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# August 11, 1981
- URL: https://oldnews.press/august-11-1981/
- Published: 2026-10-13T23:30:45.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-13T23:30:44.000Z
- Description: August 11th 1981: the PATCO strike grinds on, Solidarity presses Poland, Cesar Chavez's farm workers face arrest, and Reagan backs the neutron weapon.
- Author: Douglas Novielli
- Tags: 1980s, War & Conflict, Economy, Science

The second week of August 1981 was an interesting time for baseball fans. The season had been put on hold when the players' union [called a strike](https://thisgreatgame.com/1981-baseball-history?ref=oldnews.press), and games had only just started up again with the August 9 All-Star Game. There were plenty of compelling reasons to travel for a game or three. The Toronto Blue Jays were in their fifth year of existence, and the Montreal Expos were playing in the exquisitely cavernous [Stade Olympique](https://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/en/articles/montreal-olympic-stadium-complex?ref=oldnews.press), an ambitious example of organic modernist architecture. Unfortunately for summer vacationers in the jet set, the players came back to work just as air traffic controllers were walking out.

On August 3, 1981, the [Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization](https://lhrp.georgetown.edu/collections/the-1981-patco-strike/?ref=oldnews.press) (PATCO) went on strike after negotiations with the Federal Aviation Administration broke down. The union had asked for a $10,000 raise, a 32-hour workweek, and richer retirement benefits, and they rejected the FAA's $40 million counteroffer. By August 11, 1981, most newspapers across the country were reporting on disruptions to air travel and the day-by-day process of court hearings and unsuccessful resolutions. The air travel industry was still dominated by carriers who enjoyed government subsidies to operate. In 1981 itself, only 24 % of American adults had flown on an airline in the past year, and just 65 % had ever flown in their lifetime; by 2024, for the first time ever, more than half of Americans had flown in the past year, and nearly 90 % had flown at some point.[\[1\]](#fn1)

*The* [*Times-News*](https://archive.org/details/The%5FTimes%5FNews%5FIdaho%5FNewspaper%5F1981%5F08%5F11), a local daily from Twin Falls, Idaho, ran a short UPI wire piece headlined "Judge Takes First Step in Decertifying Union." Administrative law judge John Fenton found, after five hours of hearing, that there was "a prima facie case that the union is involved in a strike" — the first step toward the government's effort to decertify PATCO as bargaining agent for the nation's air traffic controllers. Fenton also refused a PATCO request to delay the union's rebuttal by 30 days.

Labor strife wasn't limited to the skies. Another small UPI piece in the *Times-News*, headlined "Tensions Rise Once Again in Poland," reported that [Solidarity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity%5F%28Polish%5Ftrade%5Funion%29?ref=oldnews.press) leaders had accused the government of "trying to destroy the independent labor movement" and warned it risked plunging the country into a state of emergency, while up to 100,000 workers staged protests against meat rationing. The Polish army newspaper also leaked word that Czechoslovak troops had joined Soviet forces already conducting training exercises across southern Poland — no doubt conjuring memories of the earlier Soviet-led repression of independence movements in [Hungary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian%5FRevolution%5Fof%5F1956?ref=oldnews.press) and [Czechoslovakia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague%5FSpring?ref=oldnews.press).[\[2\]](#fn2) The efforts of Solidarity led to happier outcomes than the earlier, spontaneous resistance in those countries. Founded in September 1980, the union was a coalition of broader anti-Soviet efforts, and in 1989 Solidarity led the opposition which negotiated for free elections in Poland that summer.

Cesar Chavez

![Cesar Chavez sits at a table in a book-lined room, reading a sheaf of typed papers. He wears a dark sweater over an open-collared white shirt, with a small union pin on his chest.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/76/e7/76e77e0c-20db-46f9-ba58-8f7f330ef18f/content/images/2026/08/02_card_11Aug_bio_1_img1.jpeg) 

Cesar Chavez (1927–1993) co‑founded what became the United Farm Workers with [Dolores Huerta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores%5FHuerta?ref=oldnews.press) in 1962 and spent three decades organizing California farmworkers through strikes, boycotts, and nonviolent protest modeled on Gandhi and King.

