Striking Eastern Pilots to Debate Options

Striking Eastern Airlines pilots will be meeting around the nation this week to debate whether to stay in step with union leaders who say that they should continue their 5-month-old sympathy walkout.

The union leadership voted unanimously Saturday to continue its strike, but called local membership meetings to discuss alternatives that include returning to work.

The first meeting was called for Sunday night in Miami. Others will be held through the week in other cities. All are closed to the public, said pilots union spokesman Ron Cole.

The 20-member pilots Master Executive Council conclusion, after a five-day meeting in Washington, was announced Saturday evening on a taped phone message for its members.

“Your MEC voted unanimously to continue the picket line,” the message said, adding that the union leadership repeated its commitment to long-term pilots’ security.

“The MEC has been reviewing all the options, as it has been throughout the strike,” said Cole. “We think (Frank) Lorenzo is desperate to settle the strike because of the negative publicity and that he is jeopardizing the reorganization and his Continental Airlines.” Lorenzo is chairman of Texas Air Corp., parent of Eastern and Continental.

Cole declined further comment on options, but said the leadership would meet after the rank-and-file meetings to discuss the members’ comments and reactions. He said the union would not comment on the meetings until then.

Several Options

However, the Air Line Pilots Assn., the pilots’ union, hasn’t ruled out a return to work under favorable conditions, despite a picket-line battle cry of “One day longer than Lorenzo.”

Among the union’s options:

- Continuing the strike and its support of the Eastern buyout effort by Chicago options trader Joseph Ritchie.

- Negotiating a settlement with Eastern management. ALPA’s chief goals in negotiations have been job security for its 3,600 Eastern members, ensuring Eastern’s survival and unionizing pilots at Continental.

- Returning to work unilaterally. The pilots technically are striking in sympathy with machinist union members, and the pilots’ contract remains in effect.

The last scenario would raise legal questions about how many pilots Eastern would have to take back at their existing salaries, which are considerably higher than those of newly hired pilots.

Eastern says it will need 1,700 pilots. By the end of last week, Eastern said 380 ALPA pilots had crossed the picket line, more than 300 newly hired pilots have completed training and 700 more are in training.

The Miami-based airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on March 9, five days after the machinists went on strike and were joined by the pilots and flight attendants. Eastern has filed a plan for its creditors that envisions an airline two-thirds its pre-strike size that would emerge from bankruptcy by year’s end.

Eastern has indicated that most of the striking pilots no longer have jobs to come back to. The pilots union would likely challenge that.