The Day Ronald Reagan Destroyed the American Labor Movement

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/08/05/the-day-ronald-reagan-destroyed-the-american-labor/

by Alex Planes, The Motley Fool Aug 5th 2013 11:33AM
Updated Aug 5th 2013 1:12PM

On this day in economic and business history...

The modern labor community has its own method of dating history. There's "Before Reagan," which covers much of the history of labor rights in the 20th century, and then there's "After Reagan," which begins on Aug. 5, 1981, when President Ronald Reagan broke the strike of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, or PATCO.

The PATCO strike was, more than any other event of the last half-century, a turning point in the relationship between labor and government, as well as the relationship between labor and business interests. It set the tone for the Reagan presidency and set the stage for a shift in power from labor to capital. Let's examine what happened so we can better understand its effect on the American economy.

The story of the PATCO-Reagan showdown began during the 1980 presidential campaign, when Republican candidate Reagan courted PATCO's endorsement. A letter from Reagan to PATCO president Robert Poli promised cooperation and support, should he be elected:

I have been briefed by members of my staff as to the deplorable state of our nation's air traffic control system. They have told me that too few people working unreasonable hours with obsolete equipment has placed the nation's air travelers in unwarranted danger. In an area so clearly related to public policy the Carter administration has failed to act responsibly.

FULL story at link.

[MotherPetrie]

1. K&R.

[cantbeserious]

2. An Enduring Disgrace To America - The Reagan Legacy

rom

[loudsue]

3. Well said. n/t

[kath]

4. And therefore also the day that the downhill slide of the U.S. middle class began...

Or at least the day that slide really began to accelerate.

[kelliekat44]

5. BINGO!!! nt

[immoderate]

7. All subsequent administrations I refer to as "Reaganite," and you can throw in Carter...

It was the time, that the means that allowed for rescattering of wealth were shut down. Everything got tilted toward the rich. And it's added up.

--imm

[freshwest]

6. The day the labor movement was destroyed was the day any union member believed Reagan's campaign.

I was a union rep during the Carter years. We were at a zenith in maintaining and expanding worker rights and protections at that time. I was unable to convince many of my fellow union members to not vote GOP that year.

I was one of the few not surprised when Reagan went after PATCO, the EEOC, OSHA and all the rest. The GOP is expert at scamming voters and they don't intend to stop until this is a one-party nation. Vote GOP or get nothing. They know who is GOP by reviewing public records of voter registration. They have targeted us.

With the increasing theft of public assets or as what was once known as The Commons, to the forces of privatization, people will be voting GOP or be unemployed. That's already happened i some locales. I saw union members leaving the public sector to get those contracts. Not hard to see why, when you're used as the media punching bag for taxes.

Not a nickel's worth of diffrence between the philosophy of Reagan and today's most rabid baggers who are in office. He had that Hollywood style music and memes put out by media and the rest is history. It was hard not to like the man, many voted for him without thinking ahead and out of other motivations.

Some were Cold War era thinkers and were not comfortable with unions although they were members and had good wages and benefits. For some in those days, the unions had gone too far to the left to support it. Not for me, though.

One of the associations the labor movement often denied was that unions were based on class theory as well as other utopian movements in the USA. In an attempt to escape the socialist or communist label, many members were hard right in many ways.

Then coming at us both ways, union organizers were called racists for their opposition to trade agreements and it broke their resistance. I am firm on the union cause, but I regret to say that was my experience during that era of elections.

Many of those who voted for Carter, then voted for Reagan, never came back and embraced all of the RW positions. Were they ever truly believing the goal of unions was bigger than just their own good, I sometimes wondered. It was all planned as a blow to unions and to divide union members. Sadly, it worked too well.

JMHO.

[Sherman A1]

8. Indeed it was

and we live with the legacy today.

[Enthusiast]

9. Saint Ronnie.

I'll say it again.

The prosperity we enjoyed in the late 20th Century was a historical aberration. At no other time in history were there living standards approaching that level for "ordinary" people.

We achieved this living standard mostly through efforts of the labor movement. There was also the need for the government to prove capitalism superior to the "red menace". And there was the massive investment in infrastructure, research and education during the decades after WWII.

Expect American living standards to decline rapidly without a strong labor movement and government investment. In fact it is happening right before our eyes.

[indepat]

10. All together: Let's all hail the power and glory of the gipper's name and

his works that have been so slavishly carried on by true believers.

[Sirveri]

11. PATCO union members needed to go to the mattresses over this.

They needed to fight, they needed to have the national guard gun them down, that is what it took in the past, and it would have destroyed the Reagan presidency.

We have become too comfortable, we need the system, as such we are unable to stand up to evil because we fear losing what we have. Courage, I don't think I have the level it would take either. Evil wins, because the majority is apathetic.