Introduction to Symposium on the Meaning of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization Strike Twenty-Five Years Later

Abstract

I am most pleased to present this symposium in the Perspectives section on the meaning of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) strike 25 years later. In August 1981, more than 11,000 air traffic controllers launched a strike which has been viewed as a defining point in U.S. labor history. Three prominent experts on the PATCO strike have written essays for this symposium: Arthur B. Shostak, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Drexel University; Joseph A. McCartin, Associate Professor of History at Georgetown University and Richard W. Hurd, Professor of Labor Studies at Cornell University. These articles provide important insights on what is undoubtedly the most important public sector strike in the United States in the last two decades of the twentieth century. In the first essay entitled, “Finding Meaning in Labor's ‘Perfect Storm’: Lessons from the 1981 PATCO Strike,” Professor Shostak outlines several significant lessons in employee relations that can be gleaned from PATCO's strike against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 25 years ago. In the second piece entitled, “A Historian's Perspective on the PATCO Strike, Its Legacy, and Lessons,” Professor McCartin argues that although the PATCO strike was one of the most important events in twentieth century U.S. labor history, it did not initiate the downfall of American labor as many commentators have claimed although it did set the stage for a problematic U.S. labor relations climate in the decades to come from the unions' point of view. Finally, in the third article entitled, “Reflections on PATCO'S Legacy: Labor's Strategic Challenges Persist,” Professor Hurd points out that even though PATCO's tactical strategy prior to and during its strike contained fatal flaws, the union developed creative methods in an attempt to alter its Employ Respons Rights J (2006) 18: 205–206 DOI 10.1007/s10672-006-9017-8