Prior to the '81 strike, I was one of 8 non-PATCO controllers at Chicago ARTCC (the one that had the recent fire). 14 others walked out, but came back before Reagan's deadline. We fired 465, so yeah, we were shorthanded.
One of the guys bought us all baseball caps he had made up at a county fair, had an airplane on 'em & "SCAB". He had a special one made for me, it had the plane, scrambled eggs and "SUPERSCAB".
I wore it proudly on my strolls by the perimeter fence that was guarded by US Marshals, and manned by at least 100 strikers every day until Christmas.
But yeah, leading up to the strike it was a very unpleasant place to work.
Crazy. I can’t imagine working in that environment. Unions are like a weird cult.