Robert Poli | Leader of controllers' strike, 78
Robert Poli, 78, an air traffic controller who rose to the top of his union and led a 1981 strike that turned into a momentous defeat for organized labor, died Sept. 15 at his home in Meridian, Idaho, of kidney and respiratory failure.
Robert Poli, 78, an air traffic controller who rose to the top of his union and led a 1981 strike that turned into a momentous defeat for organized labor, died Sept. 15 at his home in Meridian, Idaho, of kidney and respiratory failure.
As president of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, Mr. Poli led more than 11,000 members off the job Aug. 3, 1981. Federal workers are barred from striking, but Mr. Poli liked to rally his members by declaring that "the only illegal strike is an unsuccessful one."
"The biggest regret I have is not the strike," he said at a 1982 gathering in Memphis. "The biggest regret I have is the men and women I knew so well . . . will be branded as malcontents, money-grabbers, and people who conducted the most ridiculous strike in history."
After leaving the union, he was involved with a Florida real estate development owned by General Electric. He was also general manager of a BMW dealership before retiring. - Los Angeles Times