- Playing
- Labor's Unhappy Anniversary
- From
- Dick Meister
It was 30 years ago this month that the virulently anti-union President Ronald Reagan's firing of striking air traffic controllers sent labor tumbling into a steep decline it's still struggling to reverse.
More from Dick Meister
Good News For Our Neediest Workers
(04:03)
From: Dick Meister
Commentary: More than 850,000 minimum wage workers in 10 states will be getting raises in the new year.
Home Care Workers Need Presidential Help
(02:21)
From: Dick Meister
It's time for President Obama to help the country's home care workers.
Many Profit From Bowl Games. But Not The Players
(04:01)
From: Dick Meister
Commentary: Student athletes get very little of the millions generated by college football's bowl games.
A Free Choice For US Workers
(04:13)
From: Dick Meister
Commentary: It's time to enact a proposed law that would give workers the absolute right to unionization.
We All Need A Higher Minimum Wage
(04:33)
From: Dick Meister
Raising the minimum wage should be a key post-election priority.
Labor's Major Election Challenge
(02:41)
From: Dick Meister
Commentary: Labor faces its greatest election challenge in California.
Missing A Vital Election Message
(03:13)
From: Dick Meister
Repealing the union-crippling Taft-Hartley Act should have been a prime issue throughout the election campaign.
A Farm Worker Champion
(02:56)
From: Dick Meister
Commentary: John Steinbeck was a great champion of farm labor.
We're Providing The Wrong Kind Of New Jobs
(03:01)
From: Dick Meister
Commentary: Although we're recovering from the Great Recession, most of the new jobs are low-paying, non-union jobs.
Related Pieces
Piece Description
It was 30 years ago this month that the virulently anti-union President Ronald Reagan's firing of striking air traffic controllers sent labor tumbling into a steep decline it's still struggling to reverse.
Broadcast History
none
Transcript
It was 30 years ago this month that Ronald Reagan struck the blow that sent the American labor movement tumbling into a decline it's still struggling to reverse.
Reagan, one of the most anti-labor presidents in history, set the decline in motion by firing 11,500 of the overworked and underpaid air traffic controllers whose work was essential to the operation of the world's most complex aviation system.
Reagan fired them because they dared respond to his administration's refusal to bargain fairly on a new contract by striking in violation of the law prohibiting strikes by federal employees. What's more, he also all but destroyed their union, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO).
Public and private employers everywhere treated Reagan's 1981 action as a signal to take an uncompromising stand against the unions that they had accepted and bargained with, however re...
Read the full transcript
Intro and Outro
INTRO:Commentator Dick Meister recalls a very unhappy day for labor.
OUTRO:Dick Meister is a long-time labor and political journalist.
