Ah yes, my employer is playing this game as well. Recently after a decade of working loyally for my company, they decided to insult everyone in my department.
We're an important department.
this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2025
354 points (98.9% liked)
politics
26018 readers
2790 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Step 1: Fire ATC
Step 2: Rubber stamp plane manufacturing safety checks
Step 3: ATC messes up due to shortage
Step 4: TCAS fails because it never got checked
Step 5: 🛩💥✈️
Step 6: Blame "ANTIFA Terrorist"
Step 7: Martial Law
Well, Portalnd won't fight back, we need step 7 somehow....
This is when Meta or OpenAI or Elon will handover an AI solution and after a few horrific crashes, will declare the system is vetted and permanent.
Tada
Yeah because the US is just swarming with qualified air traffic controllers hoping to get to work in their place if they're fired. /s 🙄
... hoping to work in their place for free
So.. slavery then?
Lol go ahead and fire them. That will definately help the shortage of controllers!
It's already illegal for them to strike. This comes as no surprise.
Because firing the controllers worked so amazingly well when Regan did it...
And when Elon did it. It was only a few months ago when there were reports of one lonesome controller being in charge of enough air space that at least four were required. And after all of that they now aren't getting paid, with this fucktard saying if they decide not to turn up to unpaid work THEY'RE jeopardising all air traffic. No asshole, the GOP are the ones shutting it down.
I'm not too familiar with the backwards labour laws in the US, but for a place that only worships the Almighty Dollar, surely you can't get fired for not performing unpaid work.
Presidents who can't remember history tend to repeat themselves.
Admittedly he couldn't remember it if he knew it because he's senile, but he definitely was never aware of it.
oh no what will they do without all that non existent money. Bet they are super worried about getting work with their hyper specific skill set that fewer and fewer people are able to perform
Hahahaha ok. Tell that to any employment lawyer.
That is called alavery, or indentured servitude at best. Kinda frowned upon.
Reagan set the precedent in the '80s. ATCs can be summarily fired ever since Reagan broke their union
Seriously, most people still have no idea how evil Reagan really was. He did a lot of damage to this country that led to the situation we are in now.
Regan's lawyers that were pissed he couldn't do what he wanted were involved in 2000's election bullshit and are currently sitting on the supreme court
Reagan was just following the well trodden path that Jackson and Wilson blazed, and Nixon trimmed the edges.
The only reason that I put Jackson into a tie with Wilson for worst president is that Wilson did far more long term damage, but Jackson orchestrated The Trail of Tears, and several other genocides, as well as paid off the national debt entirely. This helped contribute to the longest and deepest (by percentage, not dollar amount) depression the country has ever seen.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
The Blue States should hire them, alongside the rest of the RIF'ed personnel of the Trump Regime. During a civil war, those extra traffic controllers will help keep air travel moving smoothly and let the workers have reasonable working hours.
Also, it is the right thing to do. The Trump Regime is hurting people for the sake of a tantrum.
Haha they should, states rights and all that. Say that they are dismantling the department, which wouldn't be too far from the truth. Which means that the states have the right to make their own if the Federal Government wants to abdicate its responsibility.
They are desperately short workers, even in the best of times, so their response is to fire the few workers they have from one of the most notoriously stressful jobs on the planet?
What is more likely to happen is that they will fire controllers loudly and publicly, lose every single lawsuit, be forced to rehire them, which they would have done anyway because they need them so badly, except they will also pay all back pay, also significant damages, an enormous fine, and if the employee is smart, they'll demand an enormous raise in pay to return.
And the MAGA Nazis deserve it.
Crippling our civil infrastructure, making the US a place no one wants to visit or trade with, cancelling all our alliances, crashing our economy, devaluing our dollar to the point thats its no longer the global reserve currency, shattering our military alliances, removing consumer food, environmental, employment protections and civil liberties.
Whats left on Putins list. Ah right, a civil war based on ethnic tensions. And destroying our legacy military might in some sort of pointless war, hopefully against an ally. And perhaps a nuclear exchange that they arent a part of. And only 3 years and ~5 months left to get that all done.
Yeah, this is just gonna lead to less efficient air traffic control, more congestion, eventually fewer flights, higher expenses, and less people flying over cause they just can’t fucking afford it.
Doesn’t really affect any of the ruling class because they have enough money to use private jets.
When’s the last time any of these assholes actually sat in economy class seat?
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
Rich guy logic
Any politician making decisions to not pay working citizens shall be expired
Threatened to be fired from unpaid, highly specialized and stressful work? Sounds like relief rather than a threat.
They were just taking time off from being unpaid, but yeah, lets push them to quit permanently! Itll only take 2-3 years to replace every single one of them that quits. Who cares if planes crash and people die in the meantime? Im sure there will be plenty of people clamoring to become ATCs seeing how this plays out
load more comments
(1 replies)
And replace them with… whom, exactly?
Reagan fired the air traffic controllers without bothering to think that through, and aviation in the USA is still suffering the after-effects of that as the workers that were trained up to fill those gaps now all retire at the same time. I don't doubt the Republicans would make the same mistake twice, especially given that these ones are far stupider than Reagan's people.
Republicans (and people in general, TBH) don't make the same mistake twice.
They make it 6 or 7 times, at least.
The airline industry is much bigger now. More flights happening.
Probably harder to fill this time. It's a hell of a lot easier to be an ICE scab than an ATC scab.
load more comments
(14 replies)
load more comments
(8 replies)
Unpaid work is slavery, every single air traffic controller should just walk away.
Watching the US aviation industry collapse as a result would be endlessly amusing.
Reagan did it in 1981 and it didn't cause a collapse. 11000 air traffic controllers went on strike and Reagan fired all of them. This is arguably what started the decline of unions in the US.
It was fucked up then, and it would be even more fucked up now, but in reality the industry would move on pretty quickly. Hopefully the people would rise up in response, but I'm not holding my breath.
It nearly did cause a collapse and the industry has never recovered. ATC has been a critically understaffed industry since before you were born.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
Image description: A scene from the movie Dodgeball in which a commentator says “That’s a bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for them.”
Demanding slave labor by threatening to loose you from your master if you refuse to cooperate is a strange take.
Go ahead do it.
Controllers, unionize while fired, what are they going to do, there's already a shortage when you aren't union
load more comments
(2 replies)
As of early 2025, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reports that only about 10,800 certified air traffic controllers are actively working, while the industry needs around 14,600 to operate efficiently. Nearly 280 of the 300 air traffic control facilities are understaffed.
This Duffy needs to recognize these people are to be prized not humiliated. What a total TrumpTurd.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Almost like it’s a bad idea to come out and mass threaten the livelihoods of employees you need. Weird.
FORCING people to Work UNPAID is PROOF that Trump is the MOST Pro Worker president EVER!
load more comments
(3 replies)
view more: next ›