There are two opposing explanations for the PATCO
(Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, established in 1968) strike
of August, 1981—the tragic event that led not only to President Reagan’s firing
of 11,345 air traffic controllers, but to the dissolution of the union itself.
Take your pick as to which explanation most represents what
actually happened. We can interpret the PATCO debacle as nothing less than a
clear manifestation of virulent, deep-seated Republican anti-unionism, or we
can view the strike as one of the dumbest and most self-destructive moves ever
made by a labor union.
Addressing the anti-unionism angle first, let’s make no
mistake about Ronald Reagan’s sentiments. He clearly rejoiced in being able to
spank organized labor, and to do it with a grandiose and very splashy public
gesture.
Reagan spent years conning people into believing that, as a
former labor union president himself (as SAG president, he was little more than
an FBI shill whose mission was to ferret out suspected “Commies” in the movie
industry), he understood and was sympathetic to the “working man.” That was a
con job. He and his cronies were clearly anti-union.
In contrast to Nixon’s Secretary of Labor, the moderate and
pragmatic George P. Shultz, Reagan’s Labor Secretary was Ray Donovan, a former
vice-president of labor relations at a construction company known for its
antipathy toward unions. Basically, Donovan was Reagan’s hatchet man.
After warning the controllers not to pull the plug, Reagan
and Donovan didn’t mess around. There are strikes and then there are massacres.
This was the latter. The controllers were not only fired for striking, they
were banned for life from working for the federal government. The ban wasn’t
lifted until President Clinton did it, in 1993.
As odious as Reagan’s actions were, the behavior of PATCO
was close to mind-boggling. The PATCO strike of 1981 will undoubtedly go down
in history as a monument to overplaying one’s hand. First and foremost, the
strike was illegal. Federal employees were, by statute, forbidden to strike.
Moreover, the strikers knew it. They knew it, Reagan knew
it, Donovan knew it, and the American public knew it. Yet, these PATCO guys,
led by their inexperienced and egomaniacal president, Robert Poli—and despite
being cautioned by the AFL-CIO—did it anyway. By violating a federal labor law
they became felons.
Second, they woefully underestimated the government’s
ability to replace them. Reagan’s Secretary of Transportation, Drew Lewis,
already had a contingency plan in place and instantly brought in replacements.
While there some bumps in the road, the transition went remarkably (and
depressingly) smoothly.
Third, they overestimated the value of political “currency.”
PATCO, along with the Air Line Pilots Association and Teamsters, were the three
notable labor unions who, in 1980, abandoned President Carter and came out in
support of Reagan. If PATCO honestly thought that this apostasy would translate
into a “Get of jail free” card, they were nuts.
And fourth, they willfully squandered a “do-over” chance.
It’s true. They ignored the opportunity to reconsider their reckless move and
return to work without penalty. A union doesn’t often get a chance like that,
because once you hit the bricks, you’re generally treated as pariahs. But PATCO
was given a second chance.
President Reagan issued an ultimatum: Return to work within
48 hours, or be fired. Incredibly, convinced that they had the U.S. government
by the gonads, the air traffic controllers remained defiant. They continued the
strike.
The damage the PATCO strike did to organized labor is
immeasurable. Basically, it ruined everything. By allowing a Republican
president to publicly humiliate a big-time union, organized labor exposed
itself as not only “vulnerable,” but “toothless.”
This wasn’t simply another example of management winning a
strike; this was an example of management—the government in this
case—clobbering a union, eviscerating it. With everyone watching, the White
House went toe-to-toe with a big bad labor union, and kicked its ass.
This very public ass-kicking inspired businesses everywhere
to rethink their tactics. Why tip-toe around? Why treat organized labor with
undue respect when unions can obviously be beaten down? The PATCO strike
changed everything. And the saddest part is that it didn’t have to happen. The
whole sordid episode was self-inflicted.
“It was an important moment in American history, though,
because Ronald Reagan was in the first months, really, still, of his
presidency. He'd been inaugurated in January, 1981. And he was in the middle of
rolling out what we call the Reagan revolution. And Reagan wanted to really
turn back the clock, you might say, to an approach to American government and
politics that was pre-New Deal. And part of that meant reorganizing the
relationship between government and the labor movement.
The PATCO strike happened at this important turning point in
American history, and it left a very profound legacy, because, as you say,
Ronald Reagan first threatened those strikers to return to work within 48 hours
of their walkout, and when they did not, he fired them. Not only did he fire
them; he permanently replaced them. And with that action, he sent a powerful
message that many employers even in the private sector acted upon after that,
and it was a period of getting tough with the union movement that a really
marked a profoundly important turning point.”
