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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that shines a light on the highs and lows

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Speaker 1: of everyday history. I'm Gabe Lucier, and in this episode,

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Speaker 1: we're talking about a watershed moment in American labor politics,

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Speaker 1: the ill fated PATCO strike that left the nation's air

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Speaker 1: traffic controllers throughound. The day was August fifth, nineteen eighty one.

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Speaker 1: President Ronald Reagan fired more than eleven thousand air traffic controllers.

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Speaker 1: His executive action was a rather extreme response to a

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Speaker 1: union strike that had been called two days earlier. The

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Speaker 1: Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, or PATCO, had spent the

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Speaker 1: last six months negotiating for a better contract with the

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Speaker 1: Federal Aviation Administration. Union members had sought to raise their

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Speaker 1: pay and shorten their work week in hopes of addressing

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Speaker 1: ongoing concerns about on the job stress. However, the FAA's

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Speaker 1: forty million dollar counter offer was far short of the

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Speaker 1: seven hundred and seventy million dollar package that the union

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Speaker 1: had proposed. Unable to reach an agreement, the majority of

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Speaker 1: PATCO members, nearly thirteen thousand people, went on strike on

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Speaker 1: August third, leaving no one to monitor or guide the

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Speaker 1: movement of the nation's aircraft. President Reagan responded to the

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Speaker 1: turmoil that same day, warning the strikers that if they

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Speaker 1: didn't return to work within forty eight hours, they'd be

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Speaker 1: fired and banned for life from federal service. Many labor

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Speaker 1: leaders were taken aback by Reagan's severe reaction, especially since

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Speaker 1: Patco had been one of the few unions to endorse

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Speaker 1: his candidacy during the nineteen eight eight presidential campaign. The

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Speaker 1: former movie star had once been a friend to unions

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Speaker 1: in his former life. He had even served as the

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Speaker 1: president of the Screen Actors Guild. Yet when the nation's

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Speaker 1: air traffic controllers went on strike, Reagan declared it a

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Speaker 1: quote peril to national safety. That language was taken verbatim

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Speaker 1: from the Taft Hartley Act, a nineteen forty seven law

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Speaker 1: that restricted the powers of labor unions and barred government

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Speaker 1: workers from striking in cases when it would threaten national

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Speaker 1: health or security. Reagan also pointed to a sworn affidavit

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Speaker 1: that each controller had signed when they accepted their job.

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Speaker 1: It said, quote, I am not participating in any strike

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Speaker 1: against the government of the United States or any agency thereof,

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Speaker 1: and I will not so participate while an employee of

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Speaker 1: the Government of the United States or any agency thereof.

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Speaker 1: After laying out the evidence against them, President Reagan went

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Speaker 1: on to say that those on strike quote, are in

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Speaker 1: violation of the law, and if they do not report

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Speaker 1: for work within forty eight hours, they have forfeited their

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Speaker 1: jobs and will be terminated. Two days later, roughly thirteen

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Speaker 1: hundred controllers crossed the picket line, while the remaining eleven thousand,

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Speaker 1: three hundred or so remained on strike. True to his word,

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Speaker 1: President Reagan fired everyone who had ignored his order, and

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Speaker 1: to really drive his point home, he also banned them

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Speaker 1: from ever being re hired by the FAA. This sudden

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Speaker 1: mass termination of federal employees slowed commercial air travel for

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Speaker 1: several months, with some seven thousand canceled flights on the

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Speaker 1: first day alone. Still, the system didn't grind to a halt,

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Speaker 1: as the striking workers had predicted, because the FAA already

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Speaker 1: had a backup plan in place. The controllers who had

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Speaker 1: returned to their posts were joined by about three thousand

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Speaker 1: of their supervisor along with another thousand controllers on loan

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Speaker 1: from the military. Their combined efforts kept America's commercial air

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Speaker 1: towers running and with surprising efficiency too. Before long, about

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Speaker 1: eighty percent of passenger flights were operating as scheduled, while

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Speaker 1: air freight was hardly affected at all. The replacement team

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Speaker 1: bought the government some time while a new crop of

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Speaker 1: air traffic controllers completed an accelerated course of training. The

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Speaker 1: hiring process began just two weeks later, but it would

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Speaker 1: be years before staffing levels returned to their pre strike peak,

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Speaker 1: and Reagan's ban on re hiring the strike participants would

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Speaker 1: remain in place until nineteen ninety three, when it was

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Speaker 1: lifted by President Bill Clinton. On October twenty second, nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty one, the Federal Labor Relations Authority decertified pat CO,

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Speaker 1: marking the first time that such action had ever been

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Speaker 1: taken against a federal union. F A few years later,

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Speaker 1: the new hires formed a new union, the National Air

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Speaker 1: Traffic Controllers Association, or NATKA. The organization continued to fight

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Speaker 1: against many of the same problems as PATCO, including understaffing,

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Speaker 1: low pay, and high stress levels, but its members made

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Speaker 1: clear that they weren't willing to risk another strike after

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Speaker 1: seeing what had happened to their predecessors, and they weren't

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Speaker 1: the only union workers who felt that way. In the past,

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Speaker 1: it was considered bad form for employers to fire their

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Speaker 1: striking workers, even though it was well within their rights

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Speaker 1: to do so, but Reagan's handling of the Patco strike

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Speaker 1: changed the public sentiment. To be clear, the mass firing

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Speaker 1: was controversial in some circles, but according to polls, the

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Speaker 1: majority of citizens had sided with the president, not the union.

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Speaker 1: That lack of support was likely because of the disruption

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Speaker 1: the Patcos strike had caused during the summer vacation season. Suddenly,

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Speaker 1: to the average American, strikers were no longer the sympathetic ones.

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Speaker 1: They were the selfish rule flaunterers inconveniencing the rest of

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Speaker 1: the country just to get their way. Employers were quick

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Speaker 1: to capitalize on that shifting public perception, and following Reagan's lead,

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Speaker 1: they got a lot tougher with their unions. Some companies

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Speaker 1: even started provoking their employees to go on strike so

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Speaker 1: that they could fire them and replace them with non

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Speaker 1: union workers. Tactics like that had a chilling effect on

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Speaker 1: the annual number of labor strikes in America. Before the

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Speaker 1: Patco strike, there had been an average of three hundred

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Speaker 1: per year, but in nineteen eighty two the numbers started dropping,

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Speaker 1: and by the twenty tens, the US was averaging just

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Speaker 1: sixteen major strikes per year. President Reagan's actions demonstrated his

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Speaker 1: commitment to upholding federal labor law. It also signaled to

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Speaker 1: the nation's allies and adversaries, including the Soviet Union, that

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Speaker 1: the US government was capable of swift, decisive action under pressure. Still,

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Speaker 1: there's no denying that it also helped ship away the

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Speaker 1: power of unions and, by extension, the power of the

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Speaker 1: working class, a troubling trend in American politics that we're

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Speaker 1: still grappling with today. I'm gay, Bluesyay, and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: now know a little more about history today than you

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Speaker 1: did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show,

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Speaker 1: you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: TDI HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions,

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Speaker 1: feel free to send them my way by writing to

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Speaker 1: this Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Kasby Bias

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Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.

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Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another Day

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Speaker 1: in History class. I don't think to sl