Union-Management Tumult at Eastern Airlines: From Borman to Lorenzo

A study focuses on Eastern Airlines' turbulent labor-management relationship to provide insight into collective bargaining's participants (management and union officials), and it portrays the antecedents, directions, and implications of the March 4, 1989, mechanics' strike. The years of Frank Borman's presidency (1975-1984), characterized by cooperation, profits, concessions, and unilateral management actions, are reviewed. Frank Lorenzo's subsequent presidency of Eastern, including labor and legal conflicts, is detailed, along with the negotiations leading up to the mechanics' strike. The Eastern experience has broader implications for labor-management relations in the transportation industry that are not yet fully understood.