Reagan's Induction into Dept of Labor's Hall of Honor Is Cynical, Even by Trump Standards

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Rather long piece that's worth the read



How much disgrace can the Trump administration fit into its latest disgrace? A question worth asking, especially when the disgrace in question is the department of labor's induction of President Ronald Reagan (or Trump 1.0, as we may as well start calling him) into the department's Hall of Honor.

It's the first time I had ever heard that the Department of Labor had such a hall, but it really does, and has since 1989, first year of that noteworthy labor trailblazer George HW Bush (pause for mirthless laughter).

The idea is that the DoL "posthumously honors those Americans whose distinctive contributions to the field of labor have enhanced the quality of life of millions yesterday, today, and for generations to come," which is completely honorable.

Among the previous inductees are such titans as A. Philip Randolph, Samuel Gompers, and Eugene V. Debs—who between them founded three of the sturdiest and most significant labor unions in American history: the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the American Federation of Labor, and the American Railway Union.

Let's see, who else? Mother Jones, Cesar Chavez, Sidney Hillman, George Meany, Frances Perkins, David Dubinsky, Bayard Rustin, Rev. Addie Wyatt, Esther Peterson, Dolores Huerta, and other, less familiar names. There are also groups, including the Workers of the Memphis Sanitation Strike, 911 Rescue Workers, and The Chinese Railroad Workers.

This is clearly an auspicious hallway, marked by the names of people who put themselves at incalculable risk, many at time when there was no legal protection or even precedent for them to do so. But circumstances demanded that they do so.

Not all the names are super impressive like the ones above. Let's not forget who the president was between 2000 and 2008, during which time you see a lot of John Willard Marriott (of the Marriott Marriotts), Adolphus Busch, and Harley-Davidson.

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/03/02/25874091/reagans-induction-into-dept-of-labors-hall-of-honor-is-cynical-even-by-trump-standards

[hibbing]

1. Ffs

Well, he certainly duped several generations that he was for the working class along with a good dose of racism.


Peace

[spanone]

2. the same reagan that fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers?

....and banned them from federal service for life.


August 1981 strike[edit]

On August 3, 1981, during a press conference regarding the PATCO strike, President Reagan stated: "They are in violation of the law and if they do not report for work within 48 hours they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated."
At 7 a.m. on August 3, 1981, the union declared a strike, seeking better working conditions, better pay, and a 32-hour workweek (a four-day week and a eight-hour day combined). In addition, PATCO wanted to be excluded from the civil service clauses that it had long disliked. In striking, the union violated 5 U.S.C. (Supp. III 1956) 118p (now 5 U.S.C. § 7311), which prohibits strikes by federal government employees. After supporting PATCO's effort in his 1980 campaign, Ronald Reagan declared the PATCO strike a "peril to national safety" and ordered them back to work under the terms of the Taft-Hartley Act. Only 1,300 of the nearly 13,000 controllers returned to work.[5] Subsequently, at 10:55 a.m., Reagan included the following in a statement to the media from the Rose Garden of the White House: "Let me read the solemn oath taken by each of these employees, a sworn affidavit, when they accepted their jobs: 'I am not participating in any strike against the Government of the United States or any agency thereof, and I will not so participate while an employee of the Government of the United States or any agency thereof.'"[7] He then demanded those remaining on strike return to work within 48 hours, otherwise their jobs would be forfeited. At the same time, Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis organized for replacements and started contingency plans. By prioritizing and cutting flights severely, and even adopting methods of air traffic management that PATCO had previously lobbied for, the government was initially able to have 50% of flights available.[5]

On August 5, following the PATCO workers' refusal to return to work, Reagan fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order,[8][9] and banned them from federal service for life. In the wake of the strike and mass firings, the FAA was faced with the task of hiring and training enough controllers to replace those that had been fired, a hard problem to fix as, at the time, it took three years in normal conditions to train a new controller.[2] They were replaced initially with non-participating controllers, supervisors, staff personnel, some non-rated personnel, and in some cases by controllers transferred temporarily from other facilities. Some military controllers were also used until replacements could be trained. The FAA had initially claimed that staffing levels would be restored within two years; however, it would take closer to ten years before the overall staffing levels returned to normal.[2] PATCO was decertified by the Federal Labor Relations Authority on October 22, 1981. The decision was appealed.[10]

Some former striking controllers were allowed to reapply after 1986 and were rehired; they and their replacements are now represented by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which was organized in 1987 and had no connection with PATCO. The civil service ban on the remaining strike participants was lifted by President Bill Clinton in 1993.[11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_(1968)

[The Genealogist]

3. Kind of like putting a coyote in the chicken hall of fame n/t

[moondust]

4. Heresy.

I can't think of a more anti-labor President than Reagan in the past century, maybe ever. Completely aligned with predatory capitalists and "economic royalists"; largely responsible for starting the race to the bottom and the growth of inequality. IMO Reagan voters were basically an earlier version of Trump voters--bigots and pigs.

[wishstar]

5. Federal labor relations were horrible under Reagan with huge backlogs of employee grievances

I was a union steward back then when managers under Reagan Administration treated employees poorly and violated our agreements often, causing huge backlog of unresolved disputes that did not get settled until we got wonderful relief from the pro-labor Clinton Administration that turned things around.