There was a surprise in store for Lorenzo as well: The pilots union soon announced it would honor the machinists' lines and refuse to fly. The action grounded the airline and pushed it into bankruptcy court five days later.
Workers were initially optimistic.
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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"Maybe I lived in a dream world, but I didn't think it would end up the way it did. I thought we would go back -- and go back with our heads up high," said Ted Ramirez, 68, an Eastern machinist for a quarter of a century.
But instead the strike dragged on as Lorenzo trained and hired replacement workers to get the airline back up and running. Meanwhile, Ramirez and his wife, also an Eastern machinist, got by on $300 a week from the union, plus money he brought in unloading 18-wheelers at night. Their financial problems led to strain in their marriage and, eventually, divorce, Ramirez said.
"The strike was extremely tough," said Merle Gray, 63, an Eastern pilot who lived in Round Hill. "You go from making $9,000 a month to making zero. That's a big difference."
The pilots called off the walkout in November 1989, but few were allowed to return to their jobs. Gray ended up working more than 80 hours a week as a suburban courier, a job he held as of Jan. 18, 1991, when all hope of returning to Eastern ended. That night, the airline shut its doors for good.
"We were expectful and hopeful we could work things out," Lorenzo said. "We certainly learned that airlines are not immortal."
To some, the strike had been a victory for labor, proof "that when human dignity is at stake, employees will stand up," as Guerrieri put it. Others were less charitable, noting that the unions may have forced Lorenzo to give up his airline, as he eventually did, but at a cost of thousands of jobs.
Seiden pointed out that Lorenzo's vision for the industry has largely come to pass. "He understood that with deregulation and the ability of new companies coming into the field without expensive labor forces . . . high pension costs and rigid work rules, [his companies] couldn't survive," Seiden said.
For most workers, moving on to new careers after Eastern wasn't easy.
