B.C. air traffic controllers send pizza to U.S. colleagues hit by shutdown

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Hundreds of air traffic controllers across B.C. and across Canada are contributing to a kind – and tasty – gesture to their US counterparts who aren’t getting paid during the partial government shutdown.

Canadian controllers coast to coast have been rallying together to send surprise pizza deliveries to more than 50 control towers stateside in the past few days.

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Canadian Air Traffic Control Association president Peter Duffey says tower staff at YVR, Victoria, Kelowna and several other airports have played their part. He says it’s rare to find a feel-good story in a government shutdown, so to put the smiles on a few faces has been heartwarming.

One staff member at the YVR control tower who wants to stay anonymous even paid for lunch for all controllers in Phoenix, a destination for many Western Canadian snowbirds. That’s just one example of the generosity showed by Canadian controllers to their American colleagues.

“They’ve also done a myriad of units along the border, Seattle tower, Seattle Centre, even Boeing Field. They’ve taken care of a lot of facilities just south of the border,” he tells NEWS 1130.

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Surprise pizza was the obvious option when it came to deciding how to show support, he says.

“Two things sort of go hand-in-hand with air traffic control, it’s probably pizza and coffee,” he says. “When we have really busy evenings where we can’t get breaks, and we’re stuck in position so to speak, part of our traditional culture is we’re send out for some pizzas.”

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But the influx of pizza orders hasn’t come without some slight hiccups. The VISA fraud office even got in touch them wondering why Canadians were ordering dozens of pizzas in the U.S. He expects the surprise deliveries to continue this week.

Pizza orders started in Edmonton

Nav Canada’s national media manager Ron Singer says the initiative began when employees at Edmonton’s control centre took up a collection to buy pies for controllers in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Anchorage, Alaska.

All seven of Canada’s control centres and many towers have since joined in and ordered pizzas for their U.S. counterparts working along the border, many of whom have taken to social media to express their gratitude.

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Singer says there’s a bond between Canadian and American air traffic controllers since the two work closely together to manage cross-border airspace.

Some 10,000 air traffic controllers in the United States have been working without pay since late December due to the ongoing government shutdown.

Their union filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington on Friday, asking for an order compelling the government to pay them what they’re owed.

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