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Canada's Air Traffic Controllers Treated Unpaid US Controllers To Pizza

Updated September 8, 2021

Nobody likes to see people having to work without pay, but that's just the situation air traffic controllers in the U.S. find themselves in. They're an absolutely essential service, so they have no choice but to keep showing up every day, even when their pay stubs are empty.

It's a horrible situation, having to rely on folks whose workplace morale must be tenuous at best for the safety of planes in the sky. I can't imagine having to go into work knowing that I was making zero dollars for my efforts.

Air traffic controllers in Canada must feel the same, because they stepped up with a kind gift to their American colleagues.

It started in Edmonton, Alberta, where air traffic controllers passed around the toque to collect donations to buy some pies for controllers in Anchorage, Alaska.

The aviation community is tight-knit, and word quickly spread about the efforts they were making.

Wikimedia | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Air_traffic_controllers_at_the_Washington_ARTCC.jpg

Air traffic controllers in Gander, Newfoundland, which famously took in travelers on 9/11, teamed up with those in Moncton, New Brunswick to send pizza to Long Island.

After that, the gesture snowballed, with centers all across Canada sending at least 300 pizzas to 36 different units around the U.S.

Twitter | @CATCA5454

Apparently, this nice gesture from the nice people north of the border has been in the works for some time.

The head of the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association, Peter Duffey, told the National Post that many union members had been looking for a way to show solidarity with their American colleagues.

Only other air traffic controllers can truly appreciate how stressful a job it is.

"They say you have to be 100 per cent right, 100 per cent of the time," Duffey said. "People just don’t need to be reporting to work with the added stress of worrying about how to pay their mortgages and grocery bills on top of it."

Ron Singer, the national media manager for Nav Canada, which oversees Canada's civil air navigation, noted that Canadian and U.S. controllers work together daily.

"There's a bond there, automatically," he said.

"We always stand together, especially with our American counterparts," Duffey told the CBC. "Our members just want to reach out to those people that they consider to be co-workers. We're all taking care of the skies over North America."

Did it have the desired effect on those unpaid workers' morale?

Well, it's hard to make up for a whole missed paycheck with just pizza, but the controllers definitely appreciated the meal and the solidarity.

"It's just a good shot in the arm of positive energy and positive emotion to know that, 'Hey they've got our back,'" Doug Church, deputy director of public affairs with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association told the CBC.

"On behalf of the entire NATCA and air traffic control around this country, we extend our thanks and our gratitude."

Many controllers sent out their own hearty thanks on social media as well, tweeting pics of the pies as they arrived and of their co-workers happily chowing down.

It's not just air traffic controllers donating to the pizza fund, either.

As the National Post reported, one Canadian donor who wished to remain anonymous threw $500 into the pot, while another went all-out buying lunch for two facilities in Phoenix as a way of saying thanks for "taking care of all the snowbirds from Western Canada who go down for the winter."

Unfortunately, there's no sign of the air traffic controllers actually receiving a paycheck anytime soon.

Wikipedia | Senate Democrats

However, the air traffic controllers' union has launched a lawsuit over unpaid work, saying that failing to pay them violates their constitutional rights as well as a federal wage law. The union represents 16,000 air traffic controllers nationwide.

h/t National Post, CBC

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