
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization - luu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_(1968)
======
rayiner
[https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/02/18/the-
first-b...](https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/02/18/the-first-blow-
against-public-employees/fdr-warned-us-about-public-sector-unions)

> “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”

> That wasn’t Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul, or Ronald Reagan talking. That was
> George Meany -- the former president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O -- in 1955.
> Government unions are unremarkable today, but the labor movement once
> thought the idea absurd.

> The founders of the labor movement viewed unions as a vehicle to get workers
> more of the profits they help create. Government workers, however, don’t
> generate profits. They merely negotiate for more tax money. When government
> unions strike, they strike against taxpayers. F.D.R. considered this
> “unthinkable and intolerable.”

People make Reagan out to be some sort of extremist for firing the striking
Air Traffic Controllers. The strike, however, was illegal. Federal employees
are not allowed to strike. Such bans on public employee strikes are not unique
to the US. For example, Germany’s constitutional court recently reaffirmed the
country’s ban on strikes by public employees: [https://www.dw.com/en/german-
teachers-cannot-strike-says-con...](https://www.dw.com/en/german-teachers-
cannot-strike-says-constitutional-court-in-karlsruhe/a-44171589).

~~~
eesmith
The recent WV teacher strike was also illegal. And effective.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_West_Virginia_teachers%27...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_West_Virginia_teachers%27_strike)

