As part of the Tribune’s ongoing 175th anniversary celebration, the editorial board is reprinting some classic editorials. Here’s an editorial from Feb. 15, 1980, as the board reacted in shock to the news of a strike involving Chicago’s firefighters.
Chicago’s first, and so far, only firefighters strike started on Valentine's Day in 1980 and lasted for more than three weeks. Here, striking firefighters huddle around a trash barrel fire on Feb. 14, 1980, in a picket line.
How can they now behave like disgruntled hod carriers or militant autoworkers? How can they defy the law and betray the public trust? How can they go on strike? But did they, and their threat-spouting leaders, consider the price they and their city will pay for this unconscionable action? Can they visualize the contorted face of a grief-stricken mother whose baby died because firemen refused to do their duty? How long before outraged voices cry, “Murderers!” How many days, or even hours, will it take for the firemen to squander the deep reservoir of public trust and admiration accumulated in more than a century of exemplary...
In practical terms, the strike is self-defeating however short it may prove to be. To be successful, a strike by public employees must have public sympathy as the fruitless CTA strike so clearly demonstrated. There can be no such sympathy for men who deliberately abandon their duty to protect life and property. A strike may even call into question some basic assumptions about the need for firemen.
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