Reagan the Labor Hero

Alex Bastani, a union chief at the federal Labor Department, is upset that the agency is inducting former President Ronald Reagan into its Labor Hall of Fame. He’d be wise to call up the union that nominated him for the honor: the Sergeants Benevolent Association of New York City.

Bastani, the head of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 12, wrote Labor Secretary Alex Acosta to express his “shock and disappointment,” since President Reagan in 1981 famously fired 11,000 air-traffic controllers who’d gone on strike.

Thing is, it was an strike — and one that plainly showed contempt for the safety of the American public.

And Reagan was also the first union member to win the White House. Indeed, as Acosta noted in remarks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, he “led the Screen Actors Guild during its first three strikes.”

As head of SAG, he won his members “never-before-seen concessions . . . which included residual payments and health and pension benefits.”

And, as US president, “his support for [the union movement] Solidarity in Poland prompted a flourishing of freedom that ultimately led to the collapse of communism.”

The SBA nominated Reagan in part because he was a “turning point” for this country. Darn straight.