Air traffic controllers in the US have now been working without paychecks for almost 23 days, the result of the partial government shutdown. Some airlines have been stepping in to make sure that employees are at least getting a hot meal, and this weekend, Canadian air traffic controllers also decided to show support for their American counterparts with a cheesy, but heartfelt gesture.
According to the Canadian edition of the Huffington Post, controllers in Canada have been sending pizza to their unpaid counterparts. The effort seems to have started when the Edmonton control center sent pizzas over to Anchorage. The idea was then taken up by the president of the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association union, who suggested that the rest of the Canadian controllers participate in the transnational pizza party. All seven area control centers in Canada, as well as many individual control towers, followed suit.
Hey Canada, THANK YOU!!!!!! This was in the hallway of New York Center (ZNY) today. Canadian air traffic controllers bought dinner for FAA air traffic controllers last night (all over the country) in an effort to show their support during the US government shutdown. from r/canada
So far, the initiative has seen controllers in New Brunswick and Newfoundland provide pizza for controllers at the New York Control Center, while controllers from the Montreal Center took care of their southern equivalents at the Boston Center. Air traffic controllers in Burlington, Vermont; at New York's Laguardia; at Cleveland Center; and the Seattle Center all enjoyed hot pizza for lunch, courtesy of the Great White North. And Winnipeg Tower is covering dinner for controllers at Minneapolis-Saint Paul's tower this evening, having already provided lunch for those in Grand Forks on Saturday.
"We are very proud of the thoughtfulness that our controllers have shown to their colleagues in the US," Ron Singer, media relations manager at Nav Canada (the corporation that employs Canadian air traffic controllers) told HuffPost Canada.
