I Marched on Solidarity Day

White backgroung with blue around the rim and red text in the center with a simple illustration of two hands shaking above the red text 

Solidarity Day was a national labor march that took place at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on September 19, 1981. The march, attended by over 260,000 people, was organized in solidarity with members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), in response to a strike of over 12,000 members that began on August 3, 1981 against high stress working conditions that were put both members' health and the airline safety at risk. After only two days of the strike, then-president Ronald Reagan fired the air controllers and brought in military personnel as strikebreakers. The march was supported by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and participants came from a variety of organizations, unions, and civil rights groups to protest in favor of labor rights.