European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 18, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Corporate hardball among the Jet set by h. Josef Hebert associated Grasst he chairman of pan american world airways and several senior executives Are tired after a closed door Deal with the airline s labor unions. Flight Allend ants trek to the suburban Homo of the chairman of trans world airlines to Register a protest Toboul a strike mat ended nearly two a stars ago. More than 4,000 of them Are still looking to get their jobs Back. Eastern airlines expecting a strike is planning Lor a Small cargo Carrier with non Union pilots Loly Many of its passenger planes prompting charges of Union busting from Eastern pilots and mechanics. It s management and labor hardball pure and simple. And it has become More frequent since Tho government eased out of regulating the airline Industry in the Early 1980s. Along with bitter Competition among airlines have come increasingly acrimonious relations with labor. In the wars Between airline workers and their Bosses inn genteel atmosphere of bargaining common when the government had its reins on the Industry seems to Havo gone Iho Way of the propeller air plane. The hotbed of labor management combat is at Eastern the Miami based airline that has struggled with huge tosses and almost continuous labor turmoil Tor More than a decade the company wants major concessions. The unions say they re being pushed into a strike. When word came recently that �6 Eastern jets were being leased to a Little known cargo operator named Orion air the news unleashed a firestorm among Many of Eastern s employees. Ii was no secret thai Eastern in the midst of Stormy contract talks with ils mechanics intends in event of a strike this summer to have nonunion Orion air pilots Fly the leased planes on Eastern s most critical routes. In s an attempt to Decimals Eastern s cockpit Crews says Jack Bavis head of the airline s pilots Union. There Are hints from the Parent  air line p3ls association of a one Day nationwide shutdown of air service if Eastern Ever uses the Orion pools.  or onto rhe Homs of Cait Icahn. Ehul Man of it labor costs As a percent of operating costs by major airlines average annual employee compensation comparing a selected group of a Tolnai us air Doha Eastern american Piedmont 42% North rail 0% Continental 36% 36% 35% Savat a Hiipfl a four third Quarter 1sbb in american it a $43,400 Cofell Naratil $33,100 United 34% pan american 33% Twa 30% sound Mem  he afro lines labor costs As a percent of total operating costs airline Industry average employee compensation costs 500 400 300 300 too 0 in thousands 40 k 30 20 id so 40 30 20 10 a Aurum Alf int part Amoe Tim 7879w ar2 w1w 85 b6 Ouk air Tref Luport Apoc Iaan 7b-7vwb1 -k3w ww17 Sevect a tampon jux Piton Thomas Matthews Eastern s vice president for human relations Calls lha non Union Orion pilots our insurance coverage corporate hardball. Prior id deregulation Tor maybe 20 years there was a posture or accommodation. The unions accepted he companies and the companies accepted the unions. Government generally was Neutral or slightly on the Sida of  Saya Frank Cassels a professor of Industrial relations at Northwestern University. When labor wanted More Money the airlines often agreed. They knew that the government would pass the increased costs on in the term of higher fares. Today airline compete vigorously on fares and have argued that one of their biggest problems has been High labor costs. On average 35 percent of airline operational costs Are for Lubor according to the air transport association As a result there has been a stage of outright hostility Between labor and management in recent years Cassels says. Tito till a Eastern May be the latest Bill in s hardly the most bitter standoff Between labor and management in recent years. To was in september 19s3 that Frank Lorenzo chairman of Texas air corp., the Nemesis of airline labor slopped negotiating wih the unions and shut Down Continental airlines he declared bankruptcy and shed the existing Tabor contracts Trues Days later Continental emerged with pilots flying the same planes but earning Hall the salary. Pilots and flight attendants saw heir strike fizzle. Today Continental which like Eastern is owned by Texas air corp., is larger than Ever but Many of its one time Well paid pilots Are wearing the uniforms of other airlines and have lost much of their seniority and pay. In Early 1986 Tho flight attendants Al Twa laced with demands for Sharp salary cuts walked off their gobs and onto the picket lines. Today two thirds of the 6.500 attendants who went on strike Are still grounded. While the attendant await a recall Iron Twa the airline continues to Fly with a third fewer attendants who earn less Money and work longer hours. Would the Light attendants again choose a strike Victoria Frankovich president of the Independent Page 14 the stars and stripes federation of flight attendants who led the 1586 walkout mulls the question Over before answering i Don t think we had a Choice she says. Attendants at other airlines May not have lost their jobs in recent years but they have not been Able to exert much clout. Recently flight attendants were pushed reluctantly into n settlement at american and thought better of a strike Al Northwest where negotiations continue. But labor at least in terms of the More powerful pilots and mechanics unions has flexed its Muscles As Well alter several years of  and reeling from management demands. Consider tha fired pan am executives William t. Coleman. With the Blessing of fellow members of the pan am Board of directors signed and seated the Deal Ullh a handshake last january. He then walked into tin of Lico o pan am chairman c. Edward Acker and informed Acker and vice chairman Martin Shugrue they were fired. By the time the bloodletting was Over three senior vice presidents including Raymond Grebey who was in charge Al labor relations also were forced to resign. Acker is now in Bermuda assessing what he s going to do  Shugrue recently was hired by Texas air corp. To head its Continental airlines subsidiary Richard Fri can understand How they feel a former hotel executive Ferris had a dream of turning United airlines into a Broad based Ravel company. While at the Helm of Ual inc., he bought two Bole chains my a rental ear company and envisioned one Slop shopping Lor transportation and lodging Lor businessmen. The name of Ual inc., was changed to alleges corp. To broaden its Appeal but the name never caught on among Wail Street investors. It also served to highlight claims by the pilots that Ferris was siphoning Money and attention from the airline. One evening last june the company s Board of directors demanded Ferris resignation. The pilots claimed responsibility. Although Ferris fall May have been the result of 3 variety of forces most Industry analysts agree that his Empire began id fail when the pilots Union launched a us billion takeover bid the first monday a