Salon: The moment union-busting lost its sting (Raygun)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.salon.com/news/the_labor_movement/?story=/politics/war_room/2011/02/27/reagan_union_busting

Sunday, Feb 27, 2011 13:01 ET
War Room
The moment union-busting lost its sting
By Steve Kornacki



It remains to be seen whether Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor bidding to deny public workers collective bargaining rights, has taken things one step too far, but it's clear that today's Republican leaders -- and an increasing number of Democrats, too -- welcome the opportunity to wage battle with public employees and their unions.

From the standpoint of political strategy, it's hard to argue with their logic. Fair or not, the perception has taken hold that public sector workers have become a privileged class -- showered with generous benefits and treated to favorable work rules by politicians who fear saying "no" to them, even as their private sector counterparts make painful sacrifices. Thus, New York's Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, is demanding major concessions from public employees just as aggressively as Republican Chris Christie is in New Jersey -- and both are faring quite well in polls. And Walker's basic proposal for union givebacks is popular in Wisconsin.

What Cuomo, Christie and others are profiting from is a divide among working- and middle class Americans. To those who don't enjoy them, the pension and healthcare benefits that many public workers have negotiated are just as likely to be a source of resentment as aspiration. And when economic conditions are as grim as they are now, this resentment is particularly pronounced -- and, from the politician's standpoint, easy to manipulate.

It's a lesson that was first delivered -- emphatically and memorably -- 30 years ago, when Ronald Reagan called the bluff of 11,400 striking air traffic controllers, fired them, dissolved their union and banned them from ever getting their jobs back. He was called petty, vindictive and cruel, but you wouldn't have known it from the polls: Firing the air traffic controllers was one of the most popular episodes of Reagan's presidency. The saga, which played out just as the economy -- already plagued by stubbornly high inflation, unemployment and interest rates -- was plunging into a deep recession, demonstrated just how easy a divide-and-conquer approach to union politics could be.


When Reagan came to office, members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) thought they had caught a break. Since its creation in 1968, PATCO had been something of a loner in the union world. In the 1980 presidential campaign, it had actually endorsed Reagan, who pledged to address the controllers' longstanding grievances about long hours, dated equipment and generally stressful work conditions.

FULL story at link.

[yourout]

1. Any Dem that comes out in support of busting unions should be tossed out....

on his ear.
No exceptions.

[ingac70]

2. PATCO endorsed Reagan?

I reckon they got what they wanted then.

[disillusioned73]

3. That's a serious helping of irony right there...

I reckon unions learned a valuable lesson from that episode... or at least I hope.

[snot]

4. Good article; but left me wanting to know more.

In particular, why didn't other unions support the striking controllers? Was it because of the law against public employees' striking? What was the media's role -- was their reporting any more accurate than it is now?