Many reasons. One, many don’t work at airports. Beyond air traffic control towers, there are approach control facilities and enroute facilities. Two, we all integrate into a larger system that requires standardized rules, procedures, and regulations.

I think people haven't really thought through what a collapsed air traffic control system would actually mean. It's not just holiday travel!

As noted elsewhere the “costless option” apparently has been the indefinite immiseration of two million families who are largely an abstraction to them.

People just need to admit it was a failed strategy and a bad way to fight back.

You don’t do that by destroying the lives of people who otherwise support your cause. I’m fucking sick of being your collateral damage. I can’t wait until 26 months from now, when I have my 25 years in, so I can bounce and stop being your sacrificial lamb.

Withhold people’s paychecks long enough over something unrelated and their reaction will be rather unpredictable, and quite probably not the reaction you’re seeking.

It's also this shit that's not only making good people bounce, but *keeping* good people from wanting to serve in this field in the first place.

As much as I love working air traffic control, and God do I love it, it's this shit that's leading me to bounce the day I'm eligible.

Honest to God, I can't wait for the next 26 months to pass, so I can retire and be done with being a pawn in people's political games.

But "everyone who isn't me eats real, quantifiable, actual financial shit, and I keep poasting as a Hero Of The Resistance (while getting my paycheck)" ain't it

Some victory.