U.S. President Donald Trump wants to lay off federal workers during the government shutdown. In contrast to previous presidents who have furloughed employees during shutdowns since 1979, Trump is trying to go much further. He is using this political crisis as an opportunity to continue with the agenda that he launched in January with the Department of Government Efficiency: slashing into the civil service workforce as part of his mission to dismantle the administrative state. Though a federal judge in the Northern District of California has temporarily blocked his efforts, the administration has been able to overcome many such rulings at the Supreme Court.
Trump signed an executive order in March that rescinded the collective bargaining rights of workers in a number of agencies. “Certain federal unions have declared war on President Trump’s agenda,” according to the White House. “President Trump supports constructive partnerships with unions who work with him; he will not tolerate mass obstruction that jeopardizes his ability to manage agencies with vital national security missions.”
But the current war on government workers is nothing new; it is deeply rooted in Republican presidential politics.
At the start of the conservative transformation of American politics in 1981, President Ronald Reagan struck a major blow to public-sector unions. At a moment when the labor movement was struggling as the manufacturing sector languished in the face of competition with Japan and West Germany, public-sector unions had been one of the few areas where organized labor continued to grow. It had gained legitimacy since President John F. Kennedy’s Executive Order 10988 (1962), which empowered federal workers to join unions. President Richard Nixon expanded those rights and created the Federal Labor Relations Council, and President Jimmy Carter successfully pushed legislation that codified these changes into law.
One of the most successful unions was PATCO, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. Established in 1968, PATCO gained strength during the 1970s by securing higher wages and better working conditions for its members. When the union went on to strike in 1981 after contract negotiations with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) collapsed, Reagan seized on the crisis. He wanted to demonstrate that, under Republican leadership, the White House would keep a firm grip on public-sector unions and the federal workforce. “The memory of PATCO’s destruction long haunted American workers,” wrote the Georgetown historian Joseph McCartin in his seminal account of the confrontation, Collision Course. The haunting continues to the present day.
During the early 1980s, American politics was undergoing profound change. Reagan, the former governor of California and conservative spokesperson, had swept into the White House in the 1980 election, handily defeating Democratic President Jimmy Carter through a campaign that promised to shrink government at home and build a more muscular defense against communism abroad.
Reagan was a central figure in a conservative movement that had taken shape during the 1970s: a coalition of evangelical Christians, neoconservative Democrats, Wall Street Republicans, and anti-communist hawks. With the economy still reeling after nearly a decade of stagflation (unemployment and inflation), the oil crisis, and the humiliation of Americans being held hostage in Iran, while the Soviet Union advanced in Afghanistan, many voters turned to Reagan for a new vision of leadership. Upon taking office, he delivered a bold inaugural address, declaring, “[G]overnment is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Reagan had little sympathy for government workers. In his speeches, he often portrayed them as symbols of the inefficiency and waste he believed were endemic to government. To him, they represented a threat to the public rather than a source of support. As he famously quipped, “I think you all know that I’ve always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.” Public-sector unions, in his estimation, were even worse: They gave organizational muscle to federal employees who were already part of what he saw as an overgrown bureaucracy.
Yet some observers believed Reagan might have a soft spot for the air traffic controllers. Not only did millions of his supporters depend on air travel, but PATCO had endorsed Reagan during the campaign. The rare show of support for a Republican from organized labor marked a significant break from decades in which Democrats had enjoyed, and largely taken for granted, union loyalty. Reagan had sent signals that he would respond to some long-standing grievances. At the same time, many federal workers had grown frustrated with Carter’s frequent talk of government efficiency and his criticism of bureaucratic waste. PATCO’s membership was filled with white males, many military veterans, who were strongly supportive of Reagan’s candidacy and the conservative political turn that he embodied.
The standoff centered on a new contract. Negotiations between PATCO and the FAA had been underway since February. PATCO demanded a substantial wage increase, a shorter workweek, and improved retirement benefits. The union rejected a counteroffer from the FAA that was significantly lower (a total of $40 million compared to its requested $770 million package). Given that commercial air travel generated over $30 billion annually, the stakes of the dispute were enormous.
