Unpaid air traffic controllers say government shutdown endangers flyers

The U.S government shutdown has introduced risk and danger to our national airspace, according to air traffic controllers who are now working without pay.

Air traffic controllers are mandated to continue working. Their union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, has publicly warned its members not to miss work.

But the added stress brought on by the shutdown, and the loss of furloughed support staff that maintain critical systems, makes their job harder — and the skies less safe, the union said Tuesday as its members passed out brochures to travelers at O’Hare Airport.

“Anytime that you reduce any type of staffing in a safety-critical occupation, holes develop in that safety net,” said Matt Ellington, an air traffic controller and facility representative for the union’s O’Hare local.

“All of the NATCA members, we take safety very, very seriously,” Ellington said. “We’re showing up to work, keeping people safe. And despite everything that we can do, there is that possibility [of increased danger]. And our No. 1 goal is to keep those possibilities as low as possible.”

Ellington and at least a dozen other members passed out brochures to passengers at O’Hare on Tuesday, urging them to contact their elected representatives to ask them to end the shutdown. The union, which represents about 14,000 air traffic controllers, also passed out literature at airports in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

The handout explains that the shutdown has caused the FAA to stop issuing safety mandates for aircraft, and that maintenance is being delayed for air traffic control systems. Air traffic controller staffing is at a 30-year low, according to the union. And air traffic controllers have been working 10-hour shifts six days a week since the government shut down three weeks ago.

On Tuesday they received a partial paycheck, their last pay as long as the shutdown continues. Now members will be worrying about how to pay their bills.

“How am I going to pay the mortgage? How am I going to pay the car payment? How am I going to pay for day care?” asked Drew MacQueen, vice president of NATCA’s Great Lakes region. “It’s just another level of stress on top of already the amount of stress that they work under all the time. It’s just something that needs to stop.”

Chicago airports haven’t seen significant delays that some feared when the shutdown began. But staffing shortages last week prompted the closure of the control tower at Hollywood Burbank Airport near Los Angeles, delaying flights for more than two hours.

The air traffic controller staffing shortage in Chicago leaves very little room for disruptions, Ellington said.

The airport has 58 controllers and nine in training, but it should have 73 controllers to be considered fully staffed, Ellington said. He said controllers have been working six-day weeks for 12 years — and that the airport is as busy as it has even been.

“The shutdown is showcasing to the rest of the world what we’ve sort of been dealing with for quite some time now: this razor-thin margin in our staffing, and that anything, any interruptions in that, causes delays and cancellations,” he said.

Ellington said he remembers the last government shutdown lasting 35 days in 2018 and 2019.

“Uncertainty is a lot higher right now,” he said, comparing the two shutdowns. “Politics aside, I feel like we’re in a different world right now. And I think that scares some people, especially people that are working” and worrying about how they will pay their bills.

Ellington said his family has already begun prioritizing how they will spend their money and pay their mortgage and help their daughter, who is graduating soon from high school.

“This is probably one of the most well-known stressful jobs in the world,” Ellington said. “When you couple that with no paycheck, not knowing when you’re going to get a paycheck — it’s unnecessary stress for an extremely stressful job that allows zero mistakes.”