Balance sheet on the Eastern strike: Was the outcome inevitable? Who won?

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80YCOFT EASTERN THE LAM 14 SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 1991 At midnight on Jan.18, Eastern Airlines permanently parked its fleet of aircraft. Eastern first began operations in 1928.

Members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), on strike since March 1989, cheered Eastern's final shutdown. The nearly 9000 IAM members who struck had lost their jobs to scabs and were glad to see them out on the street as well.

Eastern's management blamed the collapse on the Persian Gulf war, the rise of fuel prices, and a poor public image caused by concerns for safety. Frank Lorenzo, the former head of the Texas Air Corporationthe owner of Continental and Eastern Airlines-blamed the demise of Eastern on the high cost of labor and the IAM's personal campaign against him.

The IAM top leadership blamed Eastern's collapse on bad management, beginning with former Eastern Chairman Frank Borman and followed by Frank Lorenzo. Union-busting by the "iwo Franks," they said, is what undermined the company. The IAM tops also pointed the finger at the anti-union policies of the Bush and Reagan governments. The deregulation of the airline industry under Carter in 1978, they said, allowed the Franks to operate the way they did.

The bottom line is that 38,000 Eastern employees are out of work. Eastern Airlines will be liquidated. A number of assets have already been sold. The Justice Department has a number of legal actions pending against former top managers for safety violations.

Lessons of strike

The IAM was unable to win the strike. At the same time, the Eastern owners were unable to build a nonunion scab airline at a profit.

Yet the nearly two-year strike offers some valuable lessons for working people. The strike became a central battleground between labor and management. It was constantly in the news. Frank Lorenzo became a household name—mostly hated by working people. Even many business travelers refused to fly Eastern.

The AFL-CIO and every major trade union came out in support of the IAM. In the first months of the strike, large picketlines were held at most airports. In fact, only a few Eastern aircraft got off the ground during the first couple months of the struggle.

Most significantly, and in contrast to most strikes of the 1980s, only a handful of IAM members scabbed. Strike unity was nearly 100 percent. My coworkers at United Airlines who had worked for Eastern. all point to this as one of the most positive features of their strike.

After several years of battling the two Franks and Eastern's other owners, the workers knew that the only way to defend their jobs and working conditions was to stand firm and fight.

In addition, the decision of the pilots and flight attendants to join the IAM in sympathy strikes for eight months was a significant development in the airline industry. It had been more common for the three unions to cross each other's picketlines than to stand as one.

Was outcome inevitable?

Nevertheless, despite the strong union solidarity, the strikers were unable to keep Eastern grounded or get the owners to cut their losses and settle a contract. The outcome was at best a draw.

Is it impossible to win strikes today against managements so determined to bust unions? Can workers overcome owners who are supported by city, state, and federal governments, courts, and cops?

Organized labor is at its weakest strength since the 1930s. Peter Kilborn, reporting in the Jan. 27 New York Times, notes that "in strikes involving 1000 or more workers since World War II, the Bureau of Labor Malik Miah is employed at United Airlines in San Franciso as an R&E Mechanic. He is a member of Local Lodge 1781 of the International Association of Machinists.

ONE DAY DES TRASK CRIs cat CORNERS LONGER YOU DET YOUR UPEME DOES ВОУСОГТ CONTHENTAL Statistics recorded the most strikes ever470—in 1952 and almost as many-424 despite the labor bureaucracy's policies. The in 1974. But the number fell precipitously long conflicts between labor and in the 1980s, to 40 in 1988, to 51 in 1989, management at Eastern for 10 years led the and to 4 last year." IAM ranks to say "no" to any attempt by Because the unions have been weakened management to divide them. (for not fighting earlier concessions), the employers had an easy time in the 1980s.

The unions' weakness was best seen in 1981 taking it anymore. They were prepared to when President Reagan destroyed the air hold out even though it meant no jobs at the traffic controllers' union by replacing them end. Not one Eastern striker I've talked to with scabs. The APL-CIO did nothing regrets their decision. except give verbal protest. Frank Lorenzo followed Reagan's lead at Continental two years later.

