22h ago

Elon Musk takes to X to beg retired air traffic controllers to return to work: ‘There is a shortage’

www.mediaite.com Elon Musk Takes to X to Beg Retired Air Traffic Controllers to Return to Work: ‘There is a Shortage’

Elon Musk on Thursday called on retired air traffic controllers to come back to work while citing a supposed shortage of employees at the position.

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.

139 comments

"I clear cut the forest and now there is a shortage of trees. Woe is me."

As much as I loathe the twat, this issue predates him. Now, after what he's done to the FAA, good luck convincing them to come back. A very stressful, understaffed job... Sure they'll want to get out of retirement...

As a guy who has to travel for work. I hope that these guys tell him to pound fucking sand
Really highlights how stupid Republicans and Musk really is and how good companies thrived despite how leadership not because.
- Good luck to you. I'm not setting foot on a plane until this administration is over with (assuming there is an end to it).
  
  Yup. Don't really have a choice of If I want to keep the family housed and fed but I do have a lot of life insurance.

Musk’s appeal comes amid increased public concern over recent aviation incidents, though experts consider the uptick an anomaly.
Anomalies for now. These aviation incidents will become the new normal after gutting the department that is charge of preventing aviation incidents from happening.
But hey, Musky Boy got to play a chainsaw. So that's a plus?

Why would anyone do this when they're likely to be in another wave of mass firings. Imo yall should strike.
- Because, see - uh Elon, he likes to sort of surf on the livelihood of others. It's like a fun little game for him, where he fires and has to rehire, which forms a pique of the wave so he can feel a little tickle in his belly and go weee. He's such a scamp.
  Actually, no. He's horrible. Who gave him a mandate again? Oh right.
  
  Who gave him a mandate?
  His 300 million dollar campaign donation and 40 billion dollar purchase of twitter, I think.

I wonder if the ATCs will respond to the 5 accomplishments emails they will get
- JIA5172 CRJ9 (CLT) JBU1855 E190 (BOS) JIA5433 CRJ7 (ALB) RPA4640 E75L (EYW) DAL2983 A319 (MSP)

Oh he needs those useless federal workers? Most of those people remember what reagan did and feel no loyalty at all to the republican party.
- You underestimate conservatives

I'm curious what the terms are going to be to get them back. Him just bloating the salaries b/c he's a moron would be on point for him.

He is easily the worst person there is to ask for it.

This is so easy to fix. Just ask the remaining ATCs to put in 30 more hours per week. If there is a safety law which needs to be amended to make this happen, just amend it. Remove all the rules and safeguards. We should do it like the Tesla factories.
Look. More air accidents will happen. People should be ready to sacrifice themselves. It's that easy.
So easy to fix.
PS: /s for some of you who may need it..
- Seriously you couldn't pay me to fly these days.
- We also need to brace ourselves for hardship. I mean Elon won't be facing monetary hardships but you will. So brace for that.
  
  How, exactly, are we to brace ourselves for any of this?

But what happened to move fast and break things?
- They’re broken. We’re onto step 2
  Move fast and break things
  ???
  Profit
  
  Step 2 is "Steal everything not nailed down".

The shortage is his own damn fault. I wouldn’t want to work any government job right now.

Fucking clown show

Pay more wages, the way of a free market is supply and demand
- There's no such thing as a labor shortage.

What a joke…

RESIST!

Time to renegotiate salary!
- time to sing l'international!!
  
  Yes, the ask is treating ATCs as a collective; they should do some collective bargaining.
  
  Flying Lizards - Money REACTION *
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7qsikAVx-k
  5:54
  "I want money
  That's what I want.
  That's what I want."
  
  FLYING LIZARDS Money EXTENDED VERSION
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_ld0WWvQ4o
  5:35

Bloody hell!

[Insert GFY meme]

"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?
- There has been a shortage for a decade, and the post is literally Musk trying to hire early retirees to fill staffing shortages.
  
  There's no such thing as a labor shortage, especially if it's been long enough to train more ATCs. If the pay is high enough, then people will come out of the woodwork.

Fucking beg, fascist bitch.
- No no. Pay is what he needs to do.
  
  ¿Por que no los dos?
- Maybe fill in the blanks with racist assholes? I want to watch that work itself out.

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
- 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.

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

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
- We should have this same law for politicians.
- 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.
  
  Age discrimination is illegal in the US for almost every job, there are a handful of exceptions.
  
  It would be in America as well, except ATC is classified as a secure role like the military or police so they get away with stuff like this.
- 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

Well if it isn't the consequences of his own actions.
- Fucked around ✅
  Found out 👈
  
  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.
- 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.
  
  100%. There was a shortage of traffic controllers before the firings even began, this only exacerbated a bad situation.
- IIRC the FAA layoffs did not include air traffic controllers, so I don't think that he was involved with that.

