This paper examines the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) strike of 1981 and assesses its impact on labor relations in the federal sector. The author finds the root causes of the stoppage in the history of PATCO's relations with the Federal Aviation Administration, the equivocal manner in which the federal government had dealt with previous PATCO strikes, and the ineptness of PATCO's leaders. He argues that PATCO's basic goal was to gain the right to bargain under private sector rules, and that the union would have made considerable progress toward that goal if it had accepted the government's last offer in 1981. The author also describes the international aspects of the strike, including the strong steps taken by the Reagan administration to maintain transoceanic service.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.