Not surprisingly, two-tier contracts ranks was not enough to win the strike. Th became the norm in the 1980s. And Lorenzo labor officials' no-win policy prevented th was able to lead the way by reducing the mass picketing needed to ground Eastern. wages of ramp workers at Continental, for Their refusal to build on the unity of the example, to half of what they made at three unions (which did stop the airline from Eastern. The labor tops' response to these flying during the first months) weakened the attacks generally has been to give up without a fight. The rank and file without leadership have done the same.

According to the labor officialdom, what are the main lessons of the Eastern strike?

Most officials stress two points: First, labor must step up its pressure on Congress to adopt legislation making it illegal to hire "replacement workers" during strikes.

The employers have had the legal right to hire scabs as permanent employees since a 1938 Supreme Court ruling. But they have rarely done so until lately. Up to the mid1970s, the bosses were able to get enough concessions from workers to reap big profits without significantly altering the wages and working conditions.

But the declining rate of profits in all industries, including airlines, has led to intense competition. The bosses can't use the old class-collaborationist methods with the top labor officials anymore. They need a fundamental restructuring of wages and working conditions.

Second, the officials also call on the ranks of labor, including those on strike, to support Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) as the way to stop the Frank Lorenzos. Almost every strike in the late 1980s has called for some type of ESOP. It is raised today around the Greyhound and Daily News strikes. It is a diversion from leading a real fightback.

What made the Eastern strike so significant was that the rank-and-file workers The strike needed to be extended to other airline and transportation workers. There was some initial discussion about doing soespecially to rail workers. But it was never organized. With proper preparation, such an extension was objectively possible. The Eastern owners could have been forced to the bargaining table.

The IAM and APL-CIO leadership did not prepare the airline workers and the labor movement as a whole for such a major confrontation. It placed the onus of the battle on the backs of the Eastern strikers themselves.

Active solidarity wasn't mobilized.

Once the tactic of mass picketing to shutdown the airline was rejected, the strikers were left to a boycott campaign against Eastern and Continental. This effort was relatively successful as boycotts go. But it was not enough to get Eastern's owners or the trustee who replaced Lorenzo last spring to negotiate.

Unfortunately, by the fall of 1989 the pilots and flight attendants decided the strike was lost and returned to work. Few were rehired, however. The scabs were permanent.

In addition, sharp competition in the industry for declining profits undermined the "new" Eastern. It continued to lose $2 million per day. The final blow came in the THAN summer of 1990 with the Iraqi takeover of Kuwait. Fuel prices skyrocketed. This hit LORENZO Eastern and all airlines hard.

Continental and Pan Am have now joined Eastern in bankruptcy court. TWA is facing a similar fate. In fact, the industry as a whole expects to lose $2 billion for 1990, ALPA PILOTS SUPPORT double the previous record loss of $915.8 million in 1982, during the last recession.

Most of the losses are from the fourth quarter alone—$1.7 billion.

Thousands of former Eastern unionists are now working at other carriers or other jobs.

They bring with them their strike experiences. These can be helpful to other workers, as they prepare for our own battles with management.

The airline industry is in the midst of reorganization. Soon there may only be five or six carriers. And the strong are determined to lower their labor costs to help increase both were able to assert themselves in the strike their mass of profits and their rate of profits.

Billions of dollars are being spent to buy new aircraft. American, United, and Delta, in particular, plan to buy up cheap assets from liquidated rivals.

In this context of restructuring, recession, The workers had suffered a reign of terror and war, more labor battles will take place in under Lorenzo and Borman. They weren't the airlines. Already several potential battles are brewing. The pilots at American Airlines, the largest carrier, may go on strike as early as March. A central demand of the pilots is to eliminate the two-tier wage structure. A majority of American pilots are Ground the planes! now on the second tier. The three unions at Nevertheless, the determination of the United, the second largest carrier, have open contracts. IAM members at U.S. Air are also in contract negotiations.

The lessons of the Eastern strike are extremely important. We need to draw a sober balance sheet to prepare ourselves for the difficult battles ahead of us.

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