Boston labor activists discuss Eastern strike strategy, anti-union role of courts

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... Eastern strike 4 SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 1989 BOSTON-A spirited discussion on how to build the strike against Eastern Airlines took place at a Socialist Action forum held here on April 1.

Speaking at the forum were Judy Coughlin, national secretary-treasurer of the Transportation Workers Union, which represents Eastern Flight Attendants; Paul Cannon, former president of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) Local 202 in Nashua, N.H.; and David Walsh, past president of Transportation, Communications Union District 1089 (Amtrak) and member of Socialist Action.

Coughlin began by discussing the fallout in the airline unions since the PATCO strike in 1981, which "shook the airlines to the core." She continued, "Because the AFL-CIO refused to give official endorsement to the PATCO strike, it presented a terrible dilemma to us. I had just taken office as chairperson for Boston base, and I was shocked that my union wasn't officially supporting PATCO. Not only because it was the right thing to do as trade unionists, but also because it had such a profound effect on us."

The crushing of PATCO, said Coughlin, "made an indelible impression upon everyone. It meant that it was very difficult to get any action at any airline after that, and we thought that it would be a long time before we could ever get our members to support a strike or action of any kind."

Coughlin said that workers at Eastern have been very unhappy with management since the days of Frank Borman. She said that since Lorenzo came to Eastern, there has been a concerted effort by management to bust the unions. "People just decided that they had had enough. Lorenzo turned out to be the best organizing tool we ever had."

Solidarity from airline workers Coughlin gave the audience a glimpse of the solidarity building in the airline industry as she described the situation immediately before the strike. Flight Attendants were scattered in hotel rooms across the country when they decided to honor the picket lines, and most couldn't afford to get home.

"The day before the strike," she said, "the Delta pilots announced that they had negotiated a deal with Delta to grant our people a 75 percent discount. In the entire airline industry I know of only two people who had to pay anything to get back. They literally tapped pilots and agents of any airline anywhere on the shoulder and said, 'I Paul Cannon need to get home.' And they got home. And they were wined and dined on the plane."

Coughlin explained that the company had not given the pilots a contract because it expected them to cross the picket lines. "They thought the pilots weren't trade unionists," she said, noting that the pilots had learned a little about being trade unionists through this experience.

"One of the most important things about the strike," Coughlin noted, "is the solidarity shown between our three unions.... I don't think it would be as successful without it."

Lessons of PATCO strike Paul Cannon traced the history of the PATCO strike and outlined some of the tactics used by the government to break the Concentrating on the role of the courts, he showed how differently PATCO was treated in bankruptcy court than Eastern is. What did in PATCO was that "the organization went bankrupt because we had $32 million in fines."

Cannon noted how the courts are used against strikers in the public sector, with back-to-work orders, injunctions, and fines. "The PATCO strike was illegal. There's no question.... But it also has to be remembered that we were coming on to that strike after the 1960s and '70s, when strikes by public employees were happening every day—and they were all illegal."

Cannon continued, "We actually had a saying at PATCO that 'the only illegal strike is the unsuccessful strike."

During the PATCO strike in Nashua, "a Ryan LL Judy Coughlin scab came through the picket line and hit a striker. The striker was arrested for being hit by the car." When presidents of two locals protested this to the cops, they were arrested for violating the injunction against picketing in that spot. These men were tied up in court for months, with the charges ultimately being dismissed.

"Everybody's reference point"

David Walsh pointed out that "PATCO is everybody's reference point in the labor movement today. The first thing you'll hear about any strike right now is 'we should've stopped them at PATCO."

Walsh drew some of the lessons of the Guilford railroad strike in New England in 1986. He pointed out that rail workers went out under the RLA [Railway Labor Act] and shut down Conrail-the number one supplier of rail freight on the East Coast. But within two hours, Reagan invoked the cooling-off period provided under the Act, thereby forcing binding arbitration by the courts.

