Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

22
1981
Against the Wind
22
Apr.
To PATCO’s dismay, the agency disavowed
an immunity deal that Bailey brokered with Transportation
Secretary John Volpe and suspended the
participants.
The following spring, the agency issued transfer
orders to four controller activists in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. PATCO worried
that other involuntary
moves would wreck
the union and announced
its intention to stage another
sickout. For the second
time, Bailey declined
to insist on signatures to
document a four-point
deal he negotiated with
the FAA. Once again,
the agency reneged on
the gentlemen’s agreement. Outraged, nearly 3,300
controllers—about one in four—called in sick over
twenty days starting on March 25, 1970.
The FAA responded by withholding paychecks
and serving subpoenas on all the participants. Although
federal courts ordered the controllers back
to work under judicial protection, the FAA later suspended
many of them and fired 114 that it identified
as leaders.
Another public-sector job action in March 1970
ended far differently. About 152,000 postal workers
FAA Administrator J. Lynn Helms takes over from Langhorne M. Bond,
who resigned after nearly four years in office when Ronald Reagan was
inaugurated as president. Helms served as an instructor and test pilot in
“
I want all those people put
back to work.
walked out for eight days. The illegal strikers won
amnesty, and Congress passed the Postal Reorganization
Act, which enabled the new, quasi-governmental
U.S. Postal Service to negotiate substantial pay raises
with its unions.
The disparity left a lasting impression on John
Leyden, who was among
the “ill” controllers. Thereafter,
he contended, “The
only illegal strike is the
— President Nixon
one that’s lost.”
From the Doghouse
to the White House
One month after
the sickout, Leyden flew
to Las Vegas to attend
PATCO’s third national convention. He was dissatisfied
with F. Lee Bailey’s leadership and unhappy
about the recent setbacks his union had suffered.
Many of the other 200 delegates felt the same way
and elected Leyden to succeed Jimmy Hays as their
new president.
Leyden wasted no time trying to rebuild the
organization. He persuaded convention delegates to
revise the constitution and transform PATCO from a
corporate orientation run by attorneys, which Bailey
had established, to a union structure that put power
the Marines during World War II. He later held top executive positions at
Bendix Corporation, the Norden Division of United Aircraft, and Piper
Aircraft Corporation. He was General Aviation Man of the Year in 1978.