Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (1968)

PATCO
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization
Founded1968
Dissolved1981
Location
  • United States
Members13,000

The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) was a United States trade union of air traffic controllers that operated from 1968 until its decertification in 1981 following an illegal labor strike broken by the Reagan administration. In striking, the union violated 5 U.S.C. (Supp. III 1956) 118p (now 5 U.S.C. § 7311), which prohibits strikes by federal government employees.