but they can t give it to us. i said we have medication, we need it. we can t pull it. we don t have the manpower. to add to all of that long ticket lines, hours and hours on hold with the airline company and the growing reality that many who didn t make it home in time for christmas might not even make it home for new year s either. president biden moments ago tweeting this, thousands of flights nationwide have been canceled around the holidays and our administration is working to ensure that airlines are held accountable. biden also tweeted if you ve been affected by the cancellations, go to the u.s. department of transportation s dashboard to see if you are entitled to compensation. we have our reporters on the ground, gabe cohen and adrienne broaddus are at two of southwest s operating bases, baltimore washington international airport and chicago midway. gabe, first to you, gosh, these passengers are really dealing with a lot of problems here.
three times their pay to pick up extra shifts. united and delta are scheduling redestructions for july sending these pilots to the ticket lines. they re operating to respond to demand, but they can t respond to demand if they don t have the staff to support it. reporter: travelers will face high prices at the pump. the national average is down since climbing above $5 a gallon two weeks ago but remains $1.75 higher than last year. god help you if you have a delay. reporter: potential airport chaos is too much for farokh qur any. you would rather drive? most definitely. i m a committed driver until flying is convenient again. reporter: one of the nation s largest carriers delta is taking the unusual step of
links with labour, so he has told his most prominent mps, his front bench as not to go on ticket lines. keir starmer does not want to be seen to be too close. some have said they will and that includes a labour whip and embarrassingly, someone seen as close to keir starmer, the leader of the party in scotland, and asked sarwar, tweeting a photo of himself on a picket line saying solidarity with railway workers. anas sarwar tweeting a photo. i think there will be political consequences for the strike for both the government and the opposition. we see how ended the week progresses. thank you very much. that assessment of the latest. as promised, let s find out what impact these strikes are having on education.
the government shutdown according to the washington post. 8000 state department employees will get paid for the next 15 days. 300 e-verify employees will be back to work today and will serve in other capacities, congress approves funding for the program. both agencies insist workers are needed for national security. to california half 1 million students could soon head back to class as the los angeles teachers union makes progress with negotiators. 30,000 educators will head to the ticket lines for a 60 day today, demanding higher pay, smaller class sizes, the strike cannot end until the union votes to ratify the illusion of the vote in denver, in colorado, could start a new strike. they are pushing for salary incentives.
down is doing a lot of damage. the simple question is why aren t they having the impact thaw would want to see. i hate to go down this road, but maybe they are not as impacted as others and they need to sit it out or they are or that they are so impacted by it, they are just consumed with surviving and not necessarily engaging in protest? i think there are two groups. the question of why don t we see more political activism and anger from federal workers. a lot of them are scare and trying to get by. i understand why we are not seeing that from them. i think one of the reasons we are not seeing more from the progressive left is the lack of a strong labor movement. the labor movement playing a big role whether it is trying to organize a one-day strike or a sickout or sympathy strikes or joining those federal workers on the ticket lines. we have a weaker labor movement