Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike That Changed America. By Joseph A. McCartin (original) (raw)
Related papers
The John Marshall law review, 2002
from its inception. Mrs. Cramer is here with us today and has brought her sons, Daniel Cramer and Matthew Cramer (and her cousin Charlotte Lenhoff). The John Marshall Law Review This year we would especially like to thank our individual donors whose large and small contributions have made it possible for us to continue to offer this conference without a registration fee. I would also like to thank the Chicago Federation of Labor, the Chicago Chapter of the Industrial Relations Research Association and the Chicago Decalogue Society for their help in publicizing the conference. In addition, we wish to acknowledge the assistance and support of the Conference's Advisory Committee, the Law School's Board of Trustees, and our Deans and Administrators, for supporting the Goldberg conference. I want to extend a special thanks to Gary Watson and the Event Management Department for planning and coordinating another excellent presentation, our Publications Department for another exceptional brochure, our public relations department for arranging the publicity, and our media services department for providing the audio/visual support for the conference. I would also like to thank Assistant Dean Bill Beach for leading the efforts to fund this year's conference. Finally, I would like to single out several academic colleagues for their encouragement and assistance in planning the program:
Finding Meaning in Labor’s “Perfect Storm”: Lessons from the 1981 PATCO Strike
Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 2006
Attention is given to four constructive lessons in employee relations that can be drawn from the 1981 PATCO strike of our traffic controllers. First, separate truth from fiction in a strike’s record and alleged impact. Second, learn the shortcomings of one party of an organization. Third, learn that the “new employee” is best managed by a mix of mutual respect, consideration, and flexibility. Finally, learn that radical organizational change always remains possible, but only if there is first a major overhaul of top leadership.
Architects of our own Destiny: Lessons from the Strike Wave of 1933-34
There are those who argue that the New Deal enabled the rise of militant industrial unions in the United States (see for example Finegold and Skocpol 1984; cf. Goldfield 1989). Politicians like Robert Wagner and Franklin Roosevelt, they say, gifted collective bargaining rights to workers, and workers in turn were the happy and passive beneficiaries of the New Deal’s generosity. I argue the reverse. In the time of the Great Depression and the Saylesville Massacre, it was precisely the inability of the New Deal to address labor rights that led to labor militance. Labor militance, in turn, prompted the Democratic Party to do all that it could to establish industrial peace by passing the National Labor Relations Act in 1935.
Crossing the line: A history of the "Great Falls Tribune" strike of 1974
1991
This thesis examines the Great Falls Newspaper Guild's strike against the Great Falls Tribune from Oct. 19 to Dec. 20,1974, a period during which Montana's second-largest newspaper was forced to cease publication for nearly nine weeks. Primary research sources were union records donated to the University of Montana Archives by the Great Falls Newspaper Guild before and during this study, management records, newspaper accounts of the strike and interviews with past and present Tribune employees who participated in the only documented strike by newspaper editorial employees against a newspaper in the history of Montana journalism. This thesis concludes that the strike's failure, caused by the introduction of job-threatening technologies and a lack of solidarity within the Guild and with other Tribune unions, crippled the union to such an extent that it has yet to recover in terms of membership or bargaining power. As Montana's only union of newspaper journalists, the Great Falls Guild set the standard for pay and benefits for Montana journalists from its creation in 1936 to the 1960s, when Tribune salaries began to pale in comparison with national Guild averages. Alarmed by the widening gap between local wages, particularly at the bottom of the union's scale, and national averages, the Great Falls G uild's leadership became increasingly militant, and after several strike threats in the 1960s and early 1970s, voted to walk out in 1974 in an effort to boost wages and benefits. The strike succeeded in shutting down the Tribune for nine weeks, but ultimately collapsed as other Tribune craft unions, along with 15 Guild members, returned to work w hen management demonstrated it could produce the newspaper w ithout them. The strike's failure cost the Great Falls Guild its "closed shop." That, coupled with the introduction of new technologies, which allowed the paper to be produced by fewer employees, made it unlikely that any future strike would succeed. As a consequence, the Guild lost members and has failed to prevent reductions in em ployee benefits. Moreover, the strike's failure, combined with improvements in wages and benefits at Montana's non union newspapers, has thwarted the Great Falls Guild's hopes of organizing other Guild chapters throughout the state. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To m y colleagues and friends, Carol Van Valkenburg, Bob McGiffert, Patty Reksten, Joe Durso and Charlie Hood, who provided inspiration and guidance for this project; to the m en and wom en of the Great Falls Tribune, w ho offered their time and assistance in locating information; and to my wife, Julie Miller Swibold, w hose unflagging support m ade this thesis possible.