The controllers walk, the President hangs tough, and the planes (mostly) fly
The fateful collision could have been foreseen by any air controller, without even a glance at the ghostly blips on his radarscope. Like a Piper Cub lost in a thunderstorm, the tiny Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization—representing 85% of the 17,500 federal employees who direct the nation's air traffic—veered wildly off course. It flew into a rage against its employer, launching an illegal federal strike. An angry Ronald Reagan, revving up the full jumbo-jet power of the U.S. Government, deliberately bore down on the defiant union. The result was inevitable: the controllers crashed, the U.S. kept flying.
By week's end some 5,100 of PATCO'S 13,000 striking controllers, who earn an average of $33,000 a year, had been sent dismissal notices by the Federal Aviation Administration. Federal judges ordered U.S. marshals to haul five local union leaders off to jail for defying court injunctions against the strike. Some leaders were marched away in handcuffs and shackled from waist to feet in chains—standard procedure for a federal arrest—adding a note of high drama to the crackdown.
Some 30 others were ruled in contempt of court and will be sentenced later. At the same time, federal judges levied fines against the union and its leaders that were piling up at the rate of more than $1 million for each day the strike continued. The union's $3.5 million strike fund was frozen. PATCO was, in effect, broke.
Neither the strike nor the resulting mass firings crippled the nation's vital air transportation network, though in some areas and selected sectors of the economy the impact was palpable. After a confused first day of jammed air terminals, extensive flight cancellations and runway waits of up to two hours before takeoff, the FAA's long-prepared contingency plans rapidly pushed the movement of aircraft back toward normal. As the strike wore on, the percentage of airline flights operating as scheduled showed overall improvement: Monday, 65%; Tuesday, 67%; Wednesday, 72%; Thursday, 83%.
At first, airport and bus ticket counters were thronged. Amtrak switchboards were jammed. Rental car firms found fewer customers at their airport counters, while at their downtown offices in large cities, fearful air travelers queued up for wheels. International passengers had little choice but to wait out available flights, sometimes camping overnight in terminals. Businessmen turned to corporate and charter aircraft, which was not always an improvement; under the FAA'S contingency plans, such planes had a lower priority than the scheduled carriers. But as the week progressed, even the reduced number of flights held more capacity than the fewer passengers could fill. The airport crowds vanished, counter service notably improved. Said Traveler Bob Barnett of Santa Monica, Calif.: "The L.A. airport was about as mellow as I've seen it in 15 years."