OTHER NEWS - Feb. 4, 1993

Clinton Weighs Ending Air Controller Ban: President Clinton is considering lifting a ban on federal hiring of air traffic controllers involved in an illegal strike more than a decade ago, the White House said. The ban was imposed by then-President Ronald Reagan after members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers’ Organization walked off the job shortly after Reagan took office in 1981. Reagan’s action established him as a tough, no-nonsense leader, but it also created an antagonistic climate between the government and the labor movement. The ban is “something that became a symbol of the relationship between the federal government and labor unions during the 1980s. The President is committed to changing the tenor of that relationship,” White House spokesman Dee Dee Myers said in confirming that Clinton might lift the ban.