Lets be more clear. All the vacation leave they scheduled a year ago has been cancelled (ATC's have to schedule vacation between 6 and 18 months in advance to have assured leave). They have been told that any sick calls will result in being placed on furlough, not sick leave, so payment is NOT assured for that...and this is despite the fact that they have to take off for things as simple as using basic medicines, even OTC in some cases. The cancelled vacation plans do NOT fall within any U.S. travel insurance coverage, as it's considered force majeure. In the 2018-2019 shutdown, I know people who lost thousands in prepaid holiday bookings that they never recovered. On Oct 10th, controllers received a partial paycheck, varying between 58% and 80% of a normal paycheck, with most about 70%. On Oct 24th, controllers got paystubs with a $0.00 pay amount. On Nov 7th, controllers will receive their second $0.00 paycheck. Even if this shutdown is stopped immediately, it is likely no payment will be received before Nov 21st, and even this payment will be missing a number of reimbursements.

So how many people here can or could miss a month and a half to two months of pay without significant hardship? Interest is NOT paid on the missing money, and in the last shutdown, the 30-40% of creditors willing to allow a skipped payment almost all charged a fee for that, and waived no interest charges. While they are worrying about that, they are being required to work six days a week and eight to ten hours a day.

I was offered an extension to work beyond the mandatory retirement age in 2021. The experience of the 2018-2019 shutdown and the increasing Overtime assignments made me say no. At that time we were about 20-30% below staffing goals for Fully Certified Controllers, and had been since before 2013...we're now even further below as fewer and fewer controllers elect to extend their career beyond retirement eligibility due to these pressures. The FAA knew when people would HAVE to retire and failed to staff up the system, and the results are biting us in the butt right now.

And, please don't forget TSA...same situation and likely more dire financially!