Lorenzo Lauds Bush for Strike Probe Veto : Machinists: President’s action angers organized labor, particularly the unions at Eastern.

As Eastern Airlines pilots denounced President Bush, the airline released a letter today sent to him from Texas Air Corp. Chairman Frank Lorenzo, thanking him for political courage in vetoing legislation to create a special congressional panel to investigate the 8-month-old strike against Eastern.

Bush’s veto angered organized labor and particularly Eastern’s unions. “By failing to sign the Eastern bill the President embraced the meanest worker-hating boss in the nation--Lorenzo,” George Kourpias, president of the striking machinists union, said today.

The letter from Lorenzo, who heads Eastern’s parent company, commended the President for “a clear vision of the need to keep the airline industry competitive.”

In vetoing the bill late Tuesday night, Bush said Congress was improperly trying to interfere in contract and court disputes.

“This would hinder saving Eastern Airlines and the jobs of its employees,” Bush said in a statement accompanying his veto. The White House announced the action less than 30 minutes before the midnight Tuesday deadline for the President to act or allow the measure to become law without his signature.

Bush said it was unrealistic to believe that the commission could find a solution to the bitter strike within the 45 days called for in the measure.

He also said any intervention by Congress would interfere with Eastern’s attempts to reorganize in bankruptcy court.

Organized labor lobbied heavily for the measure, and several union leaders said a Bush veto would sour labor’s already strained relations with the White House.

“It is utterly disgraceful that the Administration goes out of its way to support and identify with workers in Poland, China and Eastern Europe, yet it isn’t even willing to hear what a congressional fact-finding commission might have to say about the 8-month-old strike at Eastern,” said Skip Copeland, head of the striking Eastern pilots.

Henry Duffy, president of the Air Line Pilots Assn., called Bush’s veto “a deliberate slap at American workers.”

It was the second time Bush has acted to keep the government out of the strike.

He refused in March to use his power to block the strike by naming an emergency mediation board, saying he believed that the dispute should be settled by the company and its unions.

Congress did not attempt a veto override as both houses rushed through other business and adjourned for the year early today. But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said he will try to bring the measure up again when Congress returns in January.