Pinback Button, "Bust Reagan Not Unions"

1981

This pinback button urges support for PATCO, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, in a strike that pitted the union against President Reagan in 1981. Major changes in labor relations resulted from the strike and the government’s unprecedented response of firing and replacing unionized federal workers. The blue-and-white pin belonged to reporter Ethel L. Payne (1911-1991), who had long followed unions due the interconnectedness of jobs and civil rights. She covered the AFL-CIO’s merger in 1955 for the preeminent African American newspaper, The Chicago Defender, and, in 1958, she joined the AFL-CIO’s staff. A longtime Washington, DC resident and civil rights activist, Payne became known as First Lady of the Black Press for her pioneering journalism career.