Air Traffic Controllers Start Resigning as Shutdown Bites
www.thedailybeast.com
Unpaid air traffic controllers are quitting their jobs altogether as the longest government shutdown in U.S. history continues.

Overtaxed and unpaid air traffic controllers are resigning “every day” due to stress from the government shutdown.

“Controllers are resigning every day now because of the prolonged nature of the shutdown,” Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told CNN.

“We hadn’t seen that before. And we’re also 400 controllers short—shorter than we were in the 2019 shutdown.”

Air traffic controllers are federal workers, which means they are part of the approximately 730,000 federal employees working without pay since the shutdown began on Oct. 1.

  • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
    1·
    5 hours ago

    I’d put it like this:

    Your mom and dad give you a credit card plus $600 in allowance each month and expect you to cover all expenses, including groceries, maintenance, plus the cost of hiring a cleaning service using those, which totals $800 per month. Oh, also a bunch of guns, so it’s more like $1100 per month.

    Anyways, every now and then, your credit card hits its limit and mom and dad need to agree to raise the credit limit. And if they don’t, then you refuse to pay for anything. Except the guns, but they are only like $300, so the $600 a month will cover them easily.

    Oh but the cleaning staff should still come, they just won’t get paid until the credit limit is raised.

    • Alaknár@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      5 hours ago

      I get the joke and it is funny, but since we’re explaining stuff to someone who has no clue:

      1. The US military budget is barely something like 3% of the federal budget, so - if the budget was $800 - with “a bunch of guns” it would be $832. Hilariously, the healthcare budget is around 20%, which just shows how insanely fucked up the healthcare system is in the US.
      2. “The guns” are still not being paid during a shutdown. Republicans are now struggling to find some financing for the military, and just recently a “mystery donor” gave $130 mil so that soldiers could be paid. I guess they remembered that when you’re building a nazi state, you need military standing firmly behind you.