As the 48-hour deadline came to a close, striking controllers around the country gathered together with their families. SIMON: Reagan's threat and his 48-hour amnesty were scary to people like Ron Palmer. I think they are trying to use every intimidation factor that they can to get the controllers to go back to work. ROBERT E POLI: They're trying to break the union. Or, from the perspective of the union's president, who spoke on NPR that day. He was giving air traffic controllers who needed their jobs an option. Show up to work in the next 48 hours, or you're fired. The other thing was Reagan's threat from the Rose Garden podium. MALONE: So that was one thing working against the air traffic controller union's close-down-the-skies strategy.
According to Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis, the number of commercial airline flights has increased this morning from yesterday's 50% of normal to 75%. In much of the country, little clouds, great visibility, ideal if you're, say, a replacement air traffic controller suddenly asked to land a bunch of big planes.ĬARL KASELL: Good morning. SIMON: And that morning, a seemingly small thing happened that made a huge difference in U.S. No movement in the air controllers strike that has cut air traffic by almost half at the big airports. SIMON: Day 2 of the strike, America is dancing to this amazing 1980s MORNING EDITION theme song. But by the end of the day, nearly half of all scheduled flights had flown - no crashes. MALONE: The government was nervous, but on Day 1 of the strike, all these replacement air traffic controllers showed up to work. SIMON: They were putting air traffic control students through accelerated tracks, trying to get them ready.ĭEVINE: We had to try to go to people who retired to come back. We had to steal them from the military controllers. Donald Devine, Reagan's HR guy - he was part of this backup plan.ĭONALD DEVINE: We had to get more people. MALONE: The plan was if they could just find enough qualified people out in the world to cross picket lines and then climb up into those air traffic control towers, then maybe the planes could keep flying - or at least enough planes to show the strikers that they're not so irreplaceable after all. But the government had a card up its sleeve. JULIA SIMON: So this is Day 1 of the strike, and you might imagine that if the group of highly skilled people who are supposed to stop planes from crashing don't show up at work, that would essentially shut down the skies. RON PALMER: When he made that speech in that Rose Garden, I just felt betrayed, you know? You told us you were going to take care of this system and take care of us, and you didn't. If you don't get your butts in those little air traffic control towers in 48 hours. KENNY MALONE: Ron Palmer is watching this speech, watching this guy basically tell Ron, I don't care what kind of raise you and your colleagues want. Before the strike started, Palmer thought that Reagan was on his side. Reporters Kenny Malone and Julia Simon introduced us to one of the people who got fired on that day, Ron Palmer. INSKEEP: NPR's Planet Money produced a program about that event back in 2019. And that dealt a serious blow to the American labor movement.
And two days later, on this day 40 years ago, Reagan fired more than 11,000 of those who hadn't crossed the picket line.
Air traffic controller 3 editror professional#
The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association (ph), PATCO, was protesting what they considered to be unfair wages and long work hours. And if you were on an airplane at the time, they were the most important people in the world. INSKEEP: The union represented around 13,000 people. RONALD REAGAN: This morning at 7 a.m., the union representing those who man America's air traffic control facilities called a strike. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan faced a test.
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