Patco Strike

[PRINCESS KIDAGAKASH]

The PATCO strikers were willing to put everything on the line,to fight for what they believed in. Will the TWU ever fight for anything but CONCESSIONS and GIVEBACKS? Will the TWU ever take a stand for anything, or will it continue to be a PROCOMPANY subsiduary of AMR?

 

[Nightwatch]

TWU:THE UNION THAT INVENTED CONCESSIONS! Why RIDE the BUS? When you can FLY with AMFA!

You have to fly with AMFA to get your employment back, it takes wings to get to Singapore.

 

[PRINCESS KIDAGAKASH]

Another TWU misinformation specialist spewing TWU garbage. How come you don't talk about the IAM sending the work to Singapore? It was the IAM that allowed that to happen, not AMFA!

 

[RUM@AA]

It always amazes me how one President could inflict such damage to what was once a strong labor movement. One man dealt labor such a blow that has resulted in spiraling membership and a serious credibility deficit.
One President, one man, and I don't mean Ronald Reagan.
That's right. Then AFL-CIO President Layne Kirkland had it within his power to boost the labor movement beyond belief. Instead he couldn't get past his political ideology and do the right thing.
Kirkland could have, no SHOULD HAVE picked up the phone and instructed every pilot, flight attendant, bus driver, truck driver etc. to stay home until PATCO got what they needed. BUT NO. You see, PATCO was guilty of the ultimate sin. They were... dare I say it... Independent. Un-affiliated. They refused to anti-up the Millions of dollars so Kirkland and his elitist buds could rub elbows with Washington muckity-mucks and hookers.
So Kirkland let PATCO fall.
I guarantee that Sweeney, Trumpka, Hall and the rest of today’s Socialist labor extortionists would do the same thing to AMFA or any other independent.
Labor be damned.

 

[j7915]

It always amazes me how one President could inflict such damage to what was once a strong labor movement. One man dealt labor such a blow that has resulted in spiraling membership and a serious credibility deficit.
One President, one man, and I don't mean Ronald Reagan.
That's right. Then AFL-CIO President Layne Kirkland had it within his power to boost the labor movement beyond belief. Instead he couldn't get past his political ideology and do the right thing.
Kirkland could have, no SHOULD HAVE picked up the phone and instructed every pilot, flight attendant, bus driver, truck driver etc. to stay home until PATCO got what they needed. BUT NO. You see, PATCO was guilty of the ultimate sin. They were... dare I say it... Independent. Un-affiliated. They refused to anti-up the Millions of dollars so Kirkland and his elitist buds could rub elbows with Washington muckity-mucks and hookers.
So Kirkland let PATCO fall.
I guarantee that Sweeney, Trumpka, Hall and the rest of today’s Socialist labor extortionists would do the same thing to AMFA or any other independent.
Labor be damned.

How many times does it have to be repeated that the PATCO members were Federal employees and their strike was illegal?????

Is this the kind of fantasy world one can look forward to withAMFA representation????

 

[Buck]

If the strike was illegal, then why is it Reagan's fault?

If there was no way that affiliated labor could help the members of PATCO as a union, then at least let the individuals know that the unions were not going to back them. By remaining silent, the AFL-CIO has virtually destroyed itself.

What is the total labor percentage now ----> 13%?

The AFL-CIO allowed labor to union bust itself and now the TWU only knows one direction and that is back wards. Concession after concession after concession, the French labor unions have more fortitude than the TWU or the AFL-CIO.

 

[PRINCESS KIDAGAKASH]

J7915, almost all of the gains of the unions in the early days were because of "illegal" strikes! Typical TWU supporter! So scared and afraid to do anything!

The PATCO strike is an example of why unions should not be giving funds to the DEMOCRATS or REPUBLICANS. The AFL-CIO supported CARTER administration had a well developed plan to replace the controllers with scabs,if they went out on strike before Reagan even was elected. The controllers knew of this plan and that's why they endorsed Reagan for president. I think we have all seen the infamous letter Reagan sent PATCO telling them that he would help them out, if they voted for him. Of course Reagan got elected and he did help the controllers out, by firing them that is!

PATCO went out on strike because of the following issues: A starting ATC was paid $15,000 yr. in 1981, after seven years an ATC might be making $29,000 yr. An ATC was expected to work an 8+hour shift without breaks for sometimes 60+ hrs a week with no overtime pay. The US was only country in the world that forced it's ATC personnel to work the hours that it did and this was the major issue that PATCO went out on strike for. PATCO was also fighting for new equipment in the control towers to make air travel safer! ATC is considered one of the most stressfull jobs in the world and in 1980 the FAA had an 80% turnover rate with very few ATC's making it to retirement without "burning out".

 

[Nightwatch]

J7915, almost all of the gains of the unions in the early days were because of "illegal" strikes! Typical TWU supporter! So scared and afraid to do anything!

