As the government shutdown drags on, federal employees who support the country’s airports, such as air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration workers, say they are still in the dark about when they will next be paid.
On Tuesday, workers received their first zero-dollar paycheck, reflecting two weeks of unpaid work amid the ongoing government shutdown. During the nearly monthlong shutdown, these individuals, whose roles are deemed essential, have been required to show up for work without the promise of a paycheck at the end of a standard pay period.
Their last payout was a partial paycheck that included funds for time worked in September before the shutdown that began Oct. 1.
Also Tuesday, controllers took matters into their own hands, pushing back on the work the government is demanding of them by handing out leaflets that describe the impact of the shutdown on aviation workers and how people can contact their members of Congress to call for the shutdown to end. The actions were scheduled to take place at nearly 20 airports nationwide.
“We are here to ensure that the flying public is safe every time they get on an airplane. We have to be 100% focused, 100% of the time,” Pete LeFevre, an air traffic controller out of Washington Dulles International Airport, said in an interview with NBC News. “And all we’re looking for is to be relieved of the financial uncertainty that comes with the government shutdown, and we’d like to be paid as soon as possible.”
While these federal employees will eventually receive back pay when the government shutdown ends, thanks to a 2018 law, the uncertainty of when that will be has air traffic controllers taking up side gigs to stay afloat.
Some of these workers are now driving for DoorDash or Uber after their grueling work schedules, prompting a few to call in sick due to the job’s stress and the extra hours off the clock. The air traffic control industry is understaffed, and current controllers had already been working six-day weeks, 10-hour shifts, before the shutdown.
“They should never work a side job, that they should never get off a night shift and then go wait tables,” Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said at a news conference Tuesday at LaGuardia Airport in New York.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at the Tuesday news conference that he has been encouraging controllers to go to work and “do really important work for our country,” while acknowledging the unease of working without assured pay.
“They can’t make it without two paychecks,” Duffy said of controllers, adding later, “controllers and those other critical employees need our government to be open and they need to be paid.”
He acknowledged that there have been “less problems” in the airspace this time around compared with prior shutdowns, due to his asking controllers to go to work.
LeFevre added that the lack of pay adds another layer of stress to the already high-stress position.
“It’s uncomfortable,” he said. “We do our best to leave all of our stress and worry at the door, but financial stress is challenging and it’s unique and it’s different, and it’s permeating.”
The air traffic controller made clear that flying is still safe, and that his colleagues are working to ensure safety in the skies — something Duffy also called out during the news conference. Duffy has previously said that if there aren’t enough controllers to handle the workload on any given day, flights will be delayed and canceled to mitigate risk.
Within the U.S., 2,109 flights had been delayed as of 1 p.m., according to flight tracking website FlightAware. At least 118 flights had been canceled. It was not immediately clear whether those delays and cancellations were a direct result of controllers calling out of work due to the shutdown.
But the lack of immediate pay is also having a notable impact on real people in their lives outside the office.
LaShanda Palmer, a TSA worker and the president of Local 333, which represents Philadelphia and Wilmington Airport TSA employees, said this is the “most trying” shutdown she’s been through in her 23 years in the industry.
“We’re all one step away from being out on the street right about now,” Palmer told NBC News. “I have officers calling me honestly. They don’t have money for gas, they don’t have money to get child care, they don’t have food. It is extremely hard this go around. It’s hard to get help.”
She said she’s in a similar situation, with a mortgage payment due Saturday that she isn’t sure how she’ll pay — her bank account is in the negative, and her bank keeps hitting her with overdraft fees.
“The oath that I took, nothing has came down on our watch, and I don’t think people even consider that,” Palmer said. “We’re doing what we’re supposed to do, we should get our check.”
