Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

ers’ strike in St. Louis, he formed a special group
of controllers who could be counted
on to deliver the vote. These “choirboys,”
chosen by local and regional
vice presidents, operated with their
own budget administered by Robert
Poli, a Cleveland Center controller
who’d been elected executive vice
president in 1973.
Over time, the choirboys
“pretty much ran around uncontrolled,”
recalls George Kerr, the
Eastern Region vice president.
Leyden agrees that the renegade
group “led to my downfall.”
‘The Skies will be Silent’
Talk of a strike gathered
momentum with the
advent of the choirboys.
Many were Vietnam veterans.
Treated poorly when
they came home after the
war and fed up with the FAA’s militaristic
management style, they were spoiling for a fight.
“It was like the proverbial locomotive on the
track,” Kerr says. “Once you get a head of steam up
23
June
The FAA announces it will proceed with testing and deploying the Traffic
Alert/Collision Avoidance System. The basic version of the computerized
equipment, installed onboard airplanes, would work in conjunction with
and you get her pointed in a direction, the object now
becomes how do we stop it?”
Not everyone was
onboard the
train. A sizable
segment
of the work
force took seriously
their
signed oath not
to strike. Many
controllers also
thought they were
re latively well off.
More money and
a shorter workweek
sounded appealing,
but they believed the
public wouldn’t sympathize
with such demands
while inflation
raged at an average of
14.7 percent throughout
1980.
However, others in
PATCO believed they were
invincible. Part of their
confidence stemmed from a letter written in October
1980 by presidential candidate Ronald Reagan. Among
Chapter 1: ATC Comes of Age
25
A politician’s promise: While campaigning
for president in 1980, Ronald Reagan
vowed to support air traffic controllers.
the air traffic control radar beacon system to alert pilots to nearby traffic.
Advanced versions would tell pilots to climb or descend in a coordinated
maneuver to avoid each other in the event of potential collisions.