Photograph: [note 4](#fn4).

In California, the [*Lodi News-Sentinel*](https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gOMzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QTIHAAAAIBAJ&pg=6500%2C5058879&ref=oldnews.press) ran a UPI piece, "Chavez, Followers Arrested Again," on the farm labor leader's detention near Hollister. Cesar Chavez and several [United Farm Workers](https://ufw.org/research/history/story-cesar-chavez/?ref=oldnews.press) members were taken into custody and released after trying, for the second time in five days, to enter Bertuccio Farms to talk with field hands who had crossed UFW picket lines. The union had been on strike at Bertuccio—which grows lettuce, apricots, and other crops—since early July and was separately on strike against Steak-Mate as well.[\[3\]](#fn3)

The A-1 story in the *Times-News* wasn't about labor, budgets, or historic reputations, it was a heat wave caused by an "unmoving wall of high pressure" over Oregon and Washington. Weekend readings hit 114 degrees at Medford, Oregon, and 99-degree heat in Seattle closed the [Evergreen Floating Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen%5FPoint%5FFloating%5FBridge?ref=oldnews.press) across Lake Washington for over an hour when its drawspan stuck from expanding steel and concrete. A brush fire in Redmond, Washington, destroyed nearly a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of about 200 residents. Portland-area stores sold out of air conditioners and fans, and in Vancouver, Washington, about 30 sweltering jail inmates staged a "destructive rampage," demanding fans, ice water, and cooler showers.

More of the West battled fires that week. [*The Bulletin*](https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NkBYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2fYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6618%2C3511319&ref=oldnews.press)[\[6\]](#fn6) reported a Nevada range fire near Lake Tahoe that had burned 9,000 acres of suburbs and brushland into a federal disaster area; more than 3,400 acres blackened in the Washoe Valley between Carson City and Reno and another 5,500 acres on Mount Rose, with 25 homes destroyed. In California's Lake County, nearly 1,500 firefighters battled four fires across 31,000 acres, including the 20,500-acre Cow Mountain blaze, which destroyed the Scotts Valley community center and 20 other structures near Lakeport. And in Oregon, two forest fires burned out of control in the south of the state, part of "a rash of firefighting activity sparked by one of the worst heat waves in the state's history."

*The New York Times* ran a story headlined ["Climate Cycles Studied in Effort to Curb Drought,"](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/11/us/climate-cycles-studied-in-effort-to-curb-drought.html?ref=oldnews.press) reporting mounting evidence that the U.S. climate had been stable over the last 400 years. Researchers believed the recent West Coast droughts, which had raised concerns for agriculture, followed a measure of natural regularity. A 1976 climate study warned of an ominous long-term outlook, noting the "20th century was more favorable to agriculture than...the last 10,000 years," and that a cooling trend might gradually shift precipitation patterns. These findings contrasted with a 1974 "secret report circulated in the Central Intelligence Agency," which had warned of a pre-1850-style climate marked by drought, famine, and political unrest. The CIA reportedly wanted the ability to anticipate the economic and political fallout of "worldwide failures in food production," and to "assess a nation's propensity to initiate militarily large-scale migrations of their people."[\[7\]](#fn7) [\[8\]](#fn8)

In contrast, the paper's Science Watch insert reported that researchers Dr. Linda Craighead of Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Albert Stunkard of the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Richard M. O'Brien of Hofstra University had completed the ["first large-scale, long-term study comparing drug therapy with behavior modification"](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/11/science/science-watch-drugs-for-weight-loss.html?ref=oldnews.press) for treating obesity. The study included 120 women — some received behavior therapy, such as keeping a food diary, keeping tempting foods out of sight, and increasing exercise, while others received weight-loss drugs. After a year, women who received behavior therapy alone "regained less weight and weighed less than those who had drug therapy alone or combined with behavior therapy."[\[9\]](#fn9)

August 11, 1981 was still early in the presidency of Ronald Reagan, but one decision covered in *The New York Times* that day was likely seen as indicative of the policies to come. The special report was credited to Richard Halloran. He reported that Secretary of Defense [Caspar Weinberger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar%5FWeinberger?ref=oldnews.press) had announced that ["the United States was producing neutron weapons."](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/11/us/weinberger-says-neutron-weapons-are-being-built.html?ref=oldnews.press) The decision was at least somewhat controversial with American allies—Western European governments were reportedly annoyed with the timing—and the Secretary spent time giving interviews to British and West German news agencies.

