DFW air traffic controllers are working without pay. They hope travelers can help them
Nick Daniels is worried.
Day after day, he shows up to do his job as an air traffic controller. But he hasn’t been paid since Dec. 31.
Daniels is among the hundreds of thousands of “essential” government employees required to work during the partial government shutdown who won’t see a paycheck until the shutdown ends.
“It’s frustrating and it’s scary,” said the 40-year-old Keller man, who serves as the southwest regional vice president with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. “A lot of people say, ‘Well, you’ll eventually get paid.’
“I don’t know if there’s any American worker who can work without knowing when they’ll get paid. We’ve already missed one pay check.”
On Monday, Daniels and other air traffic controllers began handing out pamphlets, titled END THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATELY!, to travelers at airports across the country.
The pamphlets detail how air traffic controllers are working for no pay and without support staff needed for “tactical, strategic and administrative support.” The workers hope they prompt people to call on Congress and the president to end the shutdown.
“We are caught in the middle of the shutdown,” Daniels said. “It has nothing to do with the working men and women who should be paid for the expertise they are providing. But the shutdown is on their backs now.”
The shutdown has curtailed training efforts for new air traffic controllers. This comes at a time when the industry faces a 30-year low in staffing. The pamphlet notes that if air traffic controller staffing gets worse, there could be flight delays.
For now, some air traffic controllers are looking for new jobs or picking up side work, such as driving for Lyft or Uber.
“How long can people last without money?” Daniels asked. “We don’t want to know or find out.”
Shutdown impact
The partial shutdown began Dec. 22 and impacts nine federal departments.
Around 800,000 impacted federal employees are either furloughed or working without pay. Once a deal is reached, those now working without pay will be paid retroactively.
Among those impacted: More than 600 air traffic controllers working out of DFW Airport and more than 100 support specialists who are furloughed.
President Donald Trump has suggested the furlough could go on for “months or even years.”
“If someone told me to plan on missing one or two paychecks, that you could plan on,” Daniels said. “But to be told you don’t know when you’re going to get paid again” is harder.
Some federal employees have been calling in sick so much that, in Houston recently, the airport shut down a security checkpoint because there weren’t enough Transportation Security Administration agents to staff it. Before that, the Miami International Airport had to do the same.
DFW Airport also has seen a number of TSA agents calling in sick, reports show.
“TSA officers are telling the union they will find another way to make money,” a union official at DFW told CNN earlier this month. “That means calling out to work other jobs.”
Last week, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association became the third union group of federal employees to fie a lawsuit against the government. This group said association members were “unlawfully deprived ... of their earned wages.”
Reopen the government?
Over the weekend, new U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, held a roundtable with some North Texas federal employees who were impacted by the shutdown.
“Most of these public servants are working for free and wondering how they’ll be able to make ends meet,” Allred said. “Enough is enough. It’s time for the Senate to do their job and pass the bipartisan House bills to reopen the government.
“Washington shouldn’t be playing political games with the paychecks of hardworking Texans.”
New U.S. Rep. Ron Wright, R-Arlington, posted a video on Twitter of himself standing in the snow in Washington, D.C.
“The Democrats are nowhere to be found in Washington this weekend but I’m here in case they want to begin actual (negotiations) with the @POTUS,” Wright tweeted with the video, adding the #SecureOurBorder hashtag.
Wright and U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, are among the congressional members who have declined paychecks until the shutdown is over. Their next paychecks are due Feb. 1.
This story was originally published January 14, 2019 at 2:56 PM.
