Vol. 77/No. 25      July 1, 2013

Miners battling Peabody, Arch and Patriot coal companies today are witnessing how the bosses use bankruptcy courts to advance their anti-union assaults on workers. Many workers — from Hostess Brands in 2012 to Eastern Airlines in 1989 — have faced similar attacks.

The Pathfinder book The Eastern Airlines Strike: Accomplishments of the Rank-and-File Machinists by Ernie Mailhot, Judy Stranahan and Jack Barnes records the experience of the 22-month determined strike by Machinists against Eastern Airlines in 1989-91 that defeated owner Frank Lorenzo’s attempts to smash the union and forced him out of the airline business. Below is an excerpt from the book that deals with the role of the bankruptcy courts. Copyright © 1991 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.

Lorenzo hoped that by getting protection in the bankruptcy court he could restart the grounded airline. Hit hard by ferocious competition in the airline industry, Eastern had already lost millions of dollars in previous years. With Eastern’s operations now brought to a halt by the strike, the company’s losses were mounting even more.

The carrier’s owners were also hoping to get the strikers and working people in general to turn their attention toward the deliberations of the court and away from the strike. They sought to convince workers that decisions about the strike would be made elsewhere than on the picket lines, and that they could not affect those decisions. …

The job of the bankruptcy court is a narrow one, more restricted than that of most courts in the United States. Rulings made by the bankruptcy judge are aimed at protecting the social capital — in this case the planes, equipment, computer systems, terminals, and hangars of Eastern — in the interests of a company’s owners, creditors, and ultimately the capitalist class as a whole. The court has nothing to do with the interests of organized labor or of working people in general. …

While initially many strikers were drawn into following every aspect of the proceedings of the bankruptcy court, this attitude soon dissipated. As rulings came down that went against the interests of the unions, strikers quickly began to learn that the courts were not neutral. The Machinists pressed forward, keeping the strike firm and continuing to win broader solidarity.
 
 
Related articles:
Coal miners determined to fight anti-union assault
Next rally called for July 9 in West Virginia
On the picket line
Deaths in plant fires in Louisiana highlight bosses’ drive for profit
How 1930s class battles forged fighting union in Minneapolis
 
 
 
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