The PATCO strike is an example of why unions should not be giving funds to the DEMOCRATS or REPUBLICANS. The AFL-CIO supported CARTER administration had a well developed plan to replace the controllers with scabs,if they went out on strike before Reagan even was elected. The controllers knew of this plan and that's why they endorsed Reagan for president. I think we have all seen the infamous letter Reagan sent PATCO telling them that he would help them out, if they voted for him. Of course Reagan got elected and he did help the controllers out, by firing them that is!

PATCO went out on strike because of the following issues: A starting ATC was paid $15,000 yr. in 1981, after seven years an ATC might be making $29,000 yr. An ATC was expected to work an 8+hour shift without breaks for sometimes 60+ hrs a week with no overtime pay. The US was only country in the world that forced it's ATC personnel to work the hours that it did and this was the major issue that PATCO went out on strike for. PATCO was also fighting for new equipment in the control towers to make air travel safer! ATC is considered one of the most stressfull jobs in the world and in 1980 the FAA had an 80% turnover rate with very few ATC's making it to retirement without "burning out".

And your point is what? if AMFA supported the AFL-CIO from it's conception then you would also, typical AMFA supporter.

 

[Thrustfuljet]

the French labor unions have more fortitude than the TWU or the AFL-CIO.

OOHHH, That hurt.

 

[j7915]

J7915, almost all of the gains of the unions in the early days were because of "illegal" strikes! Typical TWU supporter! So scared and afraid to do anything!

The PATCO strike is an example of why unions should not be giving funds to the DEMOCRATS or REPUBLICANS. The AFL-CIO supported CARTER administration had a well developed plan to replace the controllers with scabs,if they went out on strike before Reagan even was elected. The controllers knew of this plan and that's why they endorsed Reagan for president. I think we have all seen the infamous letter Reagan sent PATCO telling them that he would help them out, if they voted for him. Of course Reagan got elected and he did help the controllers out, by firing them that is!

PATCO went out on strike because of the following issues: A starting ATC was paid $15,000 yr. in 1981, after seven years an ATC might be making $29,000 yr. An ATC was expected to work an 8+hour shift without breaks for sometimes 60+ hrs a week with no overtime pay. The US was only country in the world that forced it's ATC personnel to work the hours that it did and this was the major issue that PATCO went out on strike for. PATCO was also fighting for new equipment in the control towers to make air travel safer! ATC is considered one of the most stressfull jobs in the world and in 1980 the FAA had an 80% turnover rate with very few ATC's making it to retirement without "burning out".

Which strikes were illegal????

Against Ford, GM, Pullman, the varius steel mills, and mining companies????

PATCO was federal employees, and federal employees sign an greement not to engage in strikes.

PATCO is an example why labor should turn one of the parties or maybe a viable third party into a strong supporter of (middle)class and blue collar labor. The french can sit on the runway and keep their jobs.

What would happen to US workers who dared to interfere with flight operations? Patriot Act, room and board at Gitmo for an extended stay?

 

[PRINCESS KIDAGAKASH]

The point is NIGHTWATCH. The "mighty" AFL-CIO failed to act when action was needed! The PATCO strike was a major turning point for the worse for all labor unions in all industries,especially the airline industry!

J7915, trying to convert the DEMOCRATS or REPUBLICANS into a real labor friendly political party is an impossible task! They both are corrupt to the core from big business donations and kickbacks! Your idea about forming a political party for labor is a good idea, only problem is:Organizations like the AFL-CIO are too corrupted by bribes and kickbacks to head up the effort. Check your union history J7915. Many union people got hurt,some died,some went to jail, fighting for things you take for granted today. Using your logic about the PATCO strike,are you saying the American revolutionary war was "illegal"?

 

[Decision 2004]

PATCO was one of the few unions, along with the Air Line Pilots Association, to endorse Reagan in the 1980 presidential election. But when Reagan won the White House in 1980, it was Corporate America, not his union endorsers, that he was eager to prove himself to.

While Reagan launched the attack on PATCO, the previous administration of Democrat Jimmy Carter prepared the ground. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under Carter conducted a management campaign of harassment against union controllers. And 12 months before the government’s contract with PATCO was set to expire, Carter formed a "Management Strike Contingency Force" to prepare for a walkout--including the use of scabs.

Reagan happily finished what Carter started. In February 1981, a month before contract negotiations began, the FAA and the Justice Department drew up a list of PATCO militants to arrest. Just four hours into the strike, Reagan got on TV to threaten strikers that they would be terminated if they didn’t get back to work in 48 hours.

Then the movie actor-president told reporters a story about an unidentified striker who supposedly resigned from PATCO, saying, "How can I ask my kids to obey the law if I don’t?" But PATCO members stood strong.

On the first day of the strike on August 3, 85 percent of union controllers went out. More than 6,000 flights out of a daily load of about 14,000 were immediately canceled. Two days later, Reagan fired the striking controllers.

During the walkout, the FAA was able to keep air traffic at 70 percent of pre-strike levels, largely thanks to its scabbing operation. But the administration also depended on something controllers hadn’t anticipated--total disregard for public safety. According to the union, 481 near misses were reported in the first year of the strike--compared to 10 reported in the 10 years before the walkout.

