Charlie Bryan, Who Led Eastern Air Lines Strike, Dies at 79

The labor movement has produced its share of heroes, but it’s hard to say whether Charlie Bryan was among them. Bryan was a leader of the most dramatic labor conflict in the history of the airline industry, but 24 years later it is impossible to say whether he won or lost.

Bryan, who was born Dec. 11, 1933, died Saturday at a retirement community outside Orlando. He had suffered from leukemia and Parkinson’s disease. He was president of District 100 of the International Association of Machinists, which represented about 10,000 Eastern Air Lines workers, including mechanics and fleet service workers. The members struck in 1989, and the airline’s other unions followed. Two years after the strike, Eastern Airlines shut down.

That may be viewed negatively, but it is also true that sometimes a union needs to go on strike. The right to strike, which people died for, means nothing if it is never exercised.

Bryan’s adversary was Frank Lorenzo. Lorenzo made a good adversary. He managed to get many of his employees and much of American to dislike him. He appeared to be trying to kill Eastern, partially because he moved Eastern assets to Continental , setting it up to become the leading U.S. airline after he left. Now Continental management leads United, the world’s biggest airline.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tedreed/2013/11/05/charlie-bryan-who-led-the-eastern-airlines-strike-was-a-hero-to-some-but-not-to-all/