As part of the series ‘When Character Counted,’ we learn President Reagan stood firm during his first crisis in office—a testament to his strength of character.
On Aug. 3, 1981, more than 13,000 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) went on strike for higher wages, more benefits, and fewer hours in the workplace. Discarding an earlier agreement reached with the Federal Aviation Administration, the union now demanded a 100 percent increase for the lowest paid members’ salaries. They walked off the job confident that their strike, which would likely bring the nation to its knees, would be successful.
They were wrong.
On that same day, President Ronald Reagan confronted this crisis head-on by addressing the press and the American people from the Rose Garden. He pointed out that while he sympathized with strikes in the private sector—Reagan had led a 1960 strike as president of the Screen Actors Guild, which was affiliated with the AFL-CIO—strikes against the government were forbidden by law. Moreover, he noted that each of these employees, like other federal employees, had signed a sworn affidavit when entering government service that they would not at any time participate in a strike. By any measure, the strike was illegal.
Then Reagan delivered the words that shocked the strikers and the nation: “I must tell those who fail to report for duty this morning, they are in violation of the law and that if they do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated.”
On Aug. 5, 1981, true to his word, Reagan fired the 11,345 air traffic controllers who refused to heed his warning.
This move had potential dire consequences both for the nation and for the president. Some news commentators feared the collapse of U.S. air travel—many flights had already been canceled because of the strike. Moreover, PATCO was one of the few unions to endorse Reagan for his 1980 run at the presidency. The firings would likely widen the canyon separating unions from the Republican Party.
Instead, Reagan’s courageous and principled stand ended in triumph.
Air traffic control supervisors, employees who had chosen to return to work, and military personnel stepped into the breech left by the strikers and helped keep the country’s air travel up and flying. There were many flight delays and cancellations, but sooner than thought possible schedules returned to normal.
Additionally, many Democrats in the Congress closed ranks behind the president’s decision instead of playing politics. When transportation secretary Drew Lewis phoned Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) looking for support, the senator promised to bring other Democrats to the side of the president and did so. As Senator Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.) said, “He just developed a hell of a lot of respect for standing up and being counted, in Harry Truman style. You know what I mean? Right now, I think from that point on, the power centers in this town figured, here’s a guy you better take seriously.”
The American people also threw their support to the Reagan administration, with a majority approving of his decision.
View of air traffic control tower in the Airport. Gokhan Dogan/Shutterstock
Less visible at the time were the reactions from overseas, particularly from the Soviet Union. The strike was the first major crisis for the relatively new administration, and Reagan’s no-nonsense reaction doubtless caused leaders of the USSR to sit up and take note of the man they would be dealing with. In his online article, Cody Carlson cited these observations from former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan:
“The Soviet Union was watching. They saw how the American president dealt with a national security issue, saw that his rhetorical toughness could be matched by tough action. They absorbed this, and thought about it. That’s why George Shultz, Reagan’s last and most effective secretary of state, said that the PATCO decision was the most important foreign policy decision Ronald Reagan ever made.”
We can also learn from Reagan’s act of political courage. First, we should note the wisdom he demonstrated in the Rose Garden speech when he appealed to the common sense and virtue of the American people. As he so often did, he underlined that appeal by telling a story:
“At National Airport a traffic controller told a newsperson he had resigned from the union and reported to work because ‘How can I ask my kids to obey the law if I don’t?’ This is a great tribute to America.”
Another takeaway from this battle is the importance of example. Displays of character in an individual can quickly spread to others, a contagion of virtue if you will. Just as we might look to Reagan in this instance as a model of courage, Reagan himself looked back to one of his favorite presidents, Calvin Coolidge, as his guiding light. When governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge had dealt with Boston’s police strike by firing the strikers, declaring that public employees don’t have the right to endanger public safety by walking off the job. Reagan was quoting Coolidge when he told Drew Lewis, “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, at any time.”
That was the principle at stake, which an intrepid Ronald Reagan defended without regard for his reputation or political future.
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Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.
