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.
Well if it isn’t the consequences of his own actions.
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.
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.
ATC training takes a long time, he assumes it can be done by anyone, it cant.
😞
Are malignant narcissists like him capable of the critical self-reflection required to regret things?
From my experience, no I don’t think so
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VFR is fine for those Piper Cubs but no so great for high speed, congested airspace.
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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.
In less than a month too.
Feels like we need no confidence/snap elections or some shot to deal with this.
But really we needed better protections from dictators and better under-represented vote counting long ago and now we have to fix shit the hard way.
It’s called impeachment and could happen at any time. Every single Republican is complicit with the Nazi regime.
Every single Republican is complicit with the Nazi regime.
That’s the problem. Half of our representatives are Nazis. How is an impeachment going to go anywhere?
or some shot to deal with this.
I mean…
Blessed autocorrect.
we have to fix shit the hard way.
No going to be fun.
“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?
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.
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.
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.
Age discrimination is illegal in the US for almost every job, there are a handful of exceptions.
exceptions include the military for obvious reason(but even they have exceptions, rare though), and certain federal jobs, like ATC, and they have science to back up why you have to retire by 56.
We should have this same law for politicians.
probably one of the reasons why its such a shortage, low-retirement age, maximum age for becoming one, among other requirements.
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.
This is so easy to fix. Just ask the remaining ATCs to put in 30 more hours per week. If there is a safety law which needs to be amended to make this happen, just amend it. Remove all the rules and safeguards. We should do it like the Tesla factories.
Look. More air accidents will happen. People should be ready to sacrifice themselves. It’s that easy.
So easy to fix.
PS: /s for some of you who may need it…
We also need to brace ourselves for hardship. I mean Elon won’t be facing monetary hardships but you will. So brace for that.
Seriously you couldn’t pay me to fly these days.
Fucking beg, fascist bitch.
No no. Pay is what he needs to do.
¿Por que no los dos?
My thoughts exactly
Maybe fill in the blanks with racist assholes? I want to watch that work itself out.
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.
Yo, air traffic controllers still at work: if y’all have ever considered going on strike, now’s the time.
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.
I’d rather get fired than quit. Unemployment benefits!
Came here to say this.
“No OnE wAnTs To WoRk AnYmOrE” - guy firing a bunch of people without cause.
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…
As a guy who has to travel for work. I hope that these guys tell him to pound fucking sand
Really highlights how stupid Republicans and Musk really is and how his companies thrived despite his leadership not because.
Good luck to you. I’m not setting foot on a plane until this administration is over with (assuming there is an end to it).
Yup. Don’t really have a choice of If I want to keep the family housed and fed but I do have a lot of life insurance.
Don’t worry, they won’t pay out.
That makes me feel better. I’m happy that my premiums are going to end up in the pockets of some CEO on a boat somewhere instead of to my family after I die. I’m sure the CEO needs the money more then my daughter. I mean, underage trafficked girls and coke doesn’t pay for itself.
It’s never a problem until it affects them
I was told there was no such thing as a shortage in a free market, why won’t the executive branch embrace free market economics?
Oh he needs those useless federal workers? Most of those people remember what reagan did and feel no loyalty at all to the republican party.
You underestimate conservatives
I’ve worked around some ATC people. They remember what the republicans did. All the new hires get indoctrinated with the sure knowledge that they are considered disposable by republicans and Washington in general. Musk is going to get people killed. We can only hope that that he rushes through the new air force one and it has a titanic sub type of malfunction.
Anecdotally, a significantly large - maybe even 20% - will still get behind anyone with an R after their name. I left the federal civil service after almost five years because I didn’t like the influence of politicians undermining things even then. That included the shutdowns while Obama and Trump admins were in office.
There are union-protected labor workers - even now - still think anyone Republican will protect them, because… “values.” Hell, Utah recently passed legislation making it illegal for any public workers to collectively bargain. How many teachers and firefighters there voted for that possibility in?
I would think in Utah plenty of teachers and firefighters voted R, but I would love to hear from someone who has better info than me. I worked with tons of union guys who were very proudly conservative and even hated the union they were in. The propaganda is strong in some…
Time to renegotiate salary!
time to sing l’international!!
Yes, the ask is treating ATCs as a collective; they should do some collective bargaining.
- Flying Lizards - Money REACTION *
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7qsikAVx-k
5:54
"I want money
That’s what I want.
That’s what I want."
FLYING LIZARDS Money EXTENDED VERSION
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_ld0WWvQ4o
5:35
The shortage is his own damn fault. I wouldn’t want to work any government job right now.
