1986 – The Last Five Years

Strike

The Independent Federation of Flight Attendants (IFFA), which represented TWA’s cabin crews, called a strike against the company shortly after midnight on March 7, 1986. This work action became all but inevitable soon after Carl Icahn gained control of the airline the previous fall. At the time, the pilot and mechanics unions had agreed to concessions but IFFA did not participate.

With the exception of a one-day strike by the mechanics in 1983, it was the first work action against TWA since US Airline Deregulation. Significantly, that act also triggered the end to the Mutual Aid Pact, in the days when struck airlines received a share of profits from member companies still operating. By the early 1980s, TWA’s financial condition had deteriorated to the point where it could not withstand prolonged strikes. The mechanics had received a 28% pay increase. In 1984, the company agreed to a 30% pay increase for the flight attendants, without work rule concessions, when IFFA threatened to walk out.

However, the new owner had the resources, the will and the way break a strike. At Kansas City, a large number of replacement flight attendant trainees were qualified with minimal instruction, most of it safety-related, and placed on standby. In addition, non-union TWA employees from sales, reservations and other departments, and even some retirees, completed required training. The showdown clock started when mediations between the company and union broke down in February, triggering a 30-day cooling off period that ended without a new contract.

In the final hours, Icahn offered superficial concessions to demands on the table, but left in place draconian work rule changes and pay cuts in excess of 30%. He would not allow further time for the offer to be voted upon by the workforce. Union leaders refused and the strike began. No other unions honored the picket lines and a greatly reduced interim flight schedule was put in place. The airline continued to operate.

Meanwhile, Carl Icahn showed no sign of relinquishing his demands, nor did the union leadership change its stance; no further negotiating sessions were scheduled.

The company’s mood changed dramatically and most will agree it was never the same again. Nearly 20% of the flight attendants either continued their jobs or crossed the picket lines and returned to work. Those who did not either left the company or waited anywhere from 14 months to three years before they were offered re-employment.

Five days after watching non-contract and union employees alike cross the picket line, I did so as well, and take no pleasure in having done that.

The actual decision to go back to work was difficult. I had barely a year left before eligibility to take early out, lump-sum retirement with passes. This option would be unavailable if I was not on the payroll and there was no guarantee that the offer would exist by the time I could come back, if ever.

When emotions enter the picture a good deal of hostility comes with it, and sadly that still exists among some, more than 30 years after the fact. I lost friends, kept friends and made new friends within TWA, while trying to make sense out of a new environment that, in many ways, did not resemble pre-March 7 or ever would again.

As someone said, “The frustrations endured by airline employees following Deregulation are exceeded only by the indifference of the traveling public.” Fare sales brought full loads almost immediately, and the work stoppage essentially collapsed.

Quite simply, we were in a tank with a shark, and he was itching for a fight, knowing we could not win. On the other hand, neither did Icahn, who later publicly called his investment in TWA the worst investment he ever made, one that cost him $100 million, but that was little comfort for those whose lives were dramatically changed. In the end, nobody won.