The seeds of the Professional Air Traffic Controller (PATCO) strike were sown long before the strike began on August 3, 1981. PATCO was founded in 1968, and from the beginnings of the union, its members hoped to improve their current work situation under the FAA. It is important to note that as a union composed of federal employees, PATCO was not allowed to go on strike or else suffer civil and criminal penalties. Between 1970 and 1980 PATCO was under the leadership of union president John F. Leyden, during this time PATCO made significant gains. Leyden’s leadership actively encouraged cooperation with the FAA and discouraged illegal acts by PATCO members. In 1980, Robert Poli became the new president of PATCO. Poli held radically different views than Leyden, he favored a militant approach to negotiations with the FAA. He believed that the system would be nearly impossible to run without PATCO. On August 3, 1981 after 7 months of unsuccessful bargaining approximately 12,500 of PATCO’s 17,500 employees went on strike. An outraged President Reagan ordered the strikers to return to work or be permanently banned from any form of future federal employment. Following this threat 11,350 PATCO workers gave up their jobs (Shostak, 2009). On August 17, 1981 the FAA began hiring new workers (Schalch). PATCO struggled to survive into 1982. The majority of the union’s finances were drained by massive fines. Members of the union demonstrated fierce loyalty and continued to send dues as the were able throughout 1982. However this was insufficient to save PATCO, and the union was decertified in the U.S. Court of appeals on June 11, 1982 (McCartin, 2011). On June 19, 1987 the NATCA was certified as the sole bargaining grou... ... middle of paper ... ... as president (McCartin, 2006). Works Cited McCartin, Joseph. “Collision Course: How Reagan Broke PATCO to Create the ‘Brotherhood of the Downwardly Mobile.’” Social Policy 41.4 (2011): 15-21. Academic OneFile. Web. 2 May 2012. - - -. “A Historian’s Perspective on the PATCO Strike, its Legacy, and its Lessons.” Employee Responsibilities & Rights Journal 18.3 (2006): 215-222. Academic OneFile. Web. 2 May 2012. Schalch, Kathleen. “1981 Strike Leaves Legacy for American Workers.” National Public Radio. N.p., 3 Aug. 2006. Web. 1 May 2012. . Shostak, Arthur. “PATCO’s 1981 Strike.” Labor Studies Journal 34.2 (2009): 149-158. Academic OneFile. Web. 2 May 2012. - - -. “Unhappy 25th Anniversary: The PATCO Strike in Retrospective.” New Labor Forum 15.3 (2006): 75-82. Academic OneFile. Web. 2 May 2012.
This strike was a battle over several issues. One factor that escalated the strike intensity was the pensions battle. Billons of dollars in pensions were on the line. The Teamste...
To conclude this analysis on the basis of the labor’s extensive history, Sloane & Witney (2010) propose, “it is entirely possible that labor’s remarkable staying power has been because of the simple fact that to many workers, from the nineteenth century to the present, there really has been no acceptable substitute for collective bargaining as a means of maintaining and improving employment conditions” (p.80). In the end, it is important to anticipate unions and employers presently work together to find solutions that will enhance collective bargaining strategies and practices to serve the interest of both parties.
The "Reaganomics" - "The 'Reaganomics'" Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association of Philadelphia, n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Life in the early 1900’s wasn’t easy. Competition for jobs was at an all time high, especially in New York City. Immigrants were flooding in and needed to find work fast, even if that meant in the hot, overcrowded conditions of garment factories. Conditions were horrid and disaster was inevitable, and disaster did strike in March, 1911. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York set on fire, killing 146 workers. This is an important event in US history because it helped accomplish the tasks unions and strikes had tried to accomplish years earlier, It improved working conditions in factories nationwide and set new safety laws and regulations so that nothing as catastrophic would happen again. The workplace struggles became public after this fire, and the work industry would never remain the same again.
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike that are still important today. Was striking a proper means of getting what the workers wanted? Were there better means of petitioning their grievances? Was government intervention constitutional? All these questions were raised by the Pullman Strike.
against their employers, employees were able to go on strike and prove a point. Some
Eventually, the workers set aside their inhabitations and voted 373 to 427 in favor of the union. When asked, “What are you gonna do now?” Norma Rae said, “live – what else?” The question that the workers at the O.P. Henley Mill were faced with was not, where to work. They had the freedom to choose their employer. The workforce learned that they did not need to be trapped in an insufficient working environment and that by forming a union they could manipulate the parameters set by the Mill Company, to meet their requests.
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) think that teacher’s salaries were lower than other workers in other private company, the service, or some of the organization. Government reduced the budget of the education through cutting down the salaries and dismissing a number of employees. Teachers began to negotiating their safeguards even to rise the strike.
The Pullman Porters were able to finally come to collective bargaining with their employer. Before this class I was not sure what this meant but as I heard in the video at the museum of this accomplishment, I was able to understand that the Pullman Porters representatives and their employers' representatives had to negotiate terms and conditions of their employment and dictate them in a contract with respect to wages, hours, and working
Thesis The Progressive Era and the New Deal Era had a significant amount of similarities with policies and programs to reform the American society and improve lives and fight poverty in America. Although the Progressive and New Deal Era had many similarities, there were still differences between them. Both the Progressive and the New Deal Era’s main goal was to improve American society. Both of the Progressive and New Deal’s accomplishments were rooted in the economic depression and the need for change before the era, the Guilded age in the 19th century for the Progressive era, and the Great Depression for the New Deal era. As the Guilded Age was ending, and the Progressive Era was emerging, most American families had to live with the harsh reality of sweatshops, slums, child labor, corruption in government and businesses, disease, and racial prejudice.
Ethics and the Unions - Part 1. Industrial Workers of the World. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.iww.org/en/history/library/Dolgoff/newbeginning/1
... Chicago decided to cut the wages of its workers. Due to Pullman’s monopoly on sleeping cars, the American Railway Union (ARU) was created by Eugene V. Debs. The ARU was ordered not to handle the sleeping cars. Railroad officials saw this boycott as a chance to break up the union. The ARU spread the strike all throughout the country which resulted in the disruptance of US mail. President Cleveland sent in troops to cease the strike with the help of Attorney Olney. The ARU was stopped and Debs was put in jail. The corporation won once again, but this time with the power of the government and its arbitrary power over corporation rule.
Flanagan, R. J. (2005). Has Management Strangled U.S. Unions? Journal of Labor Research, 26(1), 33-63.
The laws and regulations surrounding Industrial Relations since the 1900’s have, at each reform, placed tighter constraints on the amount of power unions are able to exert. The reforms have also radically increased managerial prerogative, through an increased use of individual bargaining, contracts and restrictions imposed on unions (Bray and Waring, 2006). Bray and W...
Labor relations emerged as response towards combating the economic unrest that accompanied the 1930 Great depression. At this period, massive unemployment, decreasing salary and wages, and over competition for jobs despite poor working conditions, was being experience; especially in the US. In turn employees were aggravated and therefore resorted to labor strike that often escalated to violence. To avoid such incident that could potentially harm further an ailing economy, the US government set precedent by passing their first related Labor relationship act, also referred to as the Wagner act. This act excluded public sector and some employees in the informal sector, farm workers to be specific. However, the progressive change in business and labor environment, necessitated changes in the labor laws to ensure they are more inclusive (Haywood & Sijtsma, 2000).