Air traffic controllers have had a job that was necessary for keeping the nation running, they will direct flights to land intake off in airports all across the country. That is why in modern cases of government shutdowns, these people are still getting paid because of the necessity of their jobs. Some also say that the most recent government shutdown because of the Congress not wanting to pass the building of the wall, was stopped because Trump was not able to leave New York because of the traffic controllers were on strike.
This event was happening to Reagan in 1981 where the air traffic controllers noticed that they were necessary for millions of people to continue their daily lives and valued their work for more than they were getting paid. Because of this, they went on strike and nearly 1100 air traffic control workers were striking and a total of 7000 flights across the country were canceled during the height of the summer travel season.
Robert Poli, president of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), wanted for the wage increase of the workers to increase by 10,000 dollars a year. This was a huge jump for the government to have to pay, as these workers before were getting paid anywhere from $20,462 to $49,229 a year. Thinking that Reagan could do nothing if the Air Traffic Controllers strike, he also asked for their five-day, 40-hour workweek to a four-day, 32-hour workweeks. Overall putting in less working and increasing the pay.
Robert Poli overestimated the power and resources of the US government. They were able to rally together 3,000 supervisors joined 2,000 nonstriking controllers and 900 military controllers. And with this low amount of staff flights were still able to take off and 80% of the flights were operating normally. Reagan wanted to show that government workers should not be asking for crazy wage increases and said to have "imposed a lifetime ban on rehiring the strikers". Through this entire affair, PATCO was decertified and it showed a huge change for how the government was going to treat labor unions.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/05/reagan-fires-11-000-striking-air-traffic-controllers-aug-5-1981-241252
Wow I actually found this to be very informing. I never new that they wanted that much of a wage raise and breaks.I also find it interesting that even with this strike 80% of the flights were operational. A similar strike would be Memphis Sanitation Strike which wanted safer work environment for the workers.
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