On Aug. 3, the 13,000 air traffic controllers in the union announced that they were going on strike. Reagan responded by establishing an adversarial template for Republicans in dealing with the government workforce. He told reporters that the workers were 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.” He based his decision on a law from 1955, rarely enforced, that prohibited government workers from going on strike. A federal judge issued an injunction that deemed PATCO leaders in contempt of court and ordered the workers to return to their jobs.
The air traffic controllers, however, were equally determined. They refused to return to the job unless the government made concessions. Some even believed that Reagan would eventually back down. “I thought Reagan was bluffing,” one recalled. His advisors did not. “He’s tough as nails on this,” one advisor remarked. According to advisor David Gergen, who took notes during a White House meeting on the strike, Reagan was more resolute on this issue than on almost any other. “Dammit, the law is the law and the law says they cannot strike,” Gergen recorded him saying. “Having struck, they have quite their jobs, and they will not be rehired.”
Passengers suffered. Thousands of flights were canceled and delayed, and airports quickly filled up with angry travelers, many stranded, who began venting their frustration at the workers. According to one poll, the public sided with the president over PATCO by a 2-to-1 margin. “Most travelers were deeply frustrated and even those who felt sympathy for the controllers,” observed Pete Earley and Mary Battiata in the Washington Post, “were upset because their plans had been disrupted. ‘I hate them [air traffic controllers],’” one woman told the reporters.
On Aug. 5, with his approval rating hovering around 60 percent, Reagan issued a presidential directive permanently barring over 11,000 striking controllers from returning to work. Many Republicans applauded the show of strength. “Right now,” noted Republican Sen. Paul Laxalt, “I think from that point on, the power centers in this town figured, here’s a guy you better take seriously.” Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis quickly hired replacements, and the agency reduced the number of flights to keep the system operating. Lewis was a believer in free markets. “We believe that the government’s proper role is to create the economic climate within which the states can plan and carry out their transportation programs, and within which the operators of transportation can supply the public demand—at the lowest possible cost to the taxpayer,” Lewis said. He used training facilities in Oklahoma City to get new employees up and running with speed.
A few months later, Reagan went even further. On Oct. 22, the Federal Labor Relations Authority officially decertified PATCO. “PATCO became the first public-sector union ever to be decertified.
The damage was done. Reagan had taken a firm stand against public-sector unions, cutting their jobs, breaking their organization, and signaling a new era in labor relations. Many viewed the episode as a defining moment for his presidency and a turning point in the long-term decline of organized labor’s political power within the public workforce. The opening shots in the right-wing war waged against government workers had been fired.
By the mid-1980s, the public was beginning to feel the effects of Reagan’s decisions. A congressional committee that investigated air travel during this period found that the new air traffic controllers were overworked, stressed, exhausted, and burdened with greater responsibilities. As a result, key safety metrics for air travel worsened.
Air traffic controllers, however, did not give up. In 1987, they formed the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Six years later, in 1993, President Bill Clinton lifted the rehiring ban that Reagan had imposed, seeking to address the lingering problems caused by the strike.
Today, government workers are still struggling to survive the battle that opened in 1981. Trump has raised the stakes with a much more aggressive posture. In 2025, Trump is building on decades of precedent, rooted in Reagan’s politics, and with a campaign orchestrated by a team of advisors who have developed a sophisticated understanding of how they can use government processes and laws to their advantage.
Trump has shown no hesitation in turning government workers into collateral damage during the current interbranch confrontation taking place over health care benefits and the administration’s determination to circumvent congressional decisions over spending. Once again, the people who devote their lives to making sure that government works and that citizens receive the benefits they deserve have been thrown into the middle of a high-stakes battle where, whatever the outcome, they will be in a worse position for having served in the public interest.
More than four decades after Reagan’s showdown with PATCO, the struggle over the role and value of public servants continues to define the battle over what kind of government Americans truly want.
