Today in Labor History August 3, 1981: U.S. federal air traffic controllers began a nationwide strike after their union, PATCO, rejected the government's final contract offer. Most of the 13,000 strikers ignored orders to go back to work and were fired on August 5 by President Reagan for participating in an illegal work stoppage. Reagan's action, and the inability of the labor movement to respond to the crisis, led to the rapid downhill spiral of union power and membership. For example, in the years immediately after the PACTO strike, other major employers chose to fire striking workers and replace them with scabs (e.g., Phelps Dodge, 1983; Hormel, 1985-1986; and International Paper, 1987). In 1970, there were 380 major strikes. In 1999, there were only 17. And in 2010, there were only 11. However, there was a 50% increase in workers going on strike between 2021 and 2022. And nearly double the number of workers have already gone on strike in 2023 compared with 2022, with 5 more months to go.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #strike #union #patco #reagan #UnionBusting #StrikeWave

Everyday that I exit the #PATCO AT #WalterRand, I get so mad when I see that the western #headhouse is closed. It's been closed for the entire decade I've lived here. Why? Nothing seems structurally wrong, just trying to enforce a police cordon that never went away. It's just #hostilearchitecture.

Can anyone explain to me why the #Philidelphia #SEPTA #transit card appears to be a VISA with a chip?!

Also after 50 years of having multiple agencies run rapid transit through centre city I can't believe that #PATCO has its entire own ticketing system that is insane.

Today in Labor History March 28, 1977: AFSCME Local 1644 struck in Atlanta, Georgia, for a pay raise. This local of mostly African American sanitation workers saw labor and civil rights as part of the same struggle. They saw their fight as a continuation of the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike. For several years, they organized to get black civil rights leaders elected to public office. They succeeded in getting their man, Maynard Jackson, elected mayor of Atlanta. After all, as vice mayor, Jackson had supported their 1970 strike. Yet, in his first three years as mayor, he refused to give them a single raise. Consequently, their wages dropped below the poverty line for a family of four. Jackson accused AFSCME of attacking Black Power by challenging his authority. He fired over 900 workers by April 1 and crushed the strike by the end of April. Many believe this set the precedent for Reagan’s mass firing of 11,000 air traffic controllers during the PATCO strike, in 1981.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #union #AFSCME #PATCO #strike #atlanta #CivilRights #sanitation

Thinking about taking the #patco :patco: to the mummers parade tomorrow.

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I purposely scheduled my classes at the campus that allows me to take PATCO :patco: every day instead of driving 30mins. Total commute time would be about 25min walking and riding the train vs sitting in a car for 30mins.

#trains #patco #transit

OMG YES! Ther is a custom #patco :patco: emoji here. I absolutely love PATCO. I really wish #SouthJersey had more trains like it. This area is in desperate need of more trains.

#Urbanism