Today in labor history August 03 Federal air traffic controllers began a nationwide strike

[Omaha Steve]

August 03

August 3, 1944 - Linda Chavez Thompson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, was born.

August 3, 1981 - Federal air traffic controllers began a nationwide strike after their union, PATCO, rejected the government's final contract offer. Most of the 13,000 strikers defied orders to return to work and were fired on August 5 by President Reagan for participating in an illegal work stoppage. Reagan's action – and the inability of the labor movement to respond to the crisis – began an "open season" to attack unions that continues to this day.

[GreenInNC]

1. That strike stranded me at LaGuardia

I was a 17 year old kid coming back from Finland where I had been an exchange student. It didn't faze me one bit, I had a ball at the airport. Saw my first hooker and saw the Hare Krishnas

[Bluzmann57]

2. And that pos Reagan fired the Air Traffic Controllers

Making air travel more dangerous for everybody.

[sharesunited]

3. No ice water for YOU Ronald Reagan.