On This Day: August 3, 1981 — Reagan Fired the Air Traffic Controllers and Changed Labor History Forever
It started before dawn. On August 3, 1981, roughly 13,000 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization — PATCO — walked off the job. Across the country, 7,000 flights were canceled. The nation’s air traffic system, already straining from chronic understaffing and aging equipment, suddenly had a massive hole in the middle of it….