Why Don’t TSA and Air Traffic Control Just All Walk Out?

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We’re up to day 37 of the government shutdown. As of yesterday, it’s the longest shutdown in history. Yee-freakin-ha.

Because I fly quite a bit, and that’s only increased since I started the 25 For 25 promotion (24 down, one to go!), I’ve been paying considerably more attention to the entities that might affect my flight – particularly the TSA and air traffic control. That’s how I found the page that tells you all about the airport closures and delays, in real time.

Anyway, my flights have been affected by the shutdown here and there. I’ve had some issues getting in and out of BOS and JFK, in particular. However, I’ve heard of much worse, with hours-long ground stops due to staffing issues. In fact, the latest update is that the FAA plans to reduce air traffic by 10% across 40 “high volume” markets, which, as of this writing, have yet to be officially named. Well, THAT’LL be fun, huh?

Anyway, while hanging out at JFK the other night, I heard one passenger say to the other, “Not for nuthin’ but this [delay] is friggin’ ridiculous,” (I kid you not – that’s what they said. Word for word). “If the problem is that the gov’ment won’t pay ’em, why don’t they just refuse to work until they get paid? I bet those purse strings would open up like THAT” (as they snapped their fingers).

I love New Yorkers.

That would essentially be a strike, wouldn’t it?

It would. And it sounds like a good idea in theory. Unfortunately, it’s REALLY not advised.

Why not?

Because they’re federal employees who take an oath when they get their positions. It’s in their terms of employment. If they were to strike against the federal government, it would be considered a felony.

Here’s what govexec.com wrote right after the last shutdown, back in 2018-2019:

It’s the law. Specifically, 5 U.S.C. §7311, specifies that federal employees may not participate in a strike, assert the right to strike, or even belong to a union that “asserts the right to strike against the government of the United States.”

And to make it even worse, the Office of Personnel Management can declare an individual who participates in a strike unsuitable for federal employment. So they can never be a federal employee again. For the rest of their life.

But air traffic controllers refused to work in 1981, didn’t they?

Yup. About 13,000 of them went on strike to protest their working conditions, pay and glaring safety issues.

Ronald Reagan was president at the time and he claimed it was an illegal strike that was a “peril to national safety.” He ordered the air traffic controllers to go back to work and they refused. So he fired them. Well, 11,000 of them. AND he barred them from ever working in the federal sector again.

It ruined a lot of lives. Particularly ATC because their training is so precise and specialized (it’s said that losing so many ATCs at once is why we’ve been so behind in having enough ATCs ever since). Granted, Bill Clinton pardoned them in the early 1990s. Some of them did go back. But by then, many of those who had been fired had found other jobs – often less lucrative, less rewarding, and for those who had been ATCs for decades, very different.

So why won’t they just “walk off” during the shutdown?

So, even now, 40-something years later, ATC and TSA won’t just “walk off the job” because it would put a black mark on their respective records for the rest of their lives.

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