Claim a federal agency is inefficient
Fire employees and defund agency
Agency performs worse than before
Point finger at the agency showing how it is incompetent
Move to privatize agency
$$$$$$$
- That's been the Republican M.O. for like 40 years.
  
  At least 50
  
  Not just republican, the whole neoliberal politic.

Yo, air traffic controllers still at work: if y'all have ever considered going on strike, now's the time.
- Came here to say this.
- Easier to quit; last time ATCs went on strike Reagan just fired them all
  
  I'd rather get fired than quit. Unemployment benefits!
  
  Would they still be able to replace the fired workers as quickly as they did in 1980?
  https://www.npr.org/2021/08/05/1025018833/looking-back-on-when-president-reagan-fired-air-traffic-controllers

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

Surprise Surprise Surprise (Gomer Pyle voice)
Just what the fuck did you think was gonna happen Elonia? Fucking idiot...
Leopard, meet face...
🤦‍♀️ 🤷‍♂️ 🖕
- This is intentional. They want to replace everything with their own shitty for-profit systems.
  
  Which will be a disaster of epic proportion.

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...

What I wouldn't give to be able to say "Fuck You" to his face.
- I'd conjure up the biggest, grossest lugie possible...
  
  I misread that as luigi
- Hah, you think he gets anywhere near you filthy peasants?
  
  He's gonna get real close when his private jet is trying to use a runway at the same time as another plane.

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.

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.
- Why the fuck haven’t people started learning to plan ahead yet?
  What do you mean? Maybe you can clarify?
  
  While I can only guess, I think he/she meant that all the stupid things the government has done so far should not have come as a surprise to anyone. They announced most of it and even the things they kept "quiet" were pretty obvious. So government employees could have searched for alternative jobs beforehand and kind of "brace for impact" and unions could have planned a coordinated response to bullshit firings. Lawsuits could have (and actually have) been prepared so that it would not take months to react to all the stupid stuff that's happening now.
  Or maybe I am completely wrong :)

10 years salary up front. In gold.
- best we can do is crypto and a ket bender with trump's dom
- Sorry, Fort Knox is empty.
  
  Nobody is gonna need to tap fort Knox, empty or not, to scrounge together 10 years salary worth of gold.
  That would be under 10 bars of gold for some of the highest salaried doctors and lawyers out there.
  It would be less than 1 bar of gold for anyone making less than $114K/yr over 10 years, as of right now.
  This is all to remind anyone reading this that your life's worth is like 1-20 gold bars.
- Gold you say?
  
  In the economy to come, that currency can be burned for warmth or to insulate shacks. It has no value beyond that.
  
  why is Krasnov Trump face on the US dollar bill.
  
  The back side should be printed with the fucking Kremlin.
  
  That man should never be on the face of legitimate US currency.

"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.

Ah the move fast and break things doesn't work? I'm shocked, shocked!

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

- Rorschach?
  
  Yup!

No no, just replace all air traffic controllers with AI without even testing it first. I really want the world to see how badly Musk is NOT a genius but an idiot who stumbled his way into a position that makes him ungodly amounts of undeserved money.

Amusing that his Twitter avatar looks like a black hole, considering that's where his abject incompetence is sucking the national infrastructure (and all of us) into.
On this latest debacle: Great idea Musk! Fire a bunch of people from an already stressed-out agency, then watch as a string of accidents happen, and then publication beg for retired controllers to come back.
Pushing tin is an incredibly stressful and intense job. Those who retired are probably a) no longer capable of dealing with that stress, and/or b) don't want to deal with it and deserve a well-earned retirement.
But hey, maybe with all the bullshit stripping away of social security, Medicare, etc etc, they will be forced to come out of retirement to help. I'm sure that's not a recipe for disaster!
For fuck's sake, we live in the stupidest timeline, I swear. And we can't even fully enjoy Musk ruining his ill-deserved legacy and humiliating himself, because all of us are the collateral damage.
- You're giving them ideas damnit
  
  Ahh shit, you're right!

What a fuckin' ass clown.
- Is that a fucking ass-clown or a fucking-ass clown?
  
  The first one.
  
  Either works.

Lol. I hope the ATCs stay parked on their butts. Let a few of the private jets go down because the FAA isn't there to keep them on their paths. Or to make any effort to anonymize them, since flight plans are legally required to be public info. Let them feel what the rest of us do.

Was Elmo always this stupid or did the Neuralink fried his brain?
- He was always this stupid, but he had enough family wealth and connections to fail his way up.

where 'heightened scrutiny' means they fired everyone they don't like or that doesn't like them.

if he really cared he would post somewhere relevant.

The article skips over FAA’s systemic failures; Musk’s tweet isn’t the full story.
😺😺😺

139 comments