Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1397791
56 C I N E M O N T A G E J U M P S CO, the arch-conservative commentator George Will crowed that Reagan's defeat of the strike "altered basic attitudes about relations between business and labor … produc[ing] a cultural shift, a new sense of what can be appropriate in business management." If labor conflict in the era of post-war prosperity was characterized largely by skirmishes for the high ground as labor and capital sought to gain relative advantage, in the time of Reagan and beyond, employers had both license and inspiration to wage wars of annihilation. Capital came to see its objective as not merely to gain the upper hand over unions, but to destroy organized labor utterly. It would be a gross oversimplification to say that the PATCO debacle is the rea- son why the labor movement in the U.S. finds itself in its presently diminished state. Organized labor faced challenges pre-PATCO, and a host of factors have contributed to the diminution of unions' presence and power in the economy over the course of recent decades. But the consensus is clear that the episode represents a key inf lection point in labor's decline. As a percentage of the nation's workforce, the rate of union- ization is now less than half of what it was at the time of the PATCO walkout. Notwithstanding isolated victories and progress on particular issues, labor has largely spent the past forty years since PATCO — for most of us, the entirety of our working lives — cursed to wander in the wilderness. Why did PATCO fail so spectacu - larly? Is it simply a story of hubris, the controllers overplaying their hand? Is it essentially a story of individual resolve, Reagan's steely determination to incur any cost for victory? Is it fundamentally a story of disunity, the failure of labor to close ranks and present a unified front in the fight? Or is it ultimately a story of seismic forces that transcend organiza- tions or even nations, the ascendency of neoliberalism as the dominant world or- der? I don't pretend to have authoritative answers, or even very good ones. P e r h a p s t h e l e s s o n to ta k e a w a y f r o m t h e d i s a s t e r o f P A T C O i s that paradigms shift, subtly at first and then conspicuously. For the optimists amongst us, there are signs — tentative and attenuated though they may be — that perhaps labor's years of wandering through the desert could come to a close, that perhaps a new epoch is nigh. Public sentiment now weighs heavily in favor of unions, with polls showing support for unions currently as high as at any point since Reagan took office; close to two-thirds of Americans are in favor of organized labor, according to Gallup, even though less than 10 percent are union members themselves. The wave of strikes in edu- cation that washed over the country in 2018 and 2019 captured the imagination and won the backing of working folks nationwide; the #RedForEd movement represented the largest collective ac- tion amongst public servants since the postal workers' wildcat strikes of 1970 ushered in an era of super-charged public sector organizing. Activism around is- sues of social injustice is at levels not seen in generations, and activists are smarter than ever about articulating the ways in which the struggles for racial justice, gender justice, justice for immigrants, and justice for workers are all inex- tricably intertwined. An embrace of unions and suspicion of laissez-faire economic policy is especially pronounced a m o n gs t o u r yo u n ge s t wo r ke rs, fo r whom faith in the future of the planet, never mind the American dream, has been profoundly shaken. Perhaps most markedly, the pan- demic has interrupted our way of living, disrupted our labor markets, and thrown into sharp relief the limitations of neo- liberal reliance upon the free market to provide for fundamental human needs. The coronavirus relief package passed earlier this year represents the most am- bitious anti-poverty public policy since the New Deal, a governmental response to economic inequality that would have been inconceivable even as recently as the Obama era. In a dramatic break from recent history, employers are now openly competing for workers by raising wages. It's far too early to cast him in the role of the anti-Reagan, but it's no coincidence that the current political climate and the devastation of the plague led to the election of a political figure, Joe Biden, who has publicly vowed to be "the most pro-union president you've ever seen." An organizer ought not be a polly- anna, and I'm not about to assert that labor's long years of setbacks are now behind us. Nor am I naive enough to think that Biden might be relied upon to reverse the damage done by Reagan and his associates, acolytes, and heirs, who are legion. But for those of us who have only ever known a circumscribed and cowed labor movement, it is crucial to look back upon our history for a reminder that it wasn't ever thus. Forty years after the PATCO catastrophe signaled an era of erosion in the clout of working folks, we owe it to ourselves and to our progeny to seek opportunities to usher in a new age, one in which future generations might live and work with dignity and power. ■ Rob Callahan is MPEG's National Organizer. Callahan CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 Why did PATCO fail so spectacularly?