Address On The Air Traffic Controllers Strike Footage

Address on the Air Traffic Controllers Strike
This clip is not available for streaming at this time. Please contact WPA.	Tape Master:	1196
	Catalog #:	494260
	Clip Number:	494260-4
	Orginal Film:
	Timecode:	04:09:37 - 04:13:18
	Location:	Washington, DC
	Year Shot:	1981 (Actual Year)
	Audio:	Yes
	Color:	Yes
	Headings:	JOURNALISM: Press Conference LABOR UNIONS: Strikes LOCATIONS/NORTH AMERICA: USA, Washington D.C. PERSONALITIES: Reagan, Ronald POLITICS: Public Address (Speech)
	Description:	Press. Mr. President, will you delay your trip to California or cancel it if the strike is still on later this week? Reagan. If any situation should arise that would require my presence here, naturally I will do that. So, that will be a decision that awaits what's going to happen. May I just, because I have to be back in there for another appointment, may I just say one thing on top of this? With all this talk of penalties and everything else, I hope that you'll emphasize, again, the possibility of termination, because I believe that there are a great many of those people, and they're fine people, who have been swept up in this and probably have not really considered the result, the fact that they had taken an oath, the fact that this is now in violation of the law, as that one supervisor referred to with regard to his children. And I am hoping that they will in a sense remove themselves from the lawbreaker situation by returning to their posts. I have no way to know whether this had been conveyed to them by their union leaders, who had been informed that this would be the result of a strike. Press. Your deadline is 7 o'clock Wednesday morning for them to return to work? Reagan. Forty-eight hours. The Secretary of Transportation, Drew Lewis. It's 11 o'clock Wednesday morning. Press. Mr. President, why have you taken such strong action as your first action? Why not some lesser action at this point? Reagan. What lesser action can there be? The law is very explicit. They are violating the law. And as I say, we called this to the attention of their leadership. Whether this was conveyed to the membership before they voted to strike, I don't know. But this is one of the reasons why there can be no further negotiation while this situation continues. You can't sit and negotiate with a union that's in violation of the law. The Secretary of Transportation, Drew Lewis. And their oath. Reagan. And their oath. Press. Are you more likely to proceed in the criminal direction toward the leadership than the rank and file, Mr. President? Reagan. Well, that again is not for me to answer. Press. Mr. Secretary, what can you tell us about the possible use of military air controllers, how many, how quickly can they get on the job? The Secretary of Transportation, Drew Lewis. In answer to the previous question, we will move both civil and criminal, probably more civil than criminal, and we now have papers in the U.S. attorneys offices, under the Attorney General, in about 20 locations around the country where would be involved two or three principal people. As far as the military personnel are concerned, they are going to fundamentally be backup to the supervisory personnel. We had 150 on the job, supposedly, about a half-hour ago. We're going to increase that to somewhere between 700 and 850. (Reagan leaves the conference.) Press. Mr. Secretary, are you ready to hire other people should these other people not return? The Secretary of Transportation, Drew Lewis. Yes, we will, and we hope we do not reach that point. Again as the President said, we're hoping these people come back to work. They do a fine job. If that does not take place, we have a training school, as you know. We will be advertising. We have a number of applicants right now. There's a waiting list in terms of people that want to be controllers, and we'll start retraining and reorganize the entire FAA traffic controller group. Press. Just to clarify, is your deadline 7 a.m. Wednedsay or 11 o'clock? The Secretary of Transportation, Drew Lewis. It's 11 a.m. Wednesday. The President said 48 hours, and that would be 48 hours.