[Excerpt] The ongoing battle between Machinists District 100 and Eastern Airlines is one of the most scrutinized labor-management struggles in recent U.S. history. Publications ranging from Labor Notes to The Harvard Business Review have covered it, and Labor Research Review #4 was devoted exclusively to it — the first major coverage of the subject

LeRoy, Greg

English

[Excerpt] The ongoing battle between Machinists District 100 and Eastern Airlines is one of the most scrutinized labor-management struggles in recent U.S. history. Publications ranging from Labor Notes to The Harvard Business Review have covered it, and Labor Research Review #4 was devoted exclusively to it — the first major coverage of the subject.Issue_12____Article_16.pdf: 301 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

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Labor Film Shelf: Collision Course

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Labor Research Review 
Volume 1 | Number 12 
Up Against the Open Shop: New Initiatives in 
the Building Trades 
Article 1 
1988 
Labor Film Shelf: Collision Course 
Greg LeRoy 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@ILR. It has been accepted for inclusion 
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© 1988 by Labor Research Review 
Labor Film Shelf: Collision Course 
Abstract 
[Excerpt] The ongoing battle between Machinists District 100 and Eastern Airlines is one of the most 
scrutinized labor-management struggles in recent U.S. history. Publications ranging from Labor Notes to 
The Harvard Business Review have covered it, and Labor Research Review #4 was devoted exclusively to 
it — the first major coverage of the subject. 
Keywords 
Collision Course, Machinists District 100, Eastern Airlines 
This article is available in Labor Research Review: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/lrr/vol1/iss12/1 
98 Labor Research Review #12 
will build the future and how?" 
Factory workers, clerical and technical workers, construction 
workers—each needs to understand how each other works and 
fights. For all the differences, it is one common struggle. And since 
you can't read about it in your newspaper or see it on TV, these 
books and those like them need to be read and studied and loaned 
out to friends. 
—Jack Metzgar 
Labor Film Shelf 
Collision Course 
Available for rent or purchase in video or 16mm film from: 
California Newsreel, 630 Natoma Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. 
The ongoing battle between Machinists District 100 and Eastern 
Airlines is one of the most scrutinized labor-management struggles 
in recent U.S. history. Publications ranging from Labor Notes to 
The Harvard Business Review have covered it, and Labor Research 
Review #4 (now out of print) was devoted exclusively to it—the 
first major coverage of the subject. 
The story is a microcosm of the crisis in American labor 
relations: Beset by poor management and deregulation, Eastern 
demanded massive concessions from its Machinists, flight 
attendants and pilots. District 100 President Charles Bryan 
emerged as the leading anti-concessions unionist and spearheaded 
an innovative deal in late 1983 giving the workers four seats on 
the board of directors, a 25% stake in the company, access to the 
books, and incentives to recover the concessions, in return for 
18-22% wage cuts. 
The next 18 months witnessed a remarkable flourishing of 
worker control at Eastern. Lower-level management was substan-
tially reduced, the Machinists succeeded in recovering work that 
had been contracted out, and a new culture of "shopfloor entrepre-
neurship" took root, producing record profits for the carrier. But 
the deal collapsed in late 1985 when the airline's excessive debt 
and downward pressure on fares caused a new crisis. The non-
labor members of the board reverted to hard-ball, demanding new 
20% wage cuts or else Eastern would be sold to union-buster Frank 
Lorenzo's Texas Air. Standing by CEO and ex-astronaut Frank 
Borman, the board refused Bryan's offer to take the cut if Bor-
New Initiatives in the Building Trades 99 
man would resign, so the sale went through (and Borman soon 
retired). 
That's the book version. Now comes the movie—Collision 
Course, co-produced and distributed by California Newsreel, a 
major progressive film house. The documentary's images are a 
terrific illustration of the issues. Here is the stiff-necked Borman, 
with his Nixonesque tics as he addresses the workers on video 
about "all the honesty I can muster in your eyes." Here is shop 
steward Leo Romano running Eastern's operations at Boston's 
Logan Airport without any supervisors even on duty. Here are 
baggage handlers and engine mechanics bragging about how proud 
and involved they had become in their jobs. Here is Bryan 
lamenting that "the culture we created was wiped out in one 
night." 
Providing commentary on the episode are author Robert Kuttner 
and Professor Robert Cole. As Kuttner summarizes, the deal 
unravelled, despite the remarkable rise in productivity and profits, 
because Eastern's management always viewed labor as a "junior 
partner," always subject to new concessions. Indeed, in one 
interview, Borman likens the workers to children and chides labor 
leaders for naively wanting to "keep the children happy." 
More broadly, Collision Course deftly illustrates the shift in 
American labor relations inevitably caused by the end of our post-
war dominance of the world economy. It argues that the ineffi-
ciencies of adversarial-style relations could be absorbed by 
dominant oligopolies then, but that new competition from Europe 
and Asia, plus deregulation, now make it imperative for labor to 
seek co-determination in corporate affairs in order to defend living 
standards. 
Ultimately, this film serves as a kind of Rorschach image for 
unionists facing the "cooperation" debate. Those inclinced to 
experiment with co-determination and worker ownership will see 
a positive example of worker control which is certain to grow, and 
which was only snuffed out because of some intransigent personal-
ities. Those opposed to anything smacking of collaboration will 
point to the story's end, the sale to Lorenzo, and write off the 
18-month honeymoon as a dangerous message that clouds true 
class issues. 
Take your pick, but Collision Course is an outstanding record 
and teaching tool about a pivotal episode in American labor 
relations. 
—Greg LeRoy 
• Greg LeRoy is Research Director at the Midwest Center for Labor Research. 
I 
Local 189 
To the Readers of Labor Research Review, 
In exchange for a monetary agreement to have 
two issues of Labor Research Review sent to 
our members, Workers' Education Local 189 
has been given this page—for a message of import and encouragement. 
Workers' Education Local 189 is a union for those who work in labor 
education—for unions, colleges and universities, community organi-
zations, and other labor activist groups. Local 189 was founded in 1922 
by the staff of Brookwood Labor College in Katonah, New York, and 
was chartered by the American Federation of Teachers. The local has 
been independent since 1976, but still carries on the traditions of 
Brookwood from such illustrious former members as A.J. Muste, Roy 
Reuther, and Phillip Taft. 
The local has two national meetings each year; it also charters 
area/statewide chapters, which meet more frequently. As a membership 
organization, we pay dues and elect officers to run our union. We employ 
a part-time executive secretary to assist with numerous activities, including 
the publication of the Directory of Labor Education and a regular mailing 
service for materials, job listings, and the exchange of ideas and opinions. 
Although we often take stands on important public issues, our basic 
purpose is to provide professional support to labor educators as employees. 
Recently we have renewed discussions about job security in our field of 
work. One specific case involved a university labor educator whose classes 
were boycotted by an international union for not presenting its position 
on free trade. In another, a free-lance labor educator in a jointly-funded 
training program had classes cancelled; the major difficulty in this case 
was determining the employer of record, and who thus controlled the 
classroom curriculum and content. 
Can absolute standards be set for the job rights and academic freedom 
of labor educators when their employer is a union, a university, or often 
a combination of the two? And who sets the standards for professionalism: 
the employer, the educator, or some combination of both? We would 
welcome your ideas in this continuing discussion. 
For more information about Workers' Education Local 189, and a 
membership application, please write to me at the address below. If you're 
interested and involved in labor education, you'll be glad you did. 
Regards and solidarity, 
Anne C. Green, President 
Workers' Education Local 189 
116 Oakdale Ave., Akron, Ohio 44302 
o ^ 


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