Reagan was also about to receive the nod from the seventeen-thousand-member Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization union, who said Carter had “mismanaged” the air traffic control system, while Reagan understood “the vital role of the professional controller”: the endorsement came in exchange for a pledge to appoint a new FAA administrator who had their approval—and might also have been motivated by knowledge that President Carter had a plan on the books to undermine their union should they strike when their contract came up for renegotiation the following year. Reagan
