Posted on 09/28/2014 8:32:11 AM PDT by Kaslin
An obituary in the Washington Post for Robert Poli provides a chance to look back at a decisive moment in Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Poli was the head of the militant Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), which launched an illegal strike in 1981. The Post describes the significance of the action:
The strike by PATCO, Reagan’s subsequent breaking of the union and the hiring of replacement workers were among the most significant job actions of their time, said Joseph A. McCartin, a professor at Georgetown University and a specialist on labor and social history. They “helped to define labor relations for the rest of the century and even into the 21st century,” he said, turning public sentiment away from striking as a legitimate labor tactic and further emboldening employers in the private sector to permanently replace striking workers.
Reagan’s hard line with the PATCO strikers six months into his presidency helped establish an image of him at home and overseas as a strong leader who would not be pushed around.
Here is the sequence of events:
The PATCO work stoppage began Aug. 3, 1981, when at least 12,000 of the nation’s 17,000 air traffic controllers defied federal law and walked off their jobs, seeking higher pay, shorter hours, better equipment and improved working conditions in a long-simmering labor dispute.
There were widespread flight cancellations and delays, and 22 of the nation’s busiest airports were directed to reduce their scheduled flights by 50 percent.
That morning in the White House Rose Garden, Reagan declared, “I must tell those who failed to report for duty this morning they are in violation of the law, and if they don’t report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated.”
Two days after the walkout began, Transportation Secretary Drew L. Lewis announced that at least 12,000 striking air traffic controllers had been terminated and would not be rehired “as long as the Reagan administration is in office.”
The Reagan administration stuck to its guns. The strikers were replaced by nonstriking controllers, air traffic supervisors, and military controllers until new controllers were trained.
The episode was a very gutsy move by Reagan, with beneficial consequences. But as I note here, the 1981 strike and response did not come out of nowhere—PATCO had been causing problems for years. In 1969, for example, about 500 members of PATCO called in “sick” in a protest, which caused major air service interruptions. And in 1970, about 3,000 members of PATCO took part in another “sickout,” or illegal strike, that caused chaos for the nation’s air traffic. Those sorts of union troubles continued during the 1970s, which set the stage for the Reagan showdown.
Today, the government’s air controllers have a different union organization, NATCA. Rather than illegal striking, these folks do what a growing number of groups in society are doing to advance their agendas: they lobby.
I admired Reagan for doing that. I was proud finally in my lifetime see a real man of principle show that it could be done.
Been a long, a very long time since this country has seen something like this.
I was on my way home from Oskosh air show flying IFR when he fired them. My destination was my base in N.J. I had a I.F. R FLIGHT PLAN ON FILE and was over Chicago airspace. Dropped to VFR east Alititude and went home. The supe’s followed me on radar All the way to Jersey. Was a really “ hard I.f.r” trip.
God bless nice controllers!
Meyers 200D. 2976T
However, as Reagan himself said, he didn’t fire them ... “they quit.”
ALL government unions need killing, at all levels of government. Just look at all the bankrupt cities. No one represents the taxpaying citizens in those criminal conspiracies that gang rape the taxpayers.
Leading up to the strike the controllers did a lot of stupid crap.
For example, telling me to do a 360 in place in my 172 with a student next to me 10 miles in trail of a lone 727 on final to a large airport. For “spacing”.
Not another airplane in the sky that Sunday morning.
Or asking an Eastern jet to slow to 180 knots 70 miles north of the airport crossing a fix on the arrival route. The captain of that flight didn’t hesitate to tell them what he thought of that stupid stunt.
On the morning of the strike, we flew a twin over to the big airport. Only supervisors on the frequency. They said, “make right base traffic and you’re cleared to land”...15 miles out.
Then nothing else. Just fly your airplane, you’re the Pilot in Command, Big Guy. So do.
How refreshing.
Somewhere in between armies of unionized line controllers and a few high capability supervisors is the right number.
But the PATCO controllers really screwed the pooch cuz they had no clue where that line was, and how useless a lot of their guys were.
This was a huge moment, it was the first(?) of our our “holy cow batman, this guy is the real deal!” moments.
People who don’t remember probably can’t imagine the shock we all felt at this boldness, and the wild cheering by so many of us, most Americans had long ago given up that such things could even be done.
I found the supes to be about six times easier to work with.
Amazing how much a guy with experience can do.
It is ironic that PATCO actually endorsed Ronald Reagan in 1980 as did a fair number of unions. Even the National Maritime Union, NMU, whose executive board in the late 1930’s were card carrying members of the Communist Party USA.
I believe the Teamsters also endorse Reagan that year as did a number of the building trades unions.
Since then of course the union leadership at least at the national level has moved sharply to the left. But I should add that there are plenty of union members that are very conservative. The president of one bargaining unit in the SEIU is a FREEPER (me).
That was a very interesting story. Thanks for posting.
“ALL government unions need killing, at all levels of government.”
And we should start with the US Postal Service. In fact, we should have a Constitutional Amendment that allows the government to get completely out of the mail service. Just that action alone would “retire” something on the order of 400,000 government leeches with bad attitudes toward those of us who are forced to pay them.
In 1981, President Reagan broke PATCO’s back. Since 2008, the Administration, aka RATCO, has been breaking America’s back!
My uncle was a supervisor at Robins AFB at the time and the stories he told. He had the same attitude at President Reagan - they weren’t fired, they quit!
Taxation WITHOUT representation. We were a Republic, once. We didn’t keep it.
Wasn’t it Kennedy that allowed gubmint workers to be members of unions?
Bump and double bump. The govmint employees have representation already while the employer, the taxpayer, does not have a seat at the table. Public unions make the employee more beholden to the union then to the taxpayer who pay their salary.
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