Today in labor history August 5 President Reagan fired 13,000 federal air traffic controllers

[Omaha Steve]

August 05

August 5, 1931 - Some 1,500 jobless men stormed the plant of the Fruit Growers Express Co. in Indiana Harbor, Indiana, demanding they be given jobs to keep from starving. The company's answer was to call the city police, who routed the jobless with clubs.

August 5, 1981 - President Ronald Reagan fired 13,000 federal air traffic controllers for participating in an illegal work stoppage. The PATCO strike was a watershed for American workers, both because it marked a new, anti-worker mindset on the part of the U.S. government and corporations and because the American labor movement failed to build any mass resistance to this attack.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) took effect today. The first law signed by President Clinton, it allows many workers time off each year due to serious health conditions or to care for a family member - 1993

[whistle]

1. I spit on Ronald Reagan's grave, ptweee!

[LiberalFighter]

3. That is the place that should be blasted to smithereens.

Maybe pour 50 gallons of bleach over his grave.

[DebbieCDC]

2. Yes and then they asshats stick his name on an airport :banghead:

I went to DC in 1981 right out of college and hated Ray-guns immediately. Till the day I die I will NEVER use that SOB's name as part of "National Airport". God, the PATCO members must still choke every time they see that. You've got to wonder what happens to people who start out Dem (and he even led a union at one time -- the Screen Actors Guild I think?) but then they turn to the dark side. I don't understand it and probably never wil.