Air traffic controllers get their first shutdown pay stub today. $0.00.
This on the same day a new poll finds that 74% of Americans believe the government shutdown is embarrassing to the country, and 71% think it is hurting the country.
More than 24,000 FAA employees are working without pay, since their positions are considered vital for “life and safety.”
Another more than 17,000 have been furloughed, told to stop doing their jobs, including the vital training work needed to bring much-needed additional air traffic controllers into the workforce after years of retirements have thinned the ranks.
The union representing the air traffic controllers hit the Trump administration with a lawsuit over the frozen pay.
It is a sign of increasing tension between federal workers and the government as the impasse edges closer to becoming the longest ever.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic controllers are among the 420,000 federal employees who have been deemed essential and ordered to work without pay.
The suit, filed today in federal court by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, alleges the government “unlawfully deprived” thousands of its members of pay “without due process.”
NATCA represents some 19,000 FAA employees, which includes 14,000 air traffic controllers.
The shutdown began on Dec. 22 after President Trump refused to sign a bipartisan spending bill approved by the GOP senate.
The effects of the shutdown are already rippling through aviation, stalling the required federal approvals for new jets and routes, as well as certifications for new mechanics and other workers.
Transportation Security Administration officers have been calling out sick in greater numbers than at the same time last year, the agency said.
Trade groups and unions representing mechanics, pilots, flight attendants and airlines including American, United and others urged Trump and lawmakers to reopen the government immediately, saying it “has already inflicted real damage to our nation’s aviation system and the impacts will only worsen over time.”
Three-quarters of Americans say the government shutdown, now tied for the longest in U.S. history, is “embarrassing for the country,” including a majority of Republicans, a new NPR/Ipsos Poll finds.
If no deal is struck by midnight Friday, this partial shutdown will be the longest ever.