Reagan Fires PATCO Strikers: Union-Busting Era Begins

President Ronald Reagan fires 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who refused to return to work, permanently banning them from federal service. When 13,000 PATCO members went on strike August 3 seeking better pay, improved working conditions, and a reduced workweek, Reagan declared the strike a “peril to national safety” under the Taft-Hartley Act and gave strikers 48 hours to return. Despite having supported PATCO during his 1980 campaign, Reagan made good on his ultimatum, destroying the union and signaling to private employers that aggressive union-busting would face no consequences.

The PATCO firings normalized strike-breaking tactics across American industry. Major strikes plummeted from an average of 300 per year in previous decades to fewer than 30 annually by the 2000s. Large private employers like Phelps Dodge, Hormel, and International Paper followed Reagan’s example by hiring permanent striker replacements instead of negotiating with unions. The event marked a fundamental shift in the balance of power between labor and capital, inaugurating four decades of wage stagnation and declining union membership that contributed to massive wealth inequality.

Reagan’s message was clear: even federal employees with critical safety responsibilities could be permanently replaced if they challenged management authority. This precedent emboldened corporations to adopt increasingly aggressive anti-union strategies, from permanent replacement workers to captive-audience meetings to sophisticated union-avoidance consultants. The PATCO strike represented the beginning of the end for American labor power in the neoliberal era.