The Price of Labor

1975 LEVEL 19751980198519901995200020052010201520202025 AUG. 1981 +4%−59%−64% factory wage,in real termsunion membershipmanufacturing’sshare of all jobs 

Scroll the chart sideways, or read the table below.

Union membership before 1983 (dashed) rests on a different survey.

The share of manufacturing jobs tracked the decline in union membership, but the average factory wage remains nearly unchanged. In 1981, factory workers were paid an average of $7.87 per hour, or $28.66 in today’s dollars. By 2026, the wage was $30.05.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. Figures, sources and definitions: [note 5](#fn5).

“An Ink‑Stained Wretch”

![Richard Halloran, a bespectacled middle-aged man in a dark jacket, speaking on camera. A television caption across the bottom of the frame reads RICHARD HALLORAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/76/e7/76e77e0c-20db-46f9-ba58-8f7f330ef18f/content/images/2026/08/06_card_11Aug_bio_3_img1.jpeg) 

Richard Halloran (1930–2020) was *The New York Times*’s military correspondent for a decade, covering the Pentagon and armed forces after earlier reporting tours across Asia for *The Washington Post* and *Business Week*. He later became a Honolulu‑based columnist on U.S.–Asia relations.

The phrase is his own. Sources: [note 10](#fn10).

Halloran explained in his report that the [neutron bomb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron%5Fbomb?ref=oldnews.press) produces more radiation and less blast or heat than the more familiar fission and thermonuclear weapons. Its design envisioned a different application: concentrated in a smaller geographic space, it would be effective at killing people without destroying as much infrastructure. Weinberger responded to the public's sense that this intentionally prioritized property over lives, saying, "There's been a lot of nonsense that it only kills people and doesn't destroy buildings or property. Of course it destroys property and of course it kills people because, unfortunately, that's what war weapons are for."

The weapons had other advantages that may explain why the Reagan administration chose to make them part of the U.S. tactical arsenal. Weinberger told reporters they would be cheaper and ready more quickly than other armaments and could be deployed rapidly. In a comment that may have underlined the administration's view of the neutron bomb as just another tool against Soviet aggression, the Secretary said, "There is no particular reason to consult anyone any more than there would have been to consult on the production of the 155-millimeter conventional artillery bomb." It would be difficult to say what response such a comment would elicit from the American public today, but in any case, the American neutron weapons were retired in 1992 by then President George H.W. Bush.

