Two weeks into the government shutdown, tensions are reaching new heights at airports across the country.

Tuesday at Philadelphia International Airport, members of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) handed out pamphlets urging travelers to contact their representatives to end the shutdown.

They’re already working six-day weeks due to an ongoing staffing shortage, and now they’re doing it without pay because of the shutdown. Regardless of that, some air traffic controllers showed up outside Terminal D/E on their one day off this week to inform passengers about the impact of the government shutdown.

Charles Jacques has been an air traffic controller at PHL for 18 years, and this is his third time experiencing the effects of a government shutdown.

“It’s starting to affect our daily lives,” he told CBS News Philadelphia. “We’re worrying about how to pay our bills and our mortgages and car payments and stuff like that instead of just focusing solely on our job.”

Like many federal employees, air traffic controllers aren’t getting paid during the government shutdown; however, they’re required to work because their role is crucial to the public’s safety.

“Imagine working and not getting paid. We made a point to tell her twice that we appreciate what you’re doing,” said Bob Feil, a passenger who was stopped by a NATCA member on his way into the airport. 

The air traffic controller handed him a pamphlet with information about the shutdown impacts, which include pauses on airspace projects and safety upgrades. The pamphlet says, “Delays in maintenance put the technology we rely on at risk of malfunctioning.”

Jacques says the public’s safety is their number one priority and PHL has not seen an increase in sick leave among air traffic controllers since the shutdown started. However, according to NATCA, the National Airspace System becomes less efficient with each passing day.

 “We’re running on equipment from the ’70s and ’80s, these things need updating and those projects will stop while the government shut down and then they’ll have to restart and that takes time,” Jacques said.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s airport is joining a growing list of airports across the country that have decided not to show a video on monitors around TSA checkpoints of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem criticizing Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown.

A spokesperson for PHL said it does not accept or display materials that are political in nature in its facilities.