I don't know how many of you remember August 5, 1981...but on that date President Ronald Reagan carried out his promise of the biggest mass firing of union labor the country had ever seen. Eleven thousand PATCO workers (air traffic controllers) were axed when they refused to follow the president's orders to return to work or face being fired. They didn't and HE DID. Dumb bastards were never re-hired in their lifetime. Best act by a President of the U.S.A. EVER.
Actually, a lot of them were rehired by Bill Clinton, who lifted the ban in 1993.
To the point, though, the PATCO strike was the signal that employers could screw working folks, and it hasn't been good for the country in general. Some of us are old enough to remember what a middle class looks like...