The Republican shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has thrown 4,000 FAA employees out of work, and some 70,000 construction workers employed on airport improvement projects can’t go to work because Republicans have blocked funding for the agency and the projects.

In a letter to House and Senate Republican leaders, Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), says he is outraged by the “extortion tactics” and “political brinkmanship” that are creating even more “hardship for building and construction trades families” in an industry already suffering high unemployment.

Our members expect their elected leaders to resolve their differences without resorting to ultimatums. Once again, our members are frustrated that an extreme minority has succeeded temporarily by using extortion tactics to undermine the jobs of my members.

Click here for the full letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Mica has admitted he is holding up the FAA bill to force the Senate to agree to rollback fair election union rules for rail and aviation workers. As Think Progress points out today, if Mica ran for Congress under the election rules he wants for rail and aviation workers, he wouldn’t be a member of Congress.

Even though Congress has adjourned for its long summer recess, because it is in what is known as pro forma session, it is still possible to take action to end the shutdown. Today, the four unions representing most of the 4,000 furloughed FAA workers urged Congress to get back to work and end the shutdown.

The air traffic control system cannot wait and neither can the families of the thousands of impacted employees across the nation.

The biggest concern, say AFGE, AFSCME, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) and Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), is “putting thousands of critical employees” back to work.

Nearly 4,000 FAA employees have been forced to go without a paycheck for almost two weeks. These employees provide essential services and perform a variety of functions critical to the safe and efficient operation of the aviation system. In addition, due to the FAA having to issue dozens of stop-work orders, 70,000 construction workers nationwide are without employment.

The unions also say the shutdown is threatening much-needed airport and air traffic control improvements that would boost aviation safety.

To protect this country’s aviation system and secure jobs throughout the country, Congress must act now.

While Republicans are spinning the shutdown as a dispute over fiscal policy and rural air service subsidies, an editorial in today’s The New York Times lays it out in straight-forward terms.

And why is this happening? Republicans, who are experts at such maneuvers, have been holding the reauthorization of the FAA hostage for months, trying to get Democrats in the Senate to agree to weaken transportation workers’ rights.

If Republicans continue to block a temporary FAA bill, it will be at least until after Labor Day before any action can be taken. Writes the Times:

By then, the extortion will have cost the government around $1 billion. Thousands of people will have gone without a paycheck for at least four more weeks. And critical repairs at airports will not have been made. There is no excuse.