1930s sit-down strikes-What lessons for today?

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SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 1991 15 On Feb. 23, some 200 working people gathered at my union hall in Burlingame, Calif., to "celebrate" the end of the 22-month strike at Eastern Airlines. Eastern, the first airline to be organized by the International Association of Machinists (IAM), permanently shut its doors at midnight, Jan. 18. We came to IAM Local Lodge 1781's hall to draw some lessons from the strike and to look ahead.

Mike Fitzpatrick, a former Eastern striker and chief IAM steward for Eastern workers in San Francisco, summed up the battle as: "We were right and they were wrong, and they never were willing to bargain in good faith. I think that other airlines and corporate America now knows that unions and workers will strike and can take the fight to the bitter end if necessary. This can only make all of us stronger."

Fitzpatrick, now an employee of United Airlines, added that "the strike vindicated the union on its safety charge against top management." Some dozen Eastern managers are under federal indictmentwith more to come, he said.

In a March 1 plea-bargain agreement with the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Eastern has admitted that it conspired to prevent the Federal Aviation Administration from determining if Eastern managers falsified maintenance records and will pay $3.5 million in fines. The IAM had said all along that Eastern was unsafe to fly.

Another speaker at the solidaritycelebration dinner was Art Pulaski of the San Mateo Central Labor Council, "an active supporter of the strike. Pulaski's comments deserve some analysis.

Pulaski said the Eastern workers won "a victory" that "parallels the 1937 Flint sit-down strikes."

Unfortunately, the Eastern strike cannot be compared to the great sit-down strike in Flint, Mich., that played a crucial role in the organization of the United Auto Workers and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

The main strength of the Eastern strike was the fact that few of the 9500 IAM members crossed the picket line and scabbed. The strike also won the support of Eastern flight attendants and pilots for nearly nine months, and sympathy from labor nationwide.

The great weakness of the strike, however, was the strategy followed by the labor officialdom. They sought to use the strike to pressure the owners of Eastern to sell out to another capitalist or to the workers. The need to shut the carrier down tight was given up early in the So while the strike lasted 22 months, it was long enough for the employing class and its courts, cops, and governments to minimize the impact of the strike. There are as many aircraft in the air today as two years ago. But 38,000 Eastern employees are without their jobs, many lost homes and families, and none won any compensation from the bankrupt carrier or government.

To tell the truth about the fight and its outcome does not take away from the sentiment expressed by Fitzpatrick (and many other former Eastern strikers): "I think in some ways it's a victory. Our struggle was for dignity, integrity, and the safety of the flying public. We achieved that, even if Eastern never flies again.

Yet it wasn't a victory in the proper meaning of the word: the IAM was unable to force the owners of Eastern and their backers to the bargaining table to negotiate a fair contract. Forcing Frank Lorenzo out of the industry as a controlling owner (he's still on the Board of Directors of Continental Airlines) is at best a moral gain for Sit down-a real victory But in Flint in 1936-37, a real victory was achieved, which inspired workers in auto and other industries to build industrial unions. Art Preis, in his invaluable book, "Labor's Giant Step," discussed how that battle was won and its impact on labor.

Preis wrote: "On Nov.13, 1936, a spontaneous sit-down strike halted operations of the Fisher Body No. 1 plant in Flint. ... Within three weeks, 15 other GM [General Motors] units were closed by strikes. ... By the end of the strike, some 140,000 of GM's 150,000 production workers either sat down or 'hit the bricks,' as traditional picketing in a strike was described.

"Victory or defeat for the GM workers depended on a simple strategy: keeping their buttocks firmly planked on $50 million worth of GM property until they got a signed contract."

GM's owners tried everything to break the sit-down strikes: use of cops, deputies, and National Guard violence-as well as the federal and state governments.

Less then three months later, the workers won. "The muscular rumps of the GM workers pressed on the chests of GM's corporate owners until they cried 'Uncle!"' wrote Preis. "On Feb.1, 1937, GM signed a six-month agreement. It provided that the company would not recognize or deal with any other organization in the 17 plants closed by the UAW, that all unionists and strikers would be rehired, that unionism could be discussed on company property during lunch and rest periods, and that negotiations would proceed at once on wages, hours, production speedup, and other issues.

"It wasn't much of a deal by present standards," Preis added, "But it was an inspiring victory to all American labor in 1937. The floodgates of class struggle were opened. The cry 'sit-down!' echoed from one corner of the land to the other.

"One month after the end of the GM strike, some 193,000 workers engaged in 247 sit-downs; nearly a half million took up this weapon before 1937 ended. The number of all strikes rose from 2172 in 1936 to 4740 in 1937, with 1,861,000 workers involved. That is the way the CIO was built and consolidated." (See Chapter 7, "Flint "37— "Gettysburg' of the CIO" for more details.)

Victories inspire workers to emulate those who fight and win. The Eastern rank and file fought valiantly but lacked the leadership to bring about a parallel victory of the 1937 type. It is why there are no cries today in the airline unions, or elsewhere, to repeat the Eastern fight in the same manner.

the environment Card* taken in order to remove the excess carbon dioxide blanketing the earth. Through careful resource selection and management, with extensive recycling of waste, humanity needs to develop a stable relationship in nature.

But with the fast-food, quickbuck mentality of the social minority who currently own and control everything-the capitalist class— there is no way the human race has a chance. Fundamental social and structural changes are needed right now! A world-coordinated contingency plan must be prepared as the symptoms of climate instability become worse.

Yet before these things can happen, a social tool must be built to accomplish them. This tool is a mass, independent working-class political party founded on the principles of longterm social planning, cooperation between all the peoples of the world, and the broadest, fullest democracy that technology will allow.

Socialist Action seeks to build such a party, and every person that comes to understand the extent of the looming environmental crisis should join us.

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By Talik Mir