Members of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists national union will hold a small protest at Chicago Rockford International Airport Saturday. Northern Illinois and Wisconsin Representative Pete Rosa says the government shutdown furloughed many aviation safety inspectors. He says air travel is unnecessarily at risk.
“We want to raise awareness," he said. "Hey, you know we have safety inspectors that aren’t on the jobs right now. They need to be on the job. They’re the eyes and the ears of the FAA as far as the regulatory function and enforcing the laws and the rules that keep us safe.”
Rosa says other FAA personnel, such as safety technicians, are working without pay at airports like the one in Rockford.
“My job is aviation safety, and they want me to take out a personal loan so I can do my job," he said. "That’s not reasonable.”
His group believes this could be a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. PASS also believes the furloughs insert unnecessary risk in a system designed around ensuring aviation safety for the “flying public.”
