More than A Labor Dispute: The PATCO Strike of 1981

Abstract

On August 3, 1981, 13,000 air traffic controllers walked off the job. Under US law, the strike was illegal. President Ronald Reagan ordered the strikers as a group to return to work; when they did not, he ordered individual strikers to return, and again they refused. Two days later the president fired the strikers. Reagan's action transformed relations between organized labor and American management, and created the worst turbulence to hit the American airways in recent history. “More Than a Labor Dispute” examines the work stoppage and aftermath through the eyes of two controllers and a pilot, all of whom worked during the strike.