Summary
Elon Musk called on retired air traffic controllers to return to work, citing a shortage amid heightened scrutiny of the FAA under Trump’s second term.
With DOT Secretary Sean Duffy’s support, Musk’s DOGE attempts to “upgrade” aviation systems despite recent FAA job cuts.
The AP reports fired employees included radar and navigational aid maintenance personnel, though Duffy insisted no “critical safety personnel” were terminated.
Musk’s appeal comes amid increased public concern over recent aviation incidents, though experts consider the uptick an anomaly.
Pay more wages, the way of a free market is supply and demand
[Insert GFY meme]
Time to renegotiate salary!
Don’t worry, Real World Boston cast member Sean Duffy is on the case.
“There is a shortage”
ah damn i love that language. reminds me of the boss that abused my mother back when she was still in employment. “there is a shortage, you need to come over on your day off, otherwise we can’t handle the workload”. how about employing more people? no? maybe because you can’t find another fool who will do the work with these bad working conditions?
Fucking beg, fascist bitch.
No no. Pay is what he needs to do.
¿Por que no los dos?
Maybe fill in the blanks with racist assholes? I want to watch that work itself out.
How about you just increase the pay and benefits you’re offering? if you love the efficiencies of the free market so much why don’t you fucking act like it
The free market dictates that in a shortage, the cost of the goods or services must rise to meet the equilibrium of supply and demand. Anything else is surely incredibly inefficient.
US law mandates retirement at 56 for Air Traffic Controllers due to the high stress and fast-paced multi-tasking nature of the job
It’s considered one of the most mentally challenging jobs there are.
Interesting.
The EU & UK would consider that age discrimination and illegal. You can’t be forced to retire at a given age.
Strange that America uses it - especially given the age you allow your presidents to be.
I’ll just leave that scene from Breakind Bad here. If i was in the US i would not enter any flights for the foreseeable future, unless it is the flight to permanently leave.
- Claim a federal agency is inefficient
- Fire employees and defund agency
- Agency performs worse than before
- Point finger at the agency showing how it is incompetent
- Move to privatize agency
- $$$$$$$
That’s been the Republican M.O. for like 40 years.
Not just republican, the whole neoliberal politic.
At least 50
Well, there was a brief period after the civil rights era where they still held the pro-union stance from before the conservative shift, you can still find posters in the 70s/80s, but for the most part yes you’re right.
Well if it isn’t the consequences of his own actions.
Honestly, this one’s not even completely his own fault. Standard bureaucratic ossification has been fucking up ATC staffing for years now. The pay is low, the qualifications are steep, and the responsibility and stress is insane. Why would someone do that? And so, people don’t. And, on top of them, management from both the business and political sides simply doesn’t give a fuck about safety or morale.
The levels of traffic were just recently increased in that DC airspace where the plane hit the helicopter, and at the time, a bunch of qualified people were trying to raise the alarm that some bad shit was going to happen if they stuffed more aircraft into an already overcrowded area. No one in a position to make any of the decisions cared, and they did it anyway. That all happened before Trump and Elmo came into the picture.
Of course, it is true that their own actions have produced some additional consequences now. They’ve fired a bunch more people and demotivated all the existing or prospective ones pretty much as much as it is possible to do. And, as much as the existing systems are aging and in need of some modernization, it’s absolutely guaranteed that whatever Musk does to “improve” them will make them even worse. All I’m saying is that he didn’t entirely create the bad situation he is now about to amplify tenfold.
100%. There was a shortage of traffic controllers before the firings even began, this only exacerbated a bad situation.
Someone at all familiar with the status of ATC staffing who isn’t a complete idiot would clearly not have exacerbated this situation.
I’m a developer - I’d even classify myself as pretty far to the “move fast and break things” end of the spectrum. But I’m a senior developer because I ask questions and understand things and write tests to confirm that understanding and prove a new system correct before fucking breaking them. Once that’s done I’ve totally got a sledgehammer in hand and am wildly swinging it around to rebuild it cleaner but, critically, we do this in a development environment.
This fucker is hot fixing production without a fucking clue how anything works. He’s in a little fucking bubble where the only opinions allowed in are “Elon is a genius” and he’s drinking the fucking Kool-aid. I’ve seen executives like that and the only correct response is to jump fucking ship.
Fucked around ✅
Found out 👈
Not really, tbh. He’s pretty clearly just doing as much damage as he possibly can. This whole “Oooh whoopsie, we did a bad, does anyone want their job back?” shit is pure show to give himself some plausible deniability to keep the guillotines at bay.
If you look at what’s happening through the lens of his goal being malice, and ignore the “ooooops!” pony show, what you see is a man who’s hamstrung an entire nation with literally zero consequences.
There’s also the “fire everyone, then hire them back at a reduced salary while leaning on the fact that they care about preventing deaths enough to take the deal” aspect.
I wonder if he regrets this one though. If it becomes dangerous to fly he’d have to travel on the ground like a peasant
He’d sooner take the oligarch route and privatize the FAA, fill it with his own loyalists, then give his flights priority wherever he goes, including whatever private aviation business (e.g. FedEx clone) he wants to push.
Gotta fly the old fashioned way, VFR.
IIRC the FAA layoffs did not include air traffic controllers, so I don’t think that he was involved with that.
Yo, air traffic controllers still at work: if y’all have ever considered going on strike, now’s the time.
Came here to say this.
Easier to quit; last time ATCs went on strike Reagan just fired them all
Would they still be able to replace the fired workers as quickly as they did in 1980?
What is quick? From what I remember reading, they didn’t really get back to normal until the early 90s. I could be wrong, I saw this a while ago.
They still aren’t back to the same staffing level.
The linked article says they were back up and running at 75% in days. They had started training replacements in preparation for the strike, then had scabs and people breaking the picket line due to the threat of firing, then brought in military ATCs to fill in blanks.
“No OnE wAnTs To WoRk AnYmOrE” - guy firing a bunch of people without cause.
What I wouldn’t give to be able to say “Fuck You” to his face.
Hah, you think he gets anywhere near you filthy peasants?
He’s gonna get real close when his private jet is trying to use a runway at the same time as another plane.
Surprise Surprise Surprise (Gomer Pyle voice)
Just what the fuck did you think was gonna happen Elonia? Fucking idiot…
Leopard, meet face…
🤦♀️ 🤷♂️ 🖕
This is intentional. They want to replace everything with their own shitty for-profit systems.
Which will be a disaster of epic proportion.
Yeah I’m sure they’re just RARING to work for the most publicly toxic boss (that isn’t even a boss) in the world…
