By Doyinsola Oladipo
(Reuters) -The 60,000 men and women responsible for keeping American skies safe have gone unpaid throughout the government shutdown. Without a funding agreement soon, many will be forced to dip into savings, rack up credit-card debt, or take on part-time jobs to make ends meet, several federal employees said.
The shutdown is now three weeks old, and rapidly approaching the time when the tens of thousands of government employees who keep security lines moving and air traffic safe will miss a full paycheck. Those workers last received paychecks in mid-October, and those checks were missing up to two days’ worth of pay.
“People are saying, ‘Well, when I get off work, I’m going to do Uber or DoorDash or Lyft or something like that because I need to put food on the table and I got a kid at home’,” said Neal Gosman, treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 899 in Minnesota, a union representing Transportation Security Administration workers.
Gosman, who also works part time as a transportation security officer in addition to his union duties, said he received about 60% of his normal TSA pay in the last paycheck but that a co-worker received only $6.34.
On Thursday, many air-traffic controllers will be notified how much they will be paid on Tuesday of next week. Many expect no payment at all.
The authority that operates the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport plans to set up a shelf to provide nonperishable food items to federal employees as it did during the 2018-19 government shutdown, according to spokesperson John Welbes. If the shutdown stretches into November, the authority is considering offering boxed lunches.
But that will not be enough. A TSA officer at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, who asked to be identified only as M., said he will take out a $3,000 loan to help cover his expenses.
“The loan will be for car payments and to pay for the new apartment because I can no longer afford the current one because of everything that’s going on,” said M., who did not want his full name used due to concerns about being fired for speaking out.
In 2019, during a 35-day shutdown, the number of absences by air-traffic controllers and TSA officers rose as workers missed paychecks, which added to passenger wait times at airport checkpoints. Authorities were forced to slow air traffic in New York, which pressured lawmakers to quickly end the standoff.
On Day 31 of that shutdown, 10% of TSA workers called in sick – triple the normal absence rate.
Last week, the U.S. Transportation Department shared information on how to make donations of food, clothing or other items to the more than 50,000 TSA officers across the country, who earn an average of $40,000 per year. The guidelines said that gifts of donuts, pizza and coffee are fine, but not cash, and that people should never donate at a checkpoint.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress but need at least seven Democratic votes to pass a funding bill in the Senate. Democrats are holding out for continuing and expanding healthcare subsidies for people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Another vote to pass a government spending bill is expected on Thursday.
“I’m more just disappointed that there’s no true negotiations going on,” said another TSA officer in Dayton, Ohio, adding that he does not understand why Congress is playing “political chess” with his paycheck.
(Reporting by Doyinsola Oladipo in New York and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Matthew Lewis)
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