2000 rally in Boston to support Eastern strike

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3oston solidarity rally for striking Eastern workers was largest labor event since the 1940s.

BOSTON—Striking Eastern Airlines workers were treated to a show of solidarity from over 2000 trade unionists and other supporters at a rally in Boston on March 14—the largest labor solidarity rally in Boston since the 1940s. The rally, sponsored by the Massachusetts APL-CIO and the three striking unions—the International Association of Machinists (IAM), the Transport Workers Union (TWU), and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA)—was held at the Boston Teachers Union Hall.

The make-up of the crowd showed how deep the support is throughout the labor movement. There were large contingents from the building trades; from the rail unions, who had met earlier with the IAM in anticipation of a secondary boycott of the local commuter Scott Adams-Cooper/Socialist Action rail lines; and a busload of members of the Harvard University Clerical and Technical Workers Union (HUCTWU), fresh from their organizing victory of last fall. There were paperworkers from Jay, Maine, and visiting auto workers and textile workers from Michigan, Virginia, Ohio, and Alabama.

The rally began with Boston-based strikers marching into the large hall to take an honored place at the front. Machinists and pilots in full uniform entered to cheers of "Union! Union!" Frank Myers, the regional director of the APL-CIO, told the rally that Eastern owner Frank Lorenzo had "grossly miscalculated the solidarity of the labor movement. The strike has reminded us that "an injury to one is an injury to all!'' Eddie Burke of IAM Local 1726, who chaired the meeting, told Lorenzo, "You can pay us now or you can pay us later, but you're not going to fly this airline with scab labor." Arthur Osborne of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, referring to Eastern's discount fares on its Boston-New York-Washington shuttle, said, "Lorenzo can fly his planes for gas money, and we'll grow stronger every day."

One high point of the rally was the address Organization for Women. Yard flew in from Washington, D.C., just to attend the rally and offer her solidarity [see center pages]. She was greeted with cheers, particularly from the Flight Attendants, when she linked the struggle of labor with the struggle for women's rights. Yard promised N.O.W.'s support to the striking Eastern workers, and encouraged them to attend the April 9 march for women's rights in Washington, D.C. Boston N.O.W. plans to subsidize buses for Plight Attendants to attend the march.

Led by members of HUCTWU, people sang "Solidarity Forever" and filled buckets with money for the Flight Attendants, who have nothing in their strike fund and are barely getting by. Pilots, many of whom make upwards of $100,000 a year, were seen throwing $100 dollar bills into the buckets.

Other speakers included Gov. Michael Dukakis, and two possible successors-Lt. Governor Evelyn Murphy and Mayor Ray Flynn of Boston. Murphy provided perhaps the most picturesque quote of the night, charging Lorenzo with being the "mastermind of the great plane robbery of 1989." Massachusetts Labor Secretary Paul Eustace, a former Eastern machinist, also spoke.

(It's ironic that, with all of this "support" from the state government leadership, the strikers are being hassled by the state agency that runs the airport in Boston. MassPort limits picketers to 10 per line, and forbids leafleting and picketing at the same site.)

Signs from union locals around the city covered the walls of the hall, and handmade signs saying "Stop union busting," "Solidarity," and "Labor supports Eastern workers" abounded.

As Eddie Burke told the crowd, "The movement is alive and well, and we can see it here tonight." He asked the crowd, "Is dead?," and was met with fists in the air and a thousand shouts of "No!"