As if flying during the shutdown weren’t nerve-wracking enough, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is now threatening to punish air traffic controllers who call in sick because they’re not getting paid—thanks to Republicans.
During a Thursday interview on Fox Business, Duffy singled out air traffic controllers who call out sick as “problem children” and warned that those who do so could lose their jobs.
“If we have some on our staff that aren’t dedicated like we need, we’re going to let them go,” Duffy said when asked about back pay for controllers, who are required to work without pay during the shutdown. “Again, I can’t have people not showing up for work.”
Duffy did offer a sliver of reassurance for travelers, saying it’s “a small fraction of people who don’t come to work.” But he also blamed that fraction—the “problem children”—for “this massive disruption,” which he said is already “rippling through our skies today.”
His tough talk comes during a week of mounting delays. Since Monday, staffing shortages have snarled air travel in Chicago, Denver, and Phoenix, among many other major cities.
While the situation so far has not caused nationwide gridlock, it remains unsettling. Duffy insists it’s “safe” to fly. But after a year marked by serious aviation safety concerns—including a deadly collision in January between a commercial jet and an Army helicopter—there’s plenty of reason for travelers to be uneasy.
Duffy also praised the “90% [to] 95%” of controllers who report without being paid. But that praise is a sharp contrast to the department’s own struggles to rebuild a workforce that’s been stretched thin ever since then-President Ronald Reagan fired air traffic controllers en masse for striking. The pandemic only deepened the strain, leaving the FAA about 3,500 controllers short of its staffing goals.
Notably, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, a major labor union, is urging workers to stay on the job.
An American Airlines jet takes off past an air traffic control tower at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, in Texas, on Oct. 2.
“Participating in a job action could result in removal from federal service,” NATCA warned. “It is not only illegal, but it also undermines NATCA’s credibility and severely weakens our ability to effectively advocate for you and your families.”
Duffy also used the Fox interview to push false, partisan talking points, claiming Democrats caused the shutdown to extend health care benefits to undocumented immigrants. That’s not true.
Meanwhile, flight delays are piling up. Since Monday, there have been more than 15,000.
“The average was 5% of delays in the national system was from controller staffing shortages in the past,” Duffy told Fox. “At this time, it’s 53%. So, a massive rise in the delays is coming from controllers who aren’t coming to work. It’s a problem.”
The current strain is surfacing earlier than during the previous major government shutdown, in 2019, which stretched to 35 days during President Donald Trump’s first term. At that time, rising absences among controllers and Transportation Security Administration officers forced authorities to slow air traffic into New York, helping to break the impasse.
It’s understandable why some workers might not want to shop up unpaid—or might need to pick up odd jobs as the GOP’s shutdown drags on. But Duffy has chosen to meet a fragile, underpaid, and overworked labor force with threats instead of support.
Then again, Duffy’s “Real World” resume hasn’t exactly translated into real-world leadership.
