Eastern Flight Attendants Join Pilots, Abandon Strike

Eastern Airlines flight attendants Thursday said they are joining the airline’s pilots in abandoning an 8 1/2-month-old strike, leaving the machinists to go it alone. Eastern said the workers will not necessarily get their jobs back.

Eastern spokeswoman Karen Ceremsak said the airline already has hired permanent replacements.

After some late-night telephone conference calls Wednesday, the 6,000-member flight attendants union followed the Air Line Pilots Assn. in deciding to return to work while the 8,500-member Machinists union remained on strike.

“It was extremely difficult,” said Nancy Currier, vice president of Transport Workers Union Local 553. “It was difficult because . . . we do believe in the principle of union solidarity.”

The pilots union reached its decision after President Bush’s eleventh-hour veto of a bill to create a congressional advisory commission on Eastern, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization five days after the strike began March 4.

Eastern said it intended to keep new workers who were hired during the strike. Pilots and flight attendants ready to return to work were asked to sign a recall list at Eastern, which said it would take them back as openings occurred.

The number of openings for flight attendants was not immediately available, but Currier said 1,500 union attendants had crossed picket lines.

The strike began after 1 1/2 years of federally mediated talks between Eastern and the machinists stalemated over demands for $150 million in wage cuts and work rule changes.