P.A.T.C.O. AND REAGAN: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY - The Air Traffic Controllers' Strike of 1981 - documents those ominous days leading up to, including, and after the fateful strike and consequent firing of over 11,000 federal employees by the President of the United States in August, 1981. Relying on primary White House research materials available in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library archives, the book concludes that both the strike and the dismissal were not only predictable, but inescapable scenarios, given the resolute and tenacious personalities of the leaders involved. It discusses in length, the compounding effects that the strike had on its members, society at large, and the White House.
P.A.T.C.O. AND REAGAN explores the motivations behind the strikers' controversial actions and the corresponding rationales of their opponents, which included just about everybody else. It highlights the heightened emotions that fueled the union's expectations before the strike and drove its fervent quest for redemption after the strike. The union's inability to comprehend how the strike would be perceived ultimately doomed its efforts and condemned it to a collision course with the Reagan Administration, the general public, and even its own membership . As a consequence, organized labor in the United States would never be the same.