Today marks the 25th anniversary of the PATCO [Professional Air traffic Controllers Organization] strike. A lot of you are probably too young to remember but things were chaotic to say the least. The real kick in the butt was that all of the major unions promised support and solidarity but after the strike was a day or so old, they bailed out like the Controllers had the plague. President Reagan sent telegrams to all of the controllers telling them that they had a deadline and if not back to work, they were [to quote Donald Trump] "Fired".
I remember it vividly since if it never occurred, I would never had this wonderful career in the car business. I've been here ever since the strike.

As a footnote, things are not that much better now for controllers and since it has been 25 years, a lot of the replacements are reaching retirement and it is anticipated that the FAA will be losing a significant number of controllers over the next couple years.

 

I am unfortunately old enough to remember that mess.