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The Eastern Airlines Strike: Accomplishments of the Rank-And-File Machinists and Gains for the Labor Movement

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When strikes and other labor activities take place, if they are recorded at all, they are told as some kind of sociological history for college professors, or some kind of economic development for business people who want to get more money out of our labor. This book explains how IAM workers fought back union busting at Eastern Airlines and stopped Lorzeno from building a scab airline, from the workers point of view. Ernie Mailhot was a strike leader who worked on the ramp for years at Eastern in Miami and New York and was a strike coordinator in New York. He explains the fight, what it means for workers then and now.


While this book is not always available on Amazon, it is always available from BooksfromPathfinder, an Amazon Z store that you can get to by clicking on New and Used further up this page!

The strike that took place at Eastern Airlines from 1989 to 1991 is usually considered a total failure. After all, in the end, Eastern Airlines was forced out of business and Eastern workers lost their jobs. But the beauty of this book is it shows just how much the strikers at Eastern accomplished in their battle with Frank Lorenzo and his attempt to de-unionize the airline industry. It shows how the Eastern strikers reached out in solidarity to other workers, including coal miners at Pittston Coal, who were also on strike. And it shows that despite a Machinists union top leadership, which had accepted concession after concession from Eastern, the rank- and-file workers in Miami and New York and other cities were able to wage an impressive fight against Lorenzo and finally drive him out of the airline business. The book also has a great collection of photos from the strike as well as a very helpful detailed chronology. This book tells the real story of this strike. Don't miss it!

Talk about history that's relevant for today! The unrelenting drive in the 1980s by employers to bolster profits by cutting wages and jobs, weakening or eliminating workers' unions, and using bankruptcy and the federal courts to blackmail and pressure workers... and the determined resistance and 22-month long strike by airline workers who had had enough and decided to fight back.

This is the story of the Machinists union members who did what they said they'd do-- last "one day longer" than Frank Lorenzo, the union-busting CEO of Eastern Airlines. It focuses on the strength the rank-and-file Machinists found they had when they organized together and reached out for support from and giving solidarity to other working people in the United States and around the world.

It also includes an important background article, "Capitalism's March Toward War and Depression," by socialist leader Jack Barnes.

Every worker should read and discuss this book. Help us chart a way forward for the labor movement in the 21st century!

It is a story of revenge on Frank Lorenzo for busting the union at Continental. It is self rightious, and typical pilot prima donna rational. Ask a mechanic what happened to Eastern.