What Happened to the Strike? PATCO Anniversary—Time to Take a Look

by Tula Connell, Aug 1, 2006

There are a few events in U.S. history that stand out as critical turning points for working people and their unions. In recent years, one of those occurred in 1981, after 12,000 air traffic controllers went on strike for a shorter workweek and higher pay. President Reagan gave the union, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), 48 hours to go back to work—or lose their jobs and their union. The 11,000 workers who stayed on strike lost both.

(In 1987, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) became the representative for federal air traffic controllers and now includes more than 14,500 members. In a bitter twist of Orwellian doublespeak, Congress in 1998 renamed Washington National Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.)

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the PATCO strike. Writing in a Chicago Tribune op-ed today, Georgetown University professor Joseph McCartin notes that since 1981, the number of strikes has significantly decreased. And for unions and working families, that fact does not bode well. Writes McCartin:

During labor’s heyday, American workers struck frequently and effectively. Between 1950 and 1980, the U.S. witnessed an average of more than 300 major work stoppages (each involving at least 1,000 workers) per year. But between 1982 and 2000 the annual average of stoppages plummeted to 46. Nor has it bottomed out yet. In this century, the average is under 30, less than one-tenth the 1970s rate.

When employers hold all the cards—hiring, firing, wages, benefits, job assignments—the strike over the years has been unions’ most effective tool for achieving fairness at the workplace. And unless unions can recover the strike, writes McCartin, “they may not reverse their slumping membership figures.”

A decrease in strikes affects more than union members—it’s an issue that concerns all America’s workers. McCartin, who is writing a book on the PATCO strike, notes that although no one likes strikes, which can cause inconvenience, in time

we may come to like today’s strike-free world even less well. For when workers lack the power to prod employers into bargaining with them, employers enjoy an advantage that too often translates into sagging real wages, reduced benefits and growing inequality for wage-earners. We cannot tolerate trends like these indefinitely.

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