Fredericton — With the American government in the midst of a shut-down, more than 800,000 governmental agency workers, including air traffic controllers, have been working without pay.
In a lighthearted action of solidarity, many Canadian air traffic controllers have ordered pizza for their Yankee counterparts.
While most have been ordering from local American restaurants, the employees of the Fredericton International Airport air traffic control decided to ship Pizza Delight, delivering a homestyle, Maritime taste.
“We saw on the CBC how those kiss-asses over at the Roméo LeBlanc in Moncton were ordering pizza for the controllers down on Long Island,” explained Mike Chippin, as his computer flashed a red warning screen. “They see themselves as on-par with hub airports, all because they have a few more seasonal vacation flights than us.”
Not to be outdone, the Fredericton workers sent their pizzas to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the busiest in the world.
“We took a up collection from everyone in the tower, but the cheapskates only coughed up enough for a Party Duo with one donair sauce,” said Carol Whalley.
She added, “On top of that, we gave a FedEx pilot $10 to throw ‘em in the back of his plane. He said he could get it to Georgia in one to three business days, but he did it in four.”
The twin pizzas slipped over the border and traversed the whole Eastern seaboard, even spending an entire afternoon on the JFK International tarmac.
When asked whether the Maritime authenticity was more important then freshness, pilot Jarrod Burgess said, “If they’ve been waiting two weeks for pay, you’d think they’d have some patience for pizza.”
Once delivered to the Hartsfield-Jackson control tower, the smell of the rotted toppings and donair sauce caused a chemical bomb scare, delaying all flights for seven hours.