What made Eastern GO Under?

[B-J-J Fighter]

Was it the union or Frank Lorenzo. If someone knows the story and has time give me a little info about this.

 

[flywithruss]

"Hard Landing"

Read the book "Hard Landing" by Thomas Petzinger. It gives an excellent history of the airline business and I think it should be required reading for anyone considering an airline career. It is very illuminating, to say the least. It talks in great detail about the end of Eastern, among many other things.

The short version on Eastern, as I understand it, is that as the company had problems they kept going to the union till for more concessions. Soon, the unions (specifically the Machinists) started saying NO ... this is when the BOHICA buttons (Bend Over, Here It Comes Again) proliferated at EAL.

Frank Borman (EAL CEO) and Charlie Bryan (Machinists union) wound up getting in to a big personality conflict, and Borman finally said the company needed big concessions or it would sell. The union wouldn't budge, and the company was bought out by Texas Air (Lorenzo & Co.). Lorenzo proceeded to use Eastern as a write-down for the massive changes he was engineering at Texas Air ... this was right around the time of the "Big Bang" ... the day Frontier, People Express, New York Air, and Continental became a single carrier in 1987. Lorenzo basically took whatever assets he wanted for Continental from Eastern for no compensation. That was pretty much what did it.

This is the Reader's Digest version, so I hope it isn't too general. The whole saga is quite fascinating, from a historical perspective. Read "Hard Landing" to get the details far better than I can recall.

Tailwinds, y'all ...

R

 

[Typhoon1244]

Lorenzo bought Eastern with the intention of breaking it up and selling it for parts. To do that successfully, he had to break the unions...he said so publically! Right up front! (There are a lot of union busters out there, but Lorenzo was the first one in a long time to be up-front about it.)

The original cause of Eastern's death was (1) a long history of poor management--for example, Rickenbacker bought Electras when everybody else was snapping up 707's and DC-8's--and (2) a pissing contest between chairman Frank Borman and IAM leader Charlie Bryan. The fatal blow was an unsuccessful strike. Too many people crossed the picket line.

The strike was supposed to stop Easern's heartbeat long enough to convince Lorenzo to leave. Instead, thanks in part to the availability of scab labor, Eastern slowly bled to death. It was not pretty.

I went with my father to two of the ALPA teleconferences...I also walked more than a few picket lines with him. You have no idea how impressive it is to see so many people willing to sacrifice so much to save their company.

Sad truth: if the strike had been called off as soon as it became clear it wasn't working, the employees could probably have fought Lorenzo successfully from the inside...and the Great Silver Fleet would still be airborn today, in some form or other.

 

[~~~^~~~]

Typhoon - thanks for the perspective on history. I fear we are in danger of seeing history repeat itself. As you know, ALPA let those scabs back into the union without a penny of back dues. In fact they served cake and ice cream and took a bunch of pictures.

Many pilots now ask themselves, if scabbing means nothing to ALPA, why would it mean anything to me? Our current union leadership has embraced alter ego airline operations to the point where six pilot groups fly Delta passengers on domestic routes and many more on international routes. With the approval of the Delta, Continental Northwest deal, a Delta seniority number will be about worthless, because, if they struck, who would care?

 

[Boeingman]

Typhoon - thanks for the perspective on history. I fear we are in danger of seeing history repeat itself. As you know, ALPA let those scabs back into the union without a penny of back dues. In fact they served cake and ice cream and took a bunch of pictures.

Many pilots now ask themselves, if scabbing means nothing to ALPA, why would it mean anything to me? Our current union leadership has embraced alter ego airline operations to the point where six pilot groups fly Delta passengers on domestic routes and many more on international routes. With the approval of the Delta, Continental Northwest deal, a Delta seniority number will be about worthless, because, if they struck, who would care?

Point of fact. The scabs I think you are reffering to from Typhoon's message are the EAL scabs at CAL. If so, they were not granted amnesty, and in fact, ALPA is still pursuing judgements and assements against the EAL pilots who crossed now at CAL.

