Given recent plane crashes and the power outage at Newark Airport, HBO’s John Oliver decided to dedicate Sunday’s edition of Last Week Tonight to the state of air traffic control, where he turned back the clock to 1981 to declare former President Ronald Reagan to be the main villain.
Introducing a news clip from 1981, Oliver declared, “And one major challenge for controllers today is that there simply aren't enough of them. We've actually been short-handed for years now, and, as with so many things on this show, at least some of the blame lies with Ronald Reagan. In the early 1980s, as air travel was booming, the air traffic controllers' union was pushing for improved staffing levels, benefits, and technology. They backed Reagan as a candidate, because he'd promised to deliver on that—but once he took office, he failed to follow through, and they went on strike. And in response, Reagan hit back, hard.”
The clip showed Reagan at the White House with Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis and a soundbite from a striking controller, who had a distinct mustache:
RONALD REAGAN: You can't sit and negotiate with the union that's in violation of the law.
DREW LEWIS: And their oath.
REAGAN: And their oath.
FEMALE REPORTER: With those words, President Reagan told the air traffic controllers to be back in the towers Wednesday morning or they'd be fired and face prosecution.
MAN: I don't care whether he fires us or not. If he does, it's going to take years to get controllers back in the field.
After the clip, Oliver resumed his rant, “Yeah, not really hard to know who to root for there. On one side you've got America's worst theater adult treating a union of essential workers like a terrorist organization, and on the other, you've got a certifiable daddy with a fresh bowl and a mustache that you know tickles all the right places.”
Oliver then blamed Reagan for ATC’s current state of affairs, “And Reagan wasn't bluffing by the way; 11,000 air traffic controllers ultimately did strike, and he fired them all, banning them from ever being rehired. And that left some important legacies, including a massive, panicked hiring spree of new controllers, meaning that, two decades later, there was also a massive wave of retirements. The FAA has never really managed to catch up with hiring since then.”
First of all, Bill Clinton lifted that ban. Second, and more important, the strike was, as Reagan said, illegal. We can all appreciate that the stress and anxiety controllers experience is something most of us do not experience in our jobs. However, the same can be said for police officers and firefighters, but the reason why they can’t go on strike is because those jobs are critical for public safety. Even if one accepts that Oliver’s incredulous thesis that the 1981 strike is to blame for 2025’s state of affairs is correct, it would be the union’s fault.
Here is a transcript for the June 1 show:
HBO Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
6/1/2025
11:19 AM ET
JOHN OLIVER: And one major challenge for controllers today is that there simply aren't enough of them. We've actually been short-handed for years now, and, as with so many things on this show, at least some of the blame lies with Ronald Reagan. In the early 1980s, as air travel was booming, the air traffic controllers' union was pushing for improved staffing levels, benefits, and technology. They backed Reagan as a candidate, because he'd promised to deliver on that — but once he took office, he failed to follow through, and they went on strike. And in response, Reagan hit back, hard.
RONALD REAGAN: You can't sit and negotiate with the union that's in violation of the law.
DREW LEWIS: And their oath.
REAGAN: And their oath.
FEMALE REPORTER: With those words, President Reagan told the air traffic controllers to be back in the towers Wednesday morning or they'd be fired and face prosecution.
MAN: I don't care whether he fires us or not. If he does, it's going to take years to get controllers back in the field.
OLIVER: Yeah, not really hard to know who to root for there. On one side you've got America's worst theater adult treating a union of essential workers like a terrorist organization, and on the other, you've got a certifiable daddy with a fresh bowl and a mustache that you know tickles all the right places.
And Reagan wasn't bluffing by the way; 11,000 air traffic controllers ultimately did strike, and he fired them all, banning them from ever being rehired. And that left some important legacies, including a massive, panicked hiring spree of new controllers, meaning that, two decades later, there was also a massive wave of retirements. The FAA has never really managed to catch up with hiring since then.