Reagan, Class and Organized Labor: "One Of The Most Damaging Presidents In American History"

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/11/reagan_class_and_organized_labor_one



We speak with Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers of America and Francis Fox Piven, one of the country’s leading sociologists, about class and organized labor during Reagan’s presidency.

Audio at link: http://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/11/reagan_class_and_organized_labor_one

As we move to the issue of workers right’s and labor under Ronald Reagan. Many critics of the former president recall with great anger the policies of Reagonomics. His administration was one of the worst in history for organized labor. And his track record was consistent almost from the beginning of his career in the public eye. In the late 1940’s, as president of the Screen Actors’ Guild union, Ronald Reagan testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee on so-called "subversive activity" in Hollywood, reporting on actors, directors, and screenwriters deemed Communist sympathizers.

And in the 1960’s and 70’s, as Governor of the State of California, Reagan fought the efforts of migrant farm workers to win union contracts, vetoing the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, a bill granting farm workers collective bargaining rights. In one well-publicized episode, then-Governor Reagan appeared on television eating grapes in defiance of a union-sponsored boycott against miserable working conditions in California’s vineyards.

In August of 1981, thirteen thousand members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, or PATCO, ignored federal laws prohibiting strikes and walked off the job in protest of long shifts and mandatory overtime. PATCO was one of a few unions that backed the newly inaugurated Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election, but the union would soon regret its decision to support the President. On August 3rd, Reagan ordered the striking controllers back to work:

(Tape)
"Let me read the solemn oath taken by each of these employees. I am not participating in any strike against the government of the United States or any agency thereof. It is for this reason that I must tell those that fail to report to duty this morning they are in violation of the law, and if they do not report for work within forty-eight hours, they will be terminated."

Two days later, Reagan made good on his promise, firing more than eleven thousand air traffic controllers, jailing strike leaders and ultimately abolishing the union. It was the first time in U.S. history that permanent replacement workers had been used on such a wide scale to break a strike.

* Francis Fox Piven, one of the country’s leading sociologists. She is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the City University of New York. She is author of a number of books on class, including "Regulating the Poor," "Poor Peoples’ Movements," and "The New Class War."
* Dolores Huerta, Co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America with Cesar Chavez. Her efforts to organize the mostly immigrant farm workers of California in the 1960’s and 70’s were resisted at every turn by then-Governor Ronald Reagan.


FULL story at link.

[femmocrat]

1. It makes me sick how the right-wing has tried to canonize him.

I remember the 1980s very well and he was pure evil.