The FAA’s 40-year staffing hangover from Reagan’s mass firings just got worse

image: aappp/Shutterstock

Forty-four years after Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers, in a union-busting act of bravado, reshaped federal labor policy, and left the FAA chronically understaffed, the ghosts of that decision are on the radar screens once again. As the government shutdown drags on, unpaid controllers are ca…