Special AFL-CIO Event Will Explore 30-Year Impact of PATCO Strike

Thirty years ago, Ronald Reagan fired the nation’s air traffic controllers after they walked out on strike, signaling an escalation in the war on workers and the middle class that is still being waged three decades later.

On Wednesday, Dec. 14, at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., Georgetown University associate history professor Joseph McCartin will discuss his new book on the PATCO strike, Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike That Changed America.

McCartin will be joined by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Kenneth Moffett, who headed up the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service during the strike, as well as several former PATCO members.

The event is free and gets under way at 2:30 p.m. EST. Copies of Collision Course will be available for sale and a book signing will follow the event.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/12/09/special-afl-cio-event-will-explore-30-year-impact-of-patco-strike/



There are some very good comments, at this site, on this article.

K&R!

the PATCO strike. I remember it well and the rank and file understood at the time what the impact would be and would have backed them up if we had the leadership behind us.

did any of our unions do? The largest union at the time were the Teamsters and they were in bed with the republicans. I remember it clearly. I was in the Teamsters and our leadership (if you want to call them that) did or said nothing.