I have said repeatedly on this board that the problems we faced at CAL with people crossing the picket line had little (admittedly some) to do with greed, but a deep seated anger and resentment towards ALPA and past practices. This is now being repeated today with an entire generation of younger pilots who are very angry at this union. I ask again? Why are so many scab pilots former ALPA members? What is wrong with this picture?

I do not share your view of scabbing meaning nothing to ALPA. I believe that ALPA finally realized they made some serious mistakes at CAL and the abysimal manner in which our strike was handled. The silver lining in that disaster was the lessons learned to help future job actions. Personally, I think it would be career suicide to walk against a management team bent on operating. I don't see that changing anytime soon with this climate in the industry.

For those die hard union loyalists who wish to laugh and scoff at this opinion go ahead. You are just burying your head in the sand. Been there, seen that.

"Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it" *

*Author unknown (Churchill?)

 

[Boeingman]

Lorenzo bought Eastern with the intention of breaking it up and selling it for parts. To do that successfully, he had to break the unions...he said so publically! Right up front! (There are a lot of union busters out there, but Lorenzo was the first one in a long time to be up-front about it.)

The original cause of Eastern's death was (1) a long history of poor management--for example, Rickenbacker bought Electras when everybody else was snapping up 707's and DC-8's--and (2) a pissing contest between chairman Frank Borman and IAM leader Charlie Bryan. The fatal blow was an unsuccessful strike. Too many people crossed the picket line.

The strike was supposed to stop Easern's heartbeat long enough to convince Lorenzo to leave. Instead, thanks in part to the availability of scab labor, Eastern slowly bled to death. It was not pretty.

I went with my father to two of the ALPA teleconferences...I also walked more than a few picket lines with him. You have no idea how impressive it is to see so many people willing to sacrifice so much to save their company.

Sad truth: if the strike had been called off as soon as it became clear it wasn't working, the employees could probably have fought Lorenzo successfully from the inside...and the Great Silver Fleet would still be airborn today, in some form or other.

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Bavis call off the strike and was overruled by more hard line elements within the MEC?

Anyone see any similarities within the IAM today at UAL and U with EAL?

 

[Toecutter]

Another factor in the downfall of Eastern was our President. Bush could have intervened and forced a settlement to get the airline running again. Like other members of his family, he was in the pockets of big CEO types like Lorenzo. For all you guys that voted for Bush, yes , history IS bound to repeat itself. (i.e. Enron, Worldcom)I know many of you just love to hate Clinton, but at least he was one the most labor friendly Presidents we've had since FDR.

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

Let's give credit where credit is due....
If I remember correctly from the book, 'Hard Landings', it was Ted Kennedy who was looking for an issue to pimp off of. Airline deregulation was his issue. In addition, several well known Dems like Maxine Waters and Jim Wright also supported this. It also seems like Lorenzo went to Kennedy to get support for his plundering of Eastern.
Said it several times before, politics is a professional wrestling match - it's a staged and fixed event. To me both parties are anti-labor and both are for sale to the highest bidder.

 

[bigr]

another view point of this is in frank borman's book "countdown". most of it is about borman's astronaut career, however he does detail his fight with the head of the machinest union.

one of the fights was over borman's wish to eliminate the union job that was for a man to stand behind the aircraft and make sure it was all clear as the plane backed out of the teminal. borman wanted this man to have other duties, rather than sit and wait between aircraft. well you know the story, that would take someone else's job...

Charlie Bryan's quote: :"Frank Borman's had his Apollo 8, now its time for mine."

Another incident occured on the flight deck when borman was in the jump seat. the captain just complained and complained thru the whole flight...blah blah blah. at the end of the flight the first officer who couldn't get a word in edgewise turned to borman and said: "been gettin' any lately"

Eastern became like the Lame zebra on the african plains, it couldn't keep up and the lions (Lorenzo) came up for the kill.

 

[publisher]

all most right

I do not think that it is correct that Lorenzo bought it to break up. That was more a result than a reason for the purchase.

He felt that if he took over, the tension would be relaxed and he could save it and bought cheap. He was wrong and went ahead to make the best of his investment. He just did not appreciate the ill feelings that existed and the entrenchment.

While he was no saint, he gets a bad rap for a deal here that he did not create. Like dinosaurs, big things take a long time to hit the ground when falling.