Air Traffic Controllers Vote 2-1 to Form a New Union
Thousands of air traffic controllers decided overwhelmingly today to form a new union in a vote cast six years after President Reagan broke their 1981 strike and fired those who walked off their jobs.
The controllers cast ballots in favor of a union by more than a 2-1 margin.
With 84% of the eligible controllers casting ballots, the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. was approved as the controllers’ bargaining agent by a vote of 7,494 to 3,275, the Federal Labor Relations Authority announced.
Victory Predicted
Union organizers had predicted victory. Observers from the union and Federal Aviation Administration monitored the vote count.
Thousands of controllers at airport towers and 20 air route traffic control centers cast their votes during a five-week period, and union organizers said more than 10,000 of the 12,768 ballots were returned.
The controllers have been without a union since 1981 when leaders of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, PATCO, attempted to gain more pay and better working conditions by calling an illegal strike.
The strategy backfired, dramatically changing the lives of thousands of controllers and destroying the union.
Rebuilding Not Complete
About 4,000 controllers remained at work, but nearly 12,300 walked off their jobs. President Reagan gave the strikers 48 hours to return to work, and 954 did. The remaining 11,345 were summarily fired, marking the beginning of a slow and agonizing rebuilding period by the FAA that is yet to be completed.
PATCO was decertified a few weeks after the strike and the union declared bankruptcy on July 2, 1982. The Reagan Administration has steadfastly refused to rehire any of the fired controllers except for about 500 whose dismissal was found to have been improper.
Nearly six years after the strike, FAA officials acknowledge that there still are not enough fully trained controllers. As of last month, there were 11,188 controllers handling aircraft and another 2,471 in various stages of training.
