Press Release

Prominent Labor Law Attorney to Speak at NIU Law

Richard Andrews will discuss the historic
Professional Air Traffic Controller Organization Strike of 1981

October 5, 2009

DeKalb, Ill. – Attorney Richard Andrews, a former air traffic controller and current lawyer with the National Labor Relations Board, will give a public talk at 1 p.m. on Thursday, October 8, at the Northern Illinois University College of Law in Room 187, Swen Parson Hall. Andrews will speak to students about the historic significance and personal losses of the ill-fated nationwide strike by air traffic controllers that took place on Monday, August 3, 1981.

The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) was a United States trade union which operated from 1968 until its decertification in 1981 following a strike that was broken by the Reagan Administration.  Despite a stern ultimatum by President Reagan to end the strike, only about 1,200 of the 13,000 controllers returned to work. As a result, PATCO leaders were jailed for ignoring court injunctions, the U.S. Department of Justice got criminal indictments against 75 controllers, and federal judges levied fines amounting to $1 million a day against the union while the strike lasted. Over 11,000 strikers were fired and the union was decertified.  The 1981 strike and defeat of PATCO has been called one of the most important events in late twentieth century United States labor history.  Following this event, support for unions reached an all-time low, and the actions of the President likely inspired employers across the country to get tough with unions.

Andrews, a named plaintiff in the PATCO litigation, also serves as president of the Village of Indian Head Park, Illinois.  He is a graduate of IIT-Chicago Kent School of Law.  The presentation is free and open to all to learn more about this part of U.S. labor history.

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For more information, contact: 
Professor Lorriane Schmall
NIU College of Law
(815) 753-0480 or lschmall@niu.edu