Challenge: Strikers Win Against Reagan

How about the following POD:

10:08 PM, Friday, Feb. 20th 1981

Due to pilot error, dense fog, and a faulty anti-collision warning system [1],
Argentine Airlines Flight 342 slams into the North Tower of the World Trade
Center. The resulting fire causes the tower to collapse; the South Tower
remains standing, but is so badly damaged it ends up being demolished.
Lower Manhattan is cordoned off for nearly a year while this takes place.

PATCO votes to go on strike two weeks later. For years the FAA has been
ignoring complaints about faulty equipment and controller overwork, and
now a major disaster is the result. Reagan can't fire them without looking
like he's trying to punish whistleblowers, so he gives in to most of their
demands and fires some mid-level scapegoats at the FAA instead.


[1] In OTL, the warning system (which was constantly breaking down)
alerted controllers less than a minute before the plane would have hit the
building; visibility was only a few hundred yards in the fog, so the pilots
probably would not have seen the tower until it was too late.
 
How about the following POD:

10:08 PM, Friday, Feb. 20th 1981

Due to pilot error, dense fog, and a faulty anti-collision warning system [1],
Argentine Airlines Flight 342 slams into the North Tower of the World Trade
Center. The resulting fire causes the tower to collapse; the South Tower
remains standing, but is so badly damaged it ends up being demolished.
Lower Manhattan is cordoned off for nearly a year while this takes place.

PATCO votes to go on strike two weeks later. For years the FAA has been
ignoring complaints about faulty equipment and controller overwork, and
now a major disaster is the result. Reagan can't fire them without looking
like he's trying to punish whistleblowers, so he gives in to most of their
demands and fires some mid-level scapegoats at the FAA instead.


[1] In OTL, the warning system (which was constantly breaking down)
alerted controllers less than a minute before the plane would have hit the
building; visibility was only a few hundred yards in the fog, so the pilots
probably would not have seen the tower until it was too late.

That would do it...

IMO any accidents that happened after the strike started would at least be split between the union and Regan, and Regan, being the communicator that he was, would quickly get a leg up if there was any single whiff that the union's strike was the cause of the accident i.e. "The union threatened the replacement worker's family" or etc...

In this instance though... you get an 'We TOLD you we couldn't keep this up... and now we're looking at the consequences...' Now the strike looks entirely reasonable since losing the WTC and undoubtedly hundreds / thousands of lives is unacceptable.

Having it happen less than a month into Reagan's term he escapes the vast majority of the blame, and Carter ends up as history's consensus for 'worst President ever'.

As an aside, would losing the WTC at this time and in such a manner be a larger or lesser blow on the American psyche than 9/11? Deliberate terrorism vs stupid, entirely avoidable accident...
 
Actually, the momentum from this would help Unions in other areas, and Reagan would also lose big political points, to say the least. Even if he's only a month in his presidency, he's the one that tried to fight the Unions so much.
 
Actually, the momentum from this would help Unions in other areas, and Reagan would also lose big political points, to say the least. Even if he's only a month in his presidency, he's the one that tried to fight the Unions so much.

Except no one is going to think that in a mere month he can effect anything that much. That early in his term he can easily blame the Carter Administration.
 
Immediately, no. Later on? Yes. Again, this was a turning point for Unions. If they win, this would lead to Unions far more entrenched, and far harder for Reagan to deal with, as they would have more public support.
 
Immediately, no. Later on? Yes. Again, this was a turning point for Unions. If they win, this would lead to Unions far more entrenched, and far harder for Reagan to deal with, as they would have more public support.

Reagan was savvier than that I think, he's not going to challenge the ATC at all. Heck there might not even be a strike in this case, and if there is it only gets hung up if the ATC's go absolutely nuts in their demands, which gives Reagan ammo in saying "I've adopted all their work and safety suggestions, but they are angling for X! (X being completely unrelated to safety) I can't agree to X."

It's one thing where a safety issue results in an absolute catastrophe as in this hypothetical and more mundane issues like wages and pensions. Like it or not the fact is fixed benefit pensions and other systems like it are an absolute money pit, and greater union membership / support leads to those systems failing or coming under pressure / scrutiny all that much quicker. Reagan can assault unions on those grounds, maybe not as strongly as OTL, but it's not out of the question that greater union entrenchment and support early on leads to greater union overreach later on for Reagan to hammer.
 
Reagan was savvier than that I think, he's not going to challenge the ATC at all. Heck there might not even be a strike in this case, and if there is it only gets hung up if the ATC's go absolutely nuts in their demands, which gives Reagan ammo in saying "I've adopted all their work and safety suggestions, but they are angling for X! (X being completely unrelated to safety) I can't agree to X."

It's one thing where a safety issue results in an absolute catastrophe as in this hypothetical and more mundane issues like wages and pensions. Like it or not the fact is fixed benefit pensions and other systems like it are an absolute money pit, and greater union membership / support leads to those systems failing or coming under pressure / scrutiny all that much quicker. Reagan can assault unions on those grounds, maybe not as strongly as OTL, but it's not out of the question that greater union entrenchment and support early on leads to greater union overreach later on for Reagan to hammer.

The key though is they have public support. Additionally, if Reagan raises a fuss, they'll say something like, "It's because of people like this that the North Tower fell." He may be charismatic and clever, but he isn't perfect.
 
The key though is they have public support. Additionally, if Reagan raises a fuss, they'll say something like, "It's because of people like this that the North Tower fell." He may be charismatic and clever, but he isn't perfect.


If he only challanges wages all he does is say that it is because of the lax safety standards of the Carter Administration. Since he is only a month on the job JC is going to get the blame.
 
If he only challanges wages all he does is say that it is because of the lax safety standards of the Carter Administration. Since he is only a month on the job JC is going to get the blame.

Is there a way where all the blame firmly lands of Reagan? Or is that basically not possible?
 
Is there a way where all the blame firmly lands of Reagan? Or is that basically not possible?

Reagan getting blamed less than a month into his Presidency is pretty much ASB in this hypothetical unless he completely FUBAR's things and further accidents happen, he'd be blamed much more for those, but this incident is much more a 'rude awakening' to a long standing problem than something sudden. The lion's share of the blame will be on Carter's shoulders, with probably stuff tracing back to Ford, Nixon and possibly LBJ.

With Reagan being as good a communicator as he is, even if he does eff things up worse it would have to be well into his term before people stop blaming Carter, kinda like how Obama is going to try and turn the 2012 race against him vs George Bush rather than the actual Rep candidate if said candidate is Mitt Romney...

With this POD, Carter will probably end up more hated than Nixon.
 
Reagan getting blamed less than a month into his Presidency is pretty much ASB in this hypothetical unless he completely FUBAR's things and further accidents happen, he'd be blamed much more for those, but this incident is much more a 'rude awakening' to a long standing problem than something sudden. The lion's share of the blame will be on Carter's shoulders, with probably stuff tracing back to Ford, Nixon and possibly LBJ.

With Reagan being as good a communicator as he is, even if he does eff things up worse it would have to be well into his term before people stop blaming Carter, kinda like how Obama is going to try and turn the 2012 race against him vs George Bush rather than the actual Rep candidate if said candidate is Mitt Romney...

With this POD, Carter will probably end up more hated than Nixon.

Well... there is one way, but it has nothing to do with this so I won't bring it up. It isn't technically ASB though.

In the meantime, regardless, I think this would lead to stronger Unions, which will seek ways to combat Reagan's charisma, among other things.
 
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