Notes

1. 1Airlines for America, ["Status of Air Travel in the USA"](https://airlines.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/2016Survey.pdf?ref=oldnews.press) (2016), slide 3, and ["For the First Time Ever, More Than Half of Americans Reported Taking at Least One Airline Trip"](https://www.airlines.org/news-update/nearly-70-of-americans-satisfied-with-their-air-travel-experience-in-2024/?ref=oldnews.press) (March 28, 2025).
2. 2The state of emergency arrived four months later. [Martial law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial%5Flaw%5Fin%5FPoland?ref=oldnews.press) was declared on December 13, 1981, and Solidarity was driven underground and formally outlawed the following year. It was legal again by 1989, and Lech Wałęsa was president of Poland in 1990.
3. 3The first arrest, five days earlier on August 7, took in Chavez, his son Paul, and about thirty Bertuccio strikers, and made national news; a county judge then restricted the union's access to the property. Both arrests turned on a California regulation permitting organizers onto an employer's land to speak with workers— rule then before the state Supreme Court, and one that survived until 2021, when the U.S. Supreme Court held in [*Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar%5FPoint%5FNursery%5Fv.%5FHassid?ref=oldnews.press) that it amounted to a taking of private property. Background on the Hollister strike from [BenitoLink](https://benitolink.com/cesar-chavez-a-legacy-deeply-rooted-in-san-benito-county/?ref=oldnews.press).
4. 4Photograph by Marion S. Trikosko, [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2016646410/?ref=oldnews.press), public domain; via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70182737&ref=oldnews.press). Reproduced full frame and unretouched.
5. 5The figures behind the chart. In 1981, 21.7 percent of workers belonged to a union, 18.6 million Americans worked in manufacturing, and manufacturing accounted for 20.4 percent of all jobs. Today the union rate is 10.0 percent, 12.6 million work in manufacturing, and manufacturing is 7.9 percent of all jobs. The factory wage was $7.87 an hour in 1981 and is $30.05 now; $7.87 in 1981 is worth $28.66 in 2026 money. Wages are the average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory manufacturing workers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' [Current Employment Statistics](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES3000000008?ref=oldnews.press) survey, deflated by the [consumer price index for all urban consumers](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCNS?ref=oldnews.press); employment and its share of all jobs come from the same survey. Union membership is the share of workers belonging to a union — from 1983, the Current Population Survey outgoing rotation groups as compiled by Hirsch, Macpherson and Even at [unionstats.com](https://www.unionstats.com/?ref=oldnews.press); before that, Hirsch, Macpherson and Vroman, ["State-Level Estimates of Union Density, 1964 to Present,"](https://unionstats.com/mlr/MLR%5FStateUnion%5FJuly%202001.pdf?ref=oldnews.press) *Monthly Labor Review*, July 2001, which rests on the May CPS and measures against non-agricultural employment rather than all wage and salary workers. Where the two overlap they differ by about a third of a percentage point, which is why the early stretch of that line is drawn dashed. The chart measures each series against its own 1975 level. It plots manufacturing's share of all jobs rather than the number of factory jobs because the number sat at a recession trough in 1975 and peaked in 1979, so it would look very different from another starting year, while the share barely moves between those two — 21.9 percent against 21.6\. Figures are annual averages, and "today" is 2026 through July, except the union rate, which is the 2025 figure. The October 2025 Current Population Survey was not collected during the federal government shutdown, so 2025 rests on eleven months and the Bureau warns it is not strictly comparable with other years.
6. 6*The Bulletin* is a daily newspaper published in Bend, Oregon.
7. 7Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Research and Development, [*A Study of Climatological Research as it Pertains to Intelligence Problems*](https://www.governmentattic.org/18docs/CIAclimateResearchIntellProbs%5F1974.pdf?ref=oldnews.press) (August 1974), declassified via FOIA, 2015.
8. 8Eleven days later the same paper ran a different forecast. On August 22, 1981, the *Times* carried "Study Finds Warming Trend That Could Raise Sea Levels" on page one, reporting a NASA paper that appeared in *Science* the following week: J. Hansen et al., ["Climate Impact of Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide,"](https://www.giss.nasa.gov/pubs/abs/ha04600x.html?ref=oldnews.press) *Science* 213 (August 28, 1981), 957–966.
9. 9The drug was fenfluramine hydrochloride. During the six months of treatment the drug groups actually did better—14.5 kg lost on the drug alone and 15.3 kg on the combination, against 10.9 kg for behavior therapy—and the ranking reversed only at the one-year follow-up. L.W. Craighead, A.J. Stunkard and R.M. O'Brien, ["Behavior Therapy and Pharmacotherapy for Obesity,"](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7247639/?ref=oldnews.press) *Archives of General Psychiatry* 38 (July 1981), 763–768\. Sixteen years later, as half of the "fen-phen" combination, [fenfluramine was withdrawn](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9385873/?ref=oldnews.press) from the American market on September 15, 1997, after being linked to valvular heart disease.
10. 10Halloran called himself "an ink-stained wretch" often enough that his obituary opened with it: ["Richard Colby Halloran"](https://www.altogetherfuneral.com/obituaries/carroll-lewellen-funeral-cremation-services/longmont-colorado/richard-halloran/august-2020?ref=oldnews.press), Carroll-Lewellen Funeral & Cremation Services, Longmont, Colorado, August 30, 2020\. Photograph: [C-SPAN](https://www.c-span.org/person/richard-halloran/2338/?ref=oldnews.press). The caption bar identifying him is C-SPAN's own, part of the video frame.