A short primer on PATCO.

[riverdeep]

The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization strike in 1981 is seen as the start of the overdrive of union busting that's been ramped up over the last three and a half decades.

Air traffic controllers have one of the most stressful jobs in the world, resulting in workers suffering any number of debilitating illnesses--from ulcers to heart conditions to hypertension and alcoholism. For that reason, almost 90 percent of controllers at the time were forced to leave before retirement age, some 40 percent taking disability leave.

In 1981, U.S. air traffic controllers were the only ones in the world to work 40 hours a week, in eight-hour shifts, with up to 20 hours of mandatory overtime tacked on the average week.

But the article does bring some surprises, such as the unwillingness of other unions to back PATCO (really the main thrust of the story), to Jimmy Carter's role:

It was Carter who began deregulation of the airlines and trucking industries, freeing them from important workers' safety or environmental regulations. And under Carter, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) set up the "management strike contingency force"--a scabbing operation--12 months before the controllers' contract was due to expire. The plan would keep air traffic going even if the controllers struck, and break the union in the process.

http://socialistworker.org/2006-2/600/600_08_PATCO.shtml

[jody]

1. Don't forget a complicit Democratic congress. n/t

[doc03]

2. So it was Carter's fault Reagan fired

them, interesting point of view for DU I would say.

[Better Believe It]

3. You should read an article before flapping your jaws on it

The article pointed out that:

"While PATCO represented a relatively small number of workers, the Reagan administration made crushing the union a high priority.'

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. PATCO screwed up big-time

They knew that Reagan was looking to start busting unions, and everyone warned their leaders that they'd just be serving his ends. They went ahead, anyway, Poli, the head of PATCO, having grown to love the spotlight far too much.

It was taking place during the Frank Lorenzo-engineered takeover of Continental Air Lines, a fight that Continental did not want to lose, given Lorenzo's penchant for gutting bargaining agreements and hiring scab workers.

All of this came to a head early in August of 1981. On August 9, 1981, Al Feldman, the CEO of Continental Air Lines, a good and decent man who'd worked as hard as he could to protect his employees from Lozenzo and the antics of PATCO, committed suicide in his office at LAX when his last financial backers pulled out, leaving Continental to Lorenzo.

I was assistant general counsel for an airline, and, in 1977 and 1978, helped draft the Airline Deregulation Act - yes, under Carter.

Alfred Kahn's big idea was a bad one. He decried it long afterwards, but the damage from that time in our recent history is still reverberating through all our lives in the worst possible ways.

[Nikki Stone1]

5. Do you think Poli was paid off?

And I am not familiar with the airline deregulation act. What did it entail?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

10. There was talk that Poli was

Reagan's stooge in all of this, but my experience tells me that he was just drunk with power.

For a good explanation of the Airline Deregulation Act and how the airline industry was regulated prior to its pasage, go here -

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Commercial_Aviation/Dereg/Tran8.htm

[conscious evolution]

8. Do you have a copy of reagons letter to PATCO

promising them everything they were asking for if they backed him?
That should have been a huge red flag to every union in the country when he fucked PATCO over.Why every union did not call a general strike to support them still blows my mind.Not doing so sent many prospective future union members into a mindset of why join a union if it ain't gonna do anything.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. Letter?

I don't ever recall hearing of such a letter. It would be kind of strange for a candidate to put something like that in writing.

I think maybe someone gave you bad information.

The other unions should have backed PATCO, but they were cowardly. Later, the Machinists' Union brought down Eastern Air Lines and Frank Lorenzo, who was ignominiously thrown out of the industry.

But, it was all just horrible. And look at the mess we have today.

[conscious evolution]

16. I ahve seen several copies

For some reason a lot of the former PATCO guys I have met over the years had all kept their copy.One even had his framed and hanging on a wall.

The Machinists Union did not bring down Eastern.Lorenzo did that all by himself with how he structured the buying of Eastern by Texas Air.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

17. The machinists shut EAL down,

and that was, ultimately, what brought Lorenzo down. I know, because a lot of the people who put money into that strike, to keep it going, were friends of mine. They were going to stop Lorenzo, no matter what. I'll always love those guys.

I seriously doubt that any letter like that actually exists, unless it's written in the vaguest language. There's no a politician who ever lived who would put a promise like that in writing. Not a lawyer in the world would let a Presidential candidate do something like that. It sounds to me like a Duck Tuck trick pulled on someone.

[conscious evolution]

18. It was a real letter

On official campaign stationary.IIRC,there is a DUer who was a PATCO member who remembers it.Can't remember who ,though.

I see the Machinist as the nail in the coffin.They tried to save the company and put up a valiant fight but ultimately Eastern was doomed by how Lorenzo set up the purchase of Eastern.Basicly,Lorenzo set things up so that Eastern was paying Texas Air to buy Eastern.There is no way Eastern could have survived even if the Machinist Union had capitulated.

[riverdeep]

6. The article really tries to take an even-handed approach.

THE CRUSHING of the PATCO union was part of a strategy of redefining the terms of U.S. labor relations--gone, American bosses hoped, would be the days of offensive strikes that won better wage and benefits. This was a long-term plan, and a bipartisan one.

In 1980, PATCO had even diverged from the unions' usual endorsement of the Democrats and supported Reagan for president.

Reagan, however, wasn't just about roundabout jabs but a full frontal assault:

While PATCO represented a relatively small number of workers, the Reagan administration made crushing the union a high priority.

Reagan called for hundreds of controllers to be arrested and jailed, fired some 11,500 workers and banned them for life from air traffic control. This left just 3,400 experienced controllers on the job, a dangerously low number--but a situation that the Reagan administration was willing to risk in order to teach PATCO a lesson.

Note the "dangerously low number" part, it reveals that his outward commitment to keep essential government services functioning (one would assume safely) above all else was a lie.

[cloudbase]

7. PATCO was an affiliate of

MEBA, the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association, and I am a former MEBA official. Jesse Calhoon, the MEBA president at the time, warned PATCO that this was not an action that they'd win, and urged patience. PATCO struck anyway, and the rest is history.

[CreekDog]

9. federal employees have no legal right to strike

so losing one's job, though crappy, was a predictable outcome.

bad move on the part of that union, malpractice i would argue.

[rug]

12. There was no legal right to strike before the first time workers struck.

[MercutioATC]

14. True, but federal workers are contractually and legally PROHIBITED from striking.

There's a difference.

[rug]

15. The workers at Homestead were also PROHIBITED from striking.

And the owners were very pleased to call in the government, which was equally pleased to enforce the owners' property rights.

[ogneopasno]

13. Ah, PATCO, who endorsed Reagan when he ran. Unions should learn from this, and stop endorsing

now.