Question

The Case:

In 1981, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization union (PATCO) went on strike against the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in the United States. Effectively, every aircraft controller governed by the federal agency had walked off the job. Previously, the union leader representative, Robert Poli had spent several months attempting to negotiate a new labor management contract with the FAA. A tentative agreement was reached that was then presented to the union members to vote on ratifying the proposal. The tentative contract was rejected by an overwhelming 90% percent of its members. Poli returned to the negotiating table to get a better package from the FAA. Relations had deteriorated significantly between the two negotiating parties. The FAA now dug in its own heels and refused to offer any more concessions or improve the existing offer any further. After an additional two fruitless weeks of further talks between the two parties, Poli instructed PATCO to take strike action of its members against the FAA. Going on strike is normally fine in most circumstances, but here is where Poli exceeded his authority. The contract that had been signed previously with the FAA strictly prohibited a strike action, and deemed that any such strike action as illegal. So, what happened? The FAA and the administration under President Ronald Regan implemented the following steps against Poli, and

PATCO’s members:

1. All striking controllers were immediately fired from their jobs.

2. A federal injunction against the strike was obtained, and both the union and its leaders were fined several millions of dollars per day for violations

3. Poli and some of the other union executive leaders were thrown into prison

4. The union’s financial accounts were impounded

5. All striking controllers were banned from any further employment with the U.S. government in any capacity whatsoever. It was not until 1993 that President Clinton pardoned the controllers and declared that they could now be re-hired. This was 12 years after the fact!

Did the union use “fair” or “ethical” negotiation tactics? Explain.

Answer 1

The union has used ethical and fair negotiation tactics till they decide to take strike action against FAA. The decision to take strike action also cannot be considered as unethical if they do not have signed the contract which insists not to strike against FAA. But they have already signed the contract and violating the terms in the contract would be considered as unethical or unfair. While instructing PATCO to strike Poli should have analyzed his authority crossing which led to unethical situation.

The negotiation was not fair, as there is a string bias and not complying to the initial commitment. The comittte after agreement , rejected the proposal which forced the other party i,e. Poli's group to defy the clause in the agreement. Ina nay negotiation if one party does not comply by the binding agreement, then the other party also goes back and there is no binding that remains. This results in the violation of the agreement between the two parties.

Another ethical practice is the unfair degree of power that one party exercises over the other. The degree of punishment that was given owing to the violation of the caluse i.e. the strike, led to the extreme penalty.