Donald Kovacs oral history interview, March 20, 2015

Interviewed by Traci Drummond: In this interview, Kovacs initially discusses his family background and eventual enlistment into the United States Navy and service during Vietnam. He discusses his transition from military life to becoming an air traffic controller and a member of PATCO. Kovacs explains much of the early years of PATCO and his own membership in the organization leading into a leadership role. He elaborated on the conditions that led to the outbreak of the 1981 PATCO strike, discussing both the labor conditions for the workers themselves, the relationship with the federal government in trying to negotiate for better conditions without having to strike, and expectations held by PATCO’s members in regards to what they would gain from a strike. Kovacs discusses organizing the strike and gave his perspective on the public and the government’s reaction to the strike. He then gives his own experience from the fallout of the strike, discussing the effects of the mass firing and ban from public service as limiting his work opportunities, as well as giving a perspective on the process of replacing the fired workers and the eventual establishment of NATCA as a new professional organization representing air traffic control workers. Kovacs moved the discussion on to talking about his life after the strike, beginning with his attempts at changing careers before eventually returning to working as an air traffic controller after the ban on the strikers was lifted, closing with a retrospective take on how he later came to view the strike and what he thought could have been done differently with how PATCO carried out the strike.