Silver Anniversary Without Any Silver

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) strike. That's when 14,000 air traffic controllers walked off the job, based on lies they were told by their union leadership and certain members of congress. It cost all of them their jobs. All of them, that is, except the leaders. MEBA took care of the PATCO leadership, finding them jobs managing resorts and country clubs on the east coast.
From the standpoint of a psychological experiment in mass hysteria, the PATCO strike would make a great Doctoral thesis: "How 14,000 intelligent human beings were manipulated to such an extent that they participated in an illegal strike that cost them their jobs - especially since few of them felt any significant animosity toward their employer, the FAA."
I was lucky. I was functioning in a staff position as the strike deadline approached. It was the union's rule that controllers in staff positions had to suspend their membership. PATCO's rule may have saved my career.
I couldn't attend the union meetings prior to the strike, but I always found out about them the next day. PATCO was telling the controllers:
"Sure, you're happy here in the mid-west, but the controllers on the east coast are working at understaffed facilities, with outdated procedures and failing equipment. The FAA won't do anything about it unless controllers all across the country stick together."
"All your life you've been part of a team - from little league to boy scouts and the military - now you're on one of the most important teams in the country. This is no time to quit being a team player."
"The FAA may fire a few controllers after the strike just to make a point, but we have enough money in our strike fund to cover their salaries and benefits until retirement age."
"Congress is ready to step in and support the controllers, but they don't want to intercede until AFTER a strike actually occurs. That way it will look like they're doing it for the country, not in support of unions"
"When PATCO goes on strike, the Canadian and European controllers will go on strike too."
"The country will be paralyzed! The FAA will have no choice but to return to the bargaining table."
All lies.
The first thing the airlines did was sue PATCO for lost revenue, so a judge seized all their assets. PATCO was broke within 24 hours of the walkout.
Congress did nothing.
As I recall, a few Canadian controllers tried to walk out but the vast majority did nothing. I don't think any European controllers supported PATCO.
The FAA had a contingency plan all worked out with the airlines months in advance. The strike slowed operations down, but came no where close to paralyzing the country.
In spite of all the evidence against them, the controllers still believed the threats and lies their leaders were telling them:
"If you go back now, you'll regret it when the rest of us come back!"
"Your career is already black-balled for walking out. Your only hope is to stick together. The system will fall apart, wait and see. After there are a couple of mid-air collisions, the public will demand that the FAA meet our demands and take us back."
Reagan fired them instead.
I was interviewed by the local newspaper a couple of days after the strike. I told the reporter that I couldn't imagine that the FAA would support firing the controllers. I said it would be like the airlines firing all their pilots then try to replace them by hiring people off the street and sending them off to flight school. I said it would take years to hire and train 14,000 new controllers.
My interview wasn't published. I don't know why.
Some of the best controllers in the country were reduced to bagging groceries or selling insurance while they scrambled to put their lives back together. It was a terrible waste of training and talent. I blame both PATCO and the FAA, but mainly PATCO.
One card the FAA had up its sleeve that I didn't foresee was "borrowing" military controllers, primarily from air force bases around the country, to supplement the workforce until replacements started entering the system. Many were offered "early out" options if they agreed to work for the FAA. Many did. That's one of the main reasons the system kept operating.
Ironically, many of those military guys, the ones who helped put the final few nails in PATCO's coffin, were the ones who spearheaded the formation of a new union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) which was chartered just 5 years later, in 1986.
And what's the FAA/NATCA relationship like today? Well, contract negotiations broke down. The FAA declared an impasse. Congress failed to order the FAA back to the negotiating table. The FAA is thumbing its nose at NATCA and NATCA is preparing its next move in retaliation.
Unhappy anniversary.