this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 27 minutes ago

[Insert GFY meme]

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

Time to renegotiate salary!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Don't worry, Real World Boston cast member Sean Duffy is on the case.

[–] [email protected] 82 points 7 hours ago

"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?

[–] [email protected] 44 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Fucking beg, fascist bitch.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

No no. Pay is what he needs to do.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago

¿Por que no los dos?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 hours ago

Maybe fill in the blanks with racist assholes? I want to watch that work itself out.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 68 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

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.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/8335

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 hours ago

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDVSKYURgHU

[–] [email protected] 84 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
  1. Claim a federal agency is inefficient
  2. Fire employees and defund agency
  3. Agency performs worse than before
  4. Point finger at the agency showing how it is incompetent
  5. Move to privatize agency
  6. $$$$$$$
[–] [email protected] 41 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

That's been the Republican M.O. for like 40 years.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 25 minutes ago

Not just republican, the whole neoliberal politic.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 150 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (3 children)

Well if it isn't the consequences of his own actions.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

100%. There was a shortage of traffic controllers before the firings even began, this only exacerbated a bad situation.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Fucked around ✅

Found out 👈

[–] [email protected] 45 points 9 hours ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

What I wouldn't give to be able to say "Fuck You" to his face.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Hah, you think he gets anywhere near you filthy peasants?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 hours ago

He's gonna get real close when his private jet is trying to use a runway at the same time as another plane.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Yo, air traffic controllers still at work: if y'all have ever considered going on strike, now's the time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

Came here to say this.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Easier to quit; last time ATCs went on strike Reagan just fired them all

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago

They still aren't back to the same staffing level.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 10 hours ago

"No OnE wAnTs To WoRk AnYmOrE" - guy firing a bunch of people without cause.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Surprise Surprise Surprise (Gomer Pyle voice)

Just what the fuck did you think was gonna happen Elonia? Fucking idiot...

Leopard, meet face...

🤦‍♀️ 🤷‍♂️ 🖕

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

This is intentional. They want to replace everything with their own shitty for-profit systems.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago

Which will be a disaster of epic proportion.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 10 hours ago

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...

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Most of them retire at or near the age they're legally required to retire, they cannot come back. He's either trying to ask for the people he fired to come back without looking like the moron most people see him for or too dumb to realize even that.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

It's weird to see people all over the place mocking Elmo for this...

Like, he knows no one in their right mind would want to start federal service right now. They treat feds like shit, make wild cuts they know will effect actual essentials. Go on national news and the billion dollar social media websites they own to shit talk fed, even have the head of the DoD call federal workers lazy and a drain on the nation in a public memo for for some reason now comes with a video.

The entire thing isn't just designed to shrink the federal government, but to then replace it with contractors they "manage" and take a huge chunk of the wages from for the privilege of a job for less than feds got and zero worker protections.

Just lining their own pockets in a legal manner because "no one wants to be a fed".

Meanwhile 50% of the country cheers him on, and damn near the rest can't see more than two steps ahead.

Why the fuck haven't people started learning to plan ahead yet?

Or at least read a damn history book. Fascist aren't typically original.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 hours ago

"Look, it's nobody's fault, and we don't know how this happened, but for unforeseeable reasons we have a shortage."

Narrator: It was forseen, they do know how it happened, and it was his fault.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 hours ago (6 children)

10 years salary up front. In gold.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 hours ago

Would love to see the rest of them strike and bring the entire air travel/transport network to its knees.

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