PATCO's Legacy

Posted in Events  |  Tagged Collision Course

Wednesday, December 14
2:30 PM
AFL-CIO

Gompers Room
815 16th Street NW
Washington, DC

RSVP

When 12,000 U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan threatened that if they were not back on the job in 48 hours, they would be fired. Two days later, 11,000 of them, all members of PATCO, were terminated and permanently replaced. The PATCO strike not only changed the lives of those involved, it proved to be a key turning point in this nation for workers seeking a voice at their workplaces.

Thirty years later, former air traffic controllers joined historian and KI Executive Director Joseph A. McCartin for a special presentation of his book: Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers and the Strike that Changed America.

McCartin was joined by former PATCO members and by Kenneth Moffett, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service at the time of the PATCO strike.