[WASHINGTONTIMES] On Christmas Eve, Eric Green’s Washington Post column, "Ronald Reagan’s Statue Disturbs the Peace at D.C.’s National Airport," called for the 9-foot Gipper to be removed from the route of his afternoon stroll. Those who respect the former president, or just the rule of law, should immediately mount a defense.Like the title character of Black Sabbath’s "Iron Man," the Reagan statue stands mute, so we must speak up in its defense. Green’s beef is that in 1981, Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controllers engaged in an illegal strike against the people of the United States.
Here in 2021, the notion of "illegal" seems quaint, as people simply call laws they don’t want to follow "broken." Likewise, "union" is synonymous with "underdog." But it’s average citizens those controllers abandoned at 50,000 feet, breaking their word to the little guy.
Here’s the oath each member of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization union swore to us, their fellow citizens: "I am not participating in any strike against the government of the United States or any agency thereof, and I will not so participate while an employee of the government of the United States or any agency thereof."
The next time you hear about ’80s greed, think of PATCO’s insurrection, threatening to crash jets into tarmacs "Die Hard 2" style for a few extra bucks. We the people are the bosses for government unions, and (as the national debt shows) there is no profit motive for management. This is distinct from a private union whose workers have a right to demand a fair share of what they produce.
Because of these stark differences, federal unions were originally opposed by Big Labor. AFL-CIO President George Meany said, "It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government," and President Franklin Roosevelt called strikes against taxpayers "unthinkable and intolerable."
Franklin D. Roosevelt scolded the National Federation of Federal Employees, "Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of government until their demands are satisfied."