US Airways machinists face a choice this week: They can approve the carrier's latest contract proposal and usher in the waves of steep pay, benefit and job cuts that come with it. Or they can turn down the contract and open the door to a walkout that could send the struggling US Airways Group Inc. -- and their jobs -- flying into oblivion.
It's a choice, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Stephen S. Mitchell acknowledged earlier this month, that amounts to asking the machinists "to cut their own throats."
Wallace Haber said he doesn't regret a strike by his union at Eastern Air Lines, though the carrier collapsed. But, he said, "It broke my heart. My whole life was wrapped up in that company."
(Photos Phil Sears For The Washington Post)
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It's also a choice that Wallace Haber knows well.
Haber, 73, spent four decades in the airline business, a career that ended 14 years ago today when Eastern Air Lines Inc. folded and 19,000 workers lost their jobs. Like the machinists at US Airways, the Eastern machinists had faced a decision of whether to accept further reductions in pay and benefits or go on strike and risk dooming the company. They chose the latter.
What followed was one of the most bitter labor disputes in recent American history, one that culminated in Eastern's demise. The episode continues to resonate deeply throughout the airline industry and offers potential lessons for US Airways workers as they confront a future marked by two seemingly bad options.
"I fear they're going down the path of Eastern Air Lines," said Charles B. Craver, labor law professor at George Washington University. "They're getting to the point where they just think, 'I'd rather lose my job.' "
Haber, a machinist who rose to general chairman in the union, knew that was a likely outcome for him and his co-workers when he voted to go on strike at Eastern. But he didn't see any alternative.
"It's awfully hard to say when you're ready to jump off a cliff that you think you'll feel better when you get to the bottom. Awfully hard to say that," Haber said. "All I know is there was a lot of anger."
It was an anger that had built through the 1980s as Eastern's fortunes soured and workers' salaries eroded. A dominant carrier during the 1960s, Eastern suffered after the industry's deregulation in 1978 heightened competition.
US Airways, itself a legacy from the days before deregulation, has managed to survive until now despite taking a battering from low-cost carriers. But, mired in bankruptcy proceedings and unable to reach agreement on a new contract with its machinists, the airline's prognosis remains grave.
