BOSTON (WHDH) - The partial government shutdown is taking its toll on TSA agents, air traffic controllers, and other federal employees who are working without pay at Boston’s Logan Airport.
With the shutdown nearing 30 days, workers struggling to pay for food, groceries, rent, haircuts, and toiletries are being stretched thin as they wonder when they might again start drawing their paychecks.
Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Ed Markey is calling on President Trump to reopen the government, claiming morale at the airport has reached an all-time low and that it’s unacceptable to have key inspectors out on furlough.
“We’re not going to negotiate with the president,” Markey said during a rally at the airport Friday. “If he thinks that he can take the federal government hostage every time he wants something, then federal prison guards know they can not negotiate with inmates because it never ends.”
Air traffic controllers who are also working without pay lost an effort to force the government to pay them on Tuesday. A federal judge rejected their union’s request for an immediate temporary restraining order.
Mick Devine, an air traffic controller at Logan, said his colleagues are “sick and tired of aviation safety being used as a political football.”
“Our members come to work and take pride in running the safest, most efficient program in the world. They’re not getting paid,” he said.
The ranks of unpaid federal workers are growing. This week, the IRS said it will recall thousands of workers to handle tax returns, and the Federal Aviation Administration plans to bring 2,200 safety inspectors back to work.
In Massachusetts, thousands of federal workers have gone without pay for weeks.
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