In the late seventies employees of the Federal Aeronautics Administration (FAA) represented a large majority of the lunchtime crowd that filled the tables and booths at Riordan’s Restaurant and Raw Bar.
They were genuine G-Men in their suits. The cultural fashions of the sixties had finally seeped into the Greatest Generation.The hair was longer, sideburns were past the ear lobe and ties were fashionably wide. Leisure suits were occasionally seen on the younger men and even some upscale men’s suits had bell bottoms. It was crazy!
Now there were probably a couple of dozen of these gentleman from the FAA but we had our favorites. And we, the Riordan’s employees, called them “Chicago.” They were two of the labor negotiators for the FAA . they always sat in the backroom. Sometimes they were having a working lunch Their notes filled the white placemats with the gold Greek Key borders. Other days they would tease all of us. We loved it. They were very funny .Joe Noonan looked like a Leprechaun, sent from central casting His partner in crime was Ed Curran. Ed could have been in the Irish Mafia. He looked the part.
One Friday, right on time, 12:10, in walks Chicago.
Ed stopped at the middle of the bar and announced that “We brought the enemy with us today.” Filing in the door behind them is a tall, white-haired man who looked like a bookie. He was dressed casually but neat. He could have been golfing. His companions were wearing three piece suits. I didn’t realize he was with them until they all sat down at the same table in the backroom. Turns out he isn’t a bookie at all. He was Robert Poli, the President of PATCO. Professional Air Traffic Controllers Org. (This is the ultimate in foreshadowing for my current events scholars).
They filled up dozens of placemats with their negotiations. Bargaining Talking points, numbers, written by Joe and Ed in a cursive hand that is taught by many Catholic schools. Some of the notated placemats ended up in Joe or Ed’s pockets. Many of the marked up mats were thrown away.
Over the course of several months Chicago brought “The Enemy” in frequently. It wasn’t going well.
The union believed they could not be fired by the President. The PATCO president, Robert Poli, told his union that they could NOT be fired if they went on strike. This is the worst advice given to a union , by a union in modern American history.
It came to a head on August 1, 1981. PATCO called for a strike. there were 11,000 members. Eight thousand went on strike. President Reagan gave them 48 hours to report back to work. PATCO thought they would shut down the nation’s airlines. Now they were fired. Control towers were manned by the 3,000 that didn’t go on strike, military and retired air traffic controllers and hastily trained new hires.
This was a blow to organized labor from which they would never recover in their lifetime.
Chicago eventually retired. They would meet other FAA retirees once a month at Riordan’s. And now they all looked like golfers.
And Riordan’s held many of their secrets that were written on those old placemats almost 50 years ago.
###
