Reaction from a Fired Controller

As people have a chance to read the book, I would like to provide room for them to share their reactions, particularly if they participated in or were directly affected by the events of 1981.  I received this e-mail today from Elliott Simons.  Elliott was a controller who served as the spokesperson for PATCO's local at Baltimore-Washington International Airport in 1981 and he lost his job for striking.  He has agreed to let me post this message and a link to an article he wrote explaining his actions back in 1981.  Perhaps others will want to also share their stories with me: jam6@georgetown.edu.  

Dr. McCartin,

I was vacationing when you did the Diane Rehm show, but someone sent me the link so I could listen to it.  Thank you for doing the research and writing the book.

Had I been listening that day I would not have been able to resist calling in with my anecdote: I joined the FAA in 1975, and new employees heard about the PATCO sickout right away to 'encourage' us to join the union.  I did, but when the stike talk began I was skeptical.  I attended a PATCO convention in Washington probably in early 1981, and I heard John Leyden say that 'even if PATCO got the required 80-percent participation for a strike it would not do so unless the political and economic conditions were right.'  That convinced me that this man knew what he was doing, and with those conditions I provided my support.  Then a couple of things happened.  First, Reagan

My Interview with Diane Rehm

To listen to the interview, click here.

Measuring Labor's Crisis: Unemployment Up, Strikes Down, Public Sector Unions Under Attack

My Labor Day commentary on the Oxford University Press blog can be found here.

With PATCO Veterans on a Night to Remember

Thirty years ago tonight, the final hours of PATCO's strike deadline ticked down. I had an opportunity to spend the evening with veterans of the 1981 walkout, members of PATCO, the revived remnant of the organization that struck thirty years ago. It was a most unusual gathering and it led to a rich discussion. Here is an excerpt of the text I wrote for my remarks to them:

Thank you. It is an honor to be here with all of you on what is really in some ways quite a solemn occasion. Thirty years ago, at around this hour you and your colleagues began to gather in your cluster meetings, as your negotiators sat down across the table from President Ronald Reagan’s representatives in the offices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Washington. Having now interviewed more than 100 of you, having spoken with members of your leadership then, the mediators, and the Reagan Administration’s key representatives, I can say that everyone concerned already knew at this time thirty years ago that what was about to happen could be momentous. But, of course, no one then knew exactly how momentous it would be.

Advance Comments on COLLISION COURSE

“The Air Traffic Controllers strike of 1981 was one of the most important struggles in American history, and by breaking the union, Ronald Reagan dealt a blow to the labor movement from which it has still not recovered. If you care about the labor movement, you need to read Collision Course—and even if you don’t, you’ll be transfixed by the drama of McCartin’s story-telling.”

—E. J. Dionne, syndicated columnist, author of Why Americans Hate Politics

“Collision Course is a powerfully moving account of one of the signal events in twentieth century labor history. With empathy and exquisite story-telling skill, McCartin captures a history with powerful resonance as we look to the future of collective bargaining."

—Alice Kessler-Harris, author of In Pursuit of Equity
“The signal event in the evisceration of the American middle class was Ronald Reagan’s breaking the air traffic controllers’ strike in 1981. In Collision Course, Joe McCartin brilliantly and compellingly tells this tragic tale, and situates it in the broader narrative of middle-class America’s long and sickening decline.”

—Harold Meyerson, Editor-at-Large of The American Prospect and op-ed columnist for The Washington Post.

“This brilliant book puts Joe McCartin’s prodigious talents on full display. From its harrowing opening to its elegiac conclusion, Collision Course exposes the toxic blend of economics, politics, and hubris that turned the 1981 air traffic controllers’ strike into one of the pivotal moments in recent American history.”

—Kevin Boyle, Ohio State University, National Book Award winning author of Arc of Justice

"By firing the air traffic controllers, and successfully replacing them, Reagan heralded the end of a political era when labor unions—and the workers they represented—were an integral part of the American social contract. Joseph McCartin tells the story in gripping detail. It’s must reading for anyone interested in the recent history of American politics and labor relations.”

—John B. Judis, co-author of The Emerging Democratic Majority