into New York, serving to to interrupt the deadlock.
It’s comprehensible why some staff won’t need to store up unpaid—or may want to choose up odd jobs because the GOP’s shutdown drags on. However Duffy has chosen to fulfill a fragile, underpaid, and overworked labor power with threats as an alternative of help.
Then once more, Duffy’s “Real World” resume hasn’t precisely translated into real-world management.
