The president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, Nick Daniels, has stated that workers have gone unpaid for too long to continue performing their duties safely.
On Friday, the head of the air traffic controllers union reported that some members are resigning from their positions due to the stress caused by the government shutdown, a development that worsens an already critical staffing situation at airports.
“We’re seeing air traffic controllers resign,” Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, confirmed to CNN.
“We didn’t see that in 2019,” Daniels continued. “We are 400 less controllers today than we were in the 2019 shutdown. And now they’ve been stretched so thin for so long, with so much going on, so much pressure on their backs, that they’re actually resigning from the profession.”
Daniels asserted that ending the shutdown is “not just about coming back to work — it’s about keeping the very ones that we have.”
The government has remained shut down for 37 days, leaving federal workers with no indication of when they might receive their next paycheck. Democrats, holding enough Senate seats to filibuster spending legislation, are demanding that any agreement include an extension of federal subsidies for healthcare under the Affordable Care Act, a condition President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have rejected.
The Transportation Department, which oversees the Federal Aviation Administration, acknowledged an increase in air traffic controllers calling in sick. Consequently, the Trump administration has begun to limit air traffic at 40 airports nationwide to alleviate congestion—a move Democrats interpret as an effort to increase pressure on them to concede in the negotiations.
On Friday, hundreds of flights were canceled across the United States.
When HuffPost inquired with the FAA on Friday about the number of air traffic controllers who had resigned since the shutdown started, an automated reply indicated the agency was not responding to media requests due to the shutdown.
“As Secretary [Sean] Duffy has said, there have been increased staffing shortages across the system,” the email stated. “When that happens, the FAA slows traffic into some airports to ensure safe operations.”
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Duffy confirmed that while most controllers were reporting to work, “another group” has demonstrated a “longer record of not showing up.”
He also acknowledged the financial strain workers are under as weeks pass without pay.
“Let’s not lie about the pressure,” Duffy said.
“The ones who do come to work, they’re the ones that are working six days a week, 10 hours a day,” he added. “You can do that for a couple weeks, but at one point, you’re going to get burned out. You’re going to get burned out, and that’s what we’re seeing. Now, there’s a higher level of fatigue with the controllers.”
An organized event where large numbers of employees call out sick is known as a “sickout,” but there is currently no evidence that this is occurring. Although controller callouts are thought to have contributed to ending the 2019 shutdown, Daniels said Friday that the current situation was being “misconstrued.”
“People aren’t calling in sick,” he clarified. “They’re either fit for duty or they’re not.”
Daniels explained that the absence of paychecks has created an untenable situation for many controllers.
“Especially our new employees that are just training or starting out in this career … they’re calling their employer and saying, ‘I have no gas today. I cannot pay for my child care. Can I bring my children to work?’” Daniels described. “These are real situations…. They’re already racking up their credit cards, are taking out every loan that they can.”