National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Nick Daniels said in New York on Tuesday that there’s no danger that air traffic controllers will enter a labor strike across the nation’s airports.
“There will be no concerted effort for air traffic controllers to in any way have a job action,” Daniels said at a press conference at LaGuardia Airport along with U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. “It is illegal for us to do such a thing.”
Daniels and Duffy were flanked by air traffic controllers, who are facing their first full pay period without a salary due to the shutdown.
Air Traffic Controllers are federal employees who are represented by NATCO.
“Almost every controller can't make it without two paychecks,” Duffy said. “Nick and the controllers have sent a message ... open up the government and end the shutdown. Figure out how you guys can negotiate and have a conversation.”
LaGuardia was Duffy’s latest in a series of airport press conferences appealing to the public for help in persuading Democratic lawmakers to vote to allow the government to reopen.
On Oct. 7, Duffy appeared at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
The day before, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters in Chicago that Democrats aren’t budging.
“We want to find a bipartisan agreement that reopens the government immediately,” Jeffries said. “We’re going to continue to stand by hardworking federal employees, and our position has not changed over the last several weeks.”
Duffy, while reassuring the public that flying remains safe, said 44 percent of staffing issues on Sunday were caused by air traffic controller absences, and 24 percent on Monday, compared to 5 percent on average before the shutdown."Don't hold our skies hostage," he said.
The government has been closed for 28 days so far. An anonymous donor donated $130 million to the Department of War to help pay military personnel, President Donald Trump said on Oct. 23.
"I've looked at the [Federal Aviation Administration] FAA budget to see if we could find resources to pay air controllers and it becomes really challenging in a shutdown to make that happen," Duffy said. "You saw a donor give $130 million to pay our military men and women. There's not a lot of leeway that we have to get people paid. The answer is [to] open up the government."
Flight-tracking website FlightAware estimates that 7,000 flights were delayed on Monday and 8,800 on Sunday. As of noon on Oct. 28, 1,800 flights were delayed.
Daniels said hundreds of air traffic controllers have taken second jobs temporarily, and more are expected to do so if the shutdown drags on.
He cited fuel, child care, food, and housing expenses as some of their concerns.
"This job is stressful enough," Daniels said. "We go to work day in and day out and make thousands of decisions. We do it five days a week. Most of us actually do it six and five is hard enough, and we do it in 10 hours a day. Now you add in the fact that we had a partial paycheck already and we missed a full paycheck."