Power of the Workers

While Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is getting the credit for forcing Trump to temporarily end the Federal shutdown, former labor secretary Robert Reich said airport workers are the ones who “shut down the shutdown” on CNN Saturday, specifically, when air traffic controllers called in sick en masse on Friday. Reich believes Trump had no choice but to capitulate.

“That actually shut down the shutdown—that ended the shutdown when that started, just hours after air traffic controllers, in broad numbers… called in sick,” Reich said. “That brought the shutdown to an end.”

If Trump tries to shut down the government again, Reich suggested, he could expect another mass call-out that would cripple the nation’s airports.