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Many Stranded by Cancellations at LAX

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Times Staff Writers

As a nationwide Eastern Airlines strike forced the carrier to cancel all of its flights out of Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday, frustrated travelers found themselves arguing with ticket agents, sprinting between terminals in search of alternative flights and, in some cases, making preparations to spend an extra, unplanned evening in Los Angeles.

Despite the airline’s early-morning assurances that their flights would not be canceled, many would-be Eastern passengers found themselves confronted with two monitors showing a white line drawn through the 15 flights scheduled to depart for everywhere from Atlanta to Bogota.

And, starting Monday, hundreds of Southern Californians who commute to Los Angeles by train from San Diego, Santa Barbara and elsewhere may find themselves in a similar situation.

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Amtrak May Be Struck

A secondary strike by railway workers may affect cities along the Eastern Seaboard as well as Amtrak commuter trains in Southern California, according to officials of the International Assn. of Machinists. Officials estimate that 2,200 Southern Californians board Amtrak trains each day for trips to Los Angeles.

“We fully expect to have secondary pickets up on our property,” Amtrak spokesman John Jacobsen said Saturday. “At Amtrak, we are taking nothing for granted. Maybe the whole system gets shut down. We won’t know until 5 to 6 a.m. Monday.”

A secondary strike is one in which union members in an unrelated company walk out in sympathy with a union engaged in a dispute. Although the practice has been outlawed for most of the economy since 1947, exceptions are allowed in the case of transportation companies.

At the airport, Christina Varas, standing near the Eastern Airlines ticket counter, shook her head as she prepared to drive her mother and father back to Encino.

Plans Were Confirmed

“We learned two days ago that they were going to strike, so we started calling, but even last night they said they weren’t going to cancel the international flights,” said Varas, whose parents were scheduled to take a canceled 1:30 p.m. flight home to Buenos Aires. “We had frequent flyer tickets and no other airline will honor them. (And besides,) all the other companies are booked.”

Activity at the Eastern terminal at LAX ranged from picketing to pacing. More than 200 union workers marched with placards outside the building while dozens of disgruntled travelers ran back and forth between the ticket counters.

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“Do you know what a yo-yo is?” asked an angry Las Burger, who for more than an hour had been trying to get himself, his wife and two friends on a flight to Miami. “That’s what we are, between (the ticket counters of) Continental and Eastern. . . . Nobody wants to accept any responsibility.”

It was a sentiment echoed by many who had trouble getting other airlines to honor their tickets, although Eastern agents had made promises to the contrary.

Extra Ticket Expense

“They (Eastern representatives) called me the night before and said they’d put me on Pan Am,” said Michelle Judd, 21. She had bought a $500, round-trip Eastern ticket from Miami to Los Angeles, only to find on arriving at the Pan Am counter in Miami that she had to buy another ticket. “That was another $250,” said the college student.

And Judd said she will probably spend a further $250 for a ticket on another airline before the week is through, since she has no intention of flying back on Eastern.

“I’ll never fly Eastern again, even if it’s the last airline available,” she said. “They knew how many people this (strike) would affect and I don’t see how they could let this happen.”

But anger and disappointment were not the only emotions vented by the delayed passengers. Many also expressed sympathy, for the workers outside on the picket line and for the ticket agents behind the counters.

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