ABSTRACT
On August 3, 1981 more than 12,000 air traffic controllers, all members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), illegally conducted a work stoppage (strike) that has had profound implications for both aviation and the labor movement in the US. In retrospect the PATCO strike of 1981 was a watershed event that needs to be fully understood for its impact on American politics and labor relations. The short-term ramifications of the strike have been widely discussed. But what were the ethical dimensions of the strike? Many decisions needed to be made by both individuals and organizations. Controllers, managers, union representatives, elected officials—all had to make defendable ethical decisions. Prior to the 1960s most federal employees in the US were prohibited from joining labor unions with the right to collectively bargain wages and working conditions. President Reagan declared the strike a "peril to national safety" and ordered the controllers back to work or they would be summarily dismissed.