The Reagan administration used everything in its arsenal to teach PATCO--and every other union--a lesson. Militants were arrested, jailed and fined. Some PATCO members with federal mortgages lost their homes. Others were denied when they tried to adopt children.

The union was fined millions of dollars, and its $3.5 million strike fund was frozen. Eventually, the government succeeded in decertifying PATCO.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

UNION LEADERS had a chance to show what solidarity was all about. But they passed it by. AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland denounced Reagan’s attack on PATCO. But he also sent a letter to AFL-CIO affiliates, discouraging them from taking any type of strike action in solidarity.

"I personally do not think that the trade union movement should undertake anything that would represent punishing, injuring or inconveniencing the public at large for the sins or the transgressions of the Reagan administration," Kirkland wrote.

Striker Terry Duffy had a response for Kirkland, published years later: "For those of you who think it is revolutionary for government workers to strike, I tell you that this is the only country in the free world that does not allow government workers to strike. I know a strike causes inconveniences. It is supposed to."

William Winpisinger, president of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and a self-described "socialist," could have dealt a serious blow to Reagan. If IAM members who serviced the planes had walked out, airports across the country would have been shut down.

But Winpisinger refused to call out IAM members, citing the IAM’s no-strike clause with the airlines. Other union leaders never mobilized the solidarity that they could have--with a few saying that PATCO got its just desserts for supporting Reagan.

Some union locals supported the PATCO strikers. "I have nothing bad to say about any of the local unions--they’ve been great with us," Ed Zacovic, president of PATCO Local 203 in Oberlin, Ohio, told Socialist Worker in 1982.

"But where I have my biggest problem is with the hierarchy in Washington. They’re just like congressmen and senators. All they care about is themselves and the image they’re going to portray to people... Lane Kirkland didn’t go out to the grassroots to see exactly how they felt about PATCO and our strike. I think that if he would have, he would have found out that the people would have been behind us, and something would have been done."

Controllers in Canada walked out briefly in solidarity with PATCO before they were threatened with huge fines and suspensions. And the sentiment existed to take on the bosses in the U.S.

The AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Day march in Washington, D.C., in September 1981, a few weeks after the PATCO strike began, drew half a million union members. The AFL-CIO gave the rally its name after the mass union movement Solidarnosc (Solidarity) that was shaking Poland’s bosses.

The hypocrisy of Reagan--who championed free trade unions in "communist" Poland while crushing a free trade union in the U.S.--was plain to see.

But union leaders missed the opportunity to call for solidarity with PATCO from the podium--and spent most of their speeches endorsing Democrats in upcoming congressional elections.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

YEARS OF relying on a strategy of negotiations and lobbying Democrats left the labor movement ill-prepared to help PATCO take on Reagan--and powerless against the bosses’ unrelenting attack on workers that followed.

In a 1982 Business Week survey of 400 executives, one in five agreed that, "Although we don’t need concessions, we are taking advantage of the bargaining climate to ask for them." In 1983, a third of workers with new contracts had agreed to wage cuts. By 1987, three-quarters of contracts covering 1,000 workers or more included concessions.

Discounting a few brave and bitter battles, such as the 1985 Hormel meatpackers strike, union leaders failed to take on the bosses. By 1987, strike levels fell to the lowest number since the unions’ no-strike pledge during the Second World War.

For Reagan and the bosses, PATCO was the test case to set an example for the rest of the labor movement. "It was important to break PATCO because, although we may have had only 13,000 members, we were the strongest union in the federal sector," Local 203’s Zacovic said at the time.

"We questioned everything they said, and they didn’t like it. They didn’t like us talking about a strike, and they thought that if they can hold us down, they’ll hold down all the workers in the federal sector."

Our side needs to learn the right lessons from the PATCO strike. First, concessions only weaken us. And second, solidarity is our only bargaining chip. Despite the devastating defeat and ruined lives, few PATCO members regretted the strike.

"Given the same set of circumstances at any given time, I would do it again," said one striker in 1984. "There is no doubt that history will prove PATCO was right in their actions. Maybe legally wrong, but surely morally right."

 

[Steve Connell]

Same BS here... nice use of Google!

 

[Decision 2004]

Same BS here... nice use of Google!

The TRUTH is always called "BS" in your mind isn't it Steve?


It is very interesting how your mind works. The TRUTH is "BS" and the TWU LIES are Gospel?

If you could ever once look past your personality conflicts and read the truth for what it is, your daily life would have more humility and your heart would be at peace, instead of filled with fear and anger!

 

[Nightwatch]

If you could ever once look past your personality conflicts and read the truth for what it is, your daily life would have more humility and your heart would be at peace, instead of filled with fear and anger!

You sound like a "grasshopper". Review your posts, then read the one I just quoted, perhaps "grasshopper" should take his own advice to heart.

As a new member to this board I have noticed quite a bit of animosity to your ramblings, does Steve Connell bother you so? Does he work with you? Do other organizers to AMFA post here?