American air traffic controllers working without pay have received hundreds of free pizzas in the past few days from their counterparts in Canada as a show of support during the partial government shutdown.
Canadian air traffic officials began the show of solidarity on Thursday when employees at Edmonton’s control center put together funds to buy pies for controllers in Anchorage, Alaska, according to the Associated Press. The cheesy idea soon picked up steam and other Canadian facilities decided to pitch in for a slice.
“The next thing we knew, our members were buying pizzas left, right and center for the colleagues in the U.S,” Peter Duffey, head of the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association, said. “As it stands right now, I believe we’re up to 36 facilities that have received pizza from Canada, and that number is growing by the hour.”
As of Sunday afternoon, Duffey estimated that roughly 300 pizzas have been delivered to American controllers. The New York Air Traffic Control Center in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., on Friday received 32 pies paid for by Canadian officials from Moncton, New Brunswick, and Gander, Newfoundland, the Huffington Post reports.
“Air traffic control is a very stressful job,” Duffey said. “They say you have to be 100 per cent right, 100 per cent of the time. 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.”
Roughly 10,000 air traffic controllers have been working without pay since the partial government shutdown began shortly before Christmas. Now in it’s fourth week, the shutdown is the longest-ever federal closure in American history.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union for air traffic controllers, has sued the Trump administration over the shutdown.
[Also read: Houston airport closes terminal due to TSA staffing shortage amid shutdown]