Walsh discussed how the RLA was instituted by Roosevelt to destroy the right to strike. "They were concerned about keeping industry working during World War II, recognizing the critical nature of transportation," he said. "Congress decided to set up a 'completely fair and neutral' Railway Labor Act. Recently it's so fair and neutral that it neutralizes labor. It keeps us in court forever."

Pointing out the protection of the bankruptcy court, Walsh described how the judge "OK'ed Eastern's refusal to pay striking (continued from page 1: “Eastern strike faces tough challenge”)

not go back to work for Frank Lorenzo under any conditions." But as the strike drags on, and Eastern tries to bust the unions once and for all, a bigger showdown is likely.

Expanding the solidarity is central to winning this strike. Eastern workers still have a lot of untapped resources. There's the secondary boycott of East Coast commuter rail lines-and lots of evidence that rail workers are ready to go out in solidarity.

Building a strike fund for the flight attendants, and expanding the benefits for machinists, is key. Plant gate collections, like the one planned for GE, can help raise both money and the consciousness of the labor movement. More rallies, and sending speakers to address meetings of other unions, can do the same. The labor movement is ready to come to the aid of Eastern strikers.

Restrictive picketing regulations at airports such as Logan are making it difficult to get the union's message out to the public. But an all-out boycott of Eastern and Lorenzo's Continental would galvanize public support for the strike. (Such limits on democratic rights at airports are appalling. As one worker pointed out, the Hare Krishnas and followers of Lyndon Larouche have more of a right to bother you than an airline worker has to hand you a leaflet.)

Solidarity rallies in Boston, San Francisco, Washington, Miami, and elsewhere show the workers $9 million in wages earned before the strike." The court also approved Eastern's refusal to refund money to holders of tickets on planes that had been grounded.

Allies and so-called allies Walsh pointed to the large contingents of utility workers, electrical workers, and other "workers who don't have anything directly to do with the [Eastern] strike," who turned out in tremendous numbers on March 14 at a Boston solidarity rally with the striking Eastern workers. [See April 1989 issue of Socialist Action.] "That gives you a little glimpse of the power of the labor movement," Walsh said.

But taking note of the presence on the podium of Gov. Michael Dukakis, Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, and Massachusetts Labor Secretary Paul Eustace, Walsh said, "I'm dubious of the advice these people would give us." He noted that Dukakis had helped break the power of the Boston Carmen's Union, and that Flynn had refused to help striking Greyhound workers in Boston when a Nazilike strikebreaking outfit was beating them in the streets.

Walsh also noted that Eustace had recently suggested that the management of General Motors-which is shutting down the Framingham, Mass., assembly plant and laying off thousands of workers—was "totally different from Lorenzo."

"I'd point to some other allies, like Molly Yard and NOW," Walsh said. Walsh concluded by referring to his co-workers in rail, who, if a secondary boycott is called, "are ready to a woman and a man to not go to work."

Help from other unionists Audience discussion focused on how workers in other industries could help the strikers. One unionist encouraged Coughlin to call on his IBEW local. "I mentioned to many of our brothers that you are restricted from leafleting. They said, 'Let's go leaflet. What are they gonna do, arrest us for leafleting in support of the Eastern Airlines workers?' "You've been out about a month," the unionist continued. "It's time to have a rally where we can explain the issues. Take your case right to the union membership, and organize them to help support you in your During the discussion period the audience took up a collection for the Flight Attendants strike fund. tremendous potential that exists to put pressure on the bosses. Working people need to put pressure on the bosses' courts, too. So far the courts have shown their allegiance by issuing injunctions against the unions.

The stakes in this strike are high. The labor movement has taken a beating since the crushing of PATCO in 1981. A victory in this strike will be a strong beginning to long climb back.

'Lessons of the P-9 Strike: A balance sheet of the militant struggle against Hormel' pamphlet by Jake Cooper ($1.50)

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