This Week in NATCA/Labor History
Thursday, December 02, 2010

THIS WEEK IN NATCA/ATC HISTORY:

November 30, 1984 — Controller organization dissolves: The United States Air Traffic Control Organization officially disbands due to a lack of money. USATCO was created in April 1982 and included about 800 members at its peak in 1983. Existing without a contract or an employer, USATCO focused on reinstating the fired controllers. Membership continually dwindled, however, in the face of a May 1984 federal Circuit Court ruling against reinstatement and President Reagan’s re-election in the fall.

December 2, 1985 — MEBA takes over organizing controllers: MEBA President Gene DeFries announces that the union will fund the effort to organize air traffic controllers.


THIS WEEK IN LABOR HISTORY:

1934: Clerks, teamsters and building service workers at Boston Stores in Milwaukee strike at the beginning of the Christmas rush. The strike won widespread support – at one point 10,000 pickets jammed the sidewalks around the main store – but ultimately was lost. Workers returned to the job in mid-January with a small pay raise and no union recognition.

1955: African American Rosa Parks refuses to go to the back of a Montgomery, Ala. bus, fueling the growing civil rights movement's campaign to win desegregation and end the deep South's "Jim Crow" laws.

1999: National Labor Relations Board rules that medical interns can unionize and negotiate wages and hours.