J. Lynn Helms rejected the proposal as too costly. Ne-
gotiations continued until May 22, 1981, when Poli
submitted PATCO’s final proposal, calling for an an-
nual wage increase of $10,000 for all controllers,
plus cost-of-living increases of 1.5 percent above the
rate of inflation every six months and a reduction
in the workweek from forty to thirty-two hours with
no corresponding reduction in pay. PATCO sought
higher pension benefits as well. The existing benefit
was a payment equal to 50 percent of base pay for
controllers who retired at age fifty or older after
twenty years of employment, or at any age after
twenty-five years of employment. PATCO wanted an
increase to 75 percent of base pay for workers who
retired after twenty years regardless of age. Poli in-
formed Helms that PATCO members would strike
within thirty days if the government did not offer an
acceptable package.
Secretary of Transportation Andrew L. Lewis, Jr.,
replaced Helms as the government’s chief negotia-
tor, in the hope that he could mediate the stalemate.
Just prior to the June 22 deadline, Lewis offered
PATCO a $40 million package, including a shorter
workweek, an across-the-board raise of $4,000, a
10 percent pay hike for controllers who served as
instructors, a 20 percent pay differential for night-
time work, guaranteed thirty-minute lunch-period
breaks, and increased retirement benefits. After in-
tense bargaining, Lewis also agreed to provide re-
training benefits for medically disqualified control-
lers and a time-and-a-half pay rate for all hours
beyond thirty-six in a forty-hour workweek. After
these concessions, Poli agreed to present the settle-
ment to PATCO members for a vote. The package
was rejected by 95 percent of the union’s 17,500
members.
New talks began on July 31, 1981, with PATCO
proposing a package that Poli claimed would cost
$500 million. The FAA’s computations placed the
package’s cost at $681 million, seventeen times that
of the earlier settlement that union members had
voted down. Negotiations reached an impasse, and48 Air traffic controllers’ strike The Eighties in America
Air traffic controllers picket an air traffic control center in Ronkonkoma, New York, on August 5, 1981.(AP/Wide World Photos)