TWA Attendants’ Strike Escalates : Machinists at Some Airports Refuse to Cross Picket Lines

NEW YORK — The strike by flight attendants against Trans World Airlines escalated sharply Saturday as machinists at some major airports across the nation refused to cross picket lines and machinists at others apparently continued to work.

The 6,000-member Independent Federation of Flight Attendants had asked the 10,000 machinists who maintain TWA’s jets to honor their picket lines, and the two sides in the dispute gave widely differing estimates on how well that strategy was working.

The strike began early Friday when TWA and the union failed to reach an agreement on wage and benefit concessions demanded by the airline.

TWA spokesman Larry Hilliard said in New York that the International Assn. of Machinists union headquarters in Kansas City had told him that 87% of its members in the East showed up for work Saturday morning.

Some Operations Halted

However, the flight attendants’ union said by nightfall Saturday that TWA operations had been brought to a halt at John F. Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark airports, all serving the greater New York area, as well as airports at Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City.

Karen Eitelberg, flight attendants’ union spokeswoman, said that in addition, ground crews in London, Rome, Paris and Tel Aviv were honoring the strike by refusing to refuel TWA planes.

She said more than 20 aircraft were stranded in Europe and Israel.

Her union also claimed that the 2,400 members of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Kansas City had refused to cross the picket line and closed down TWA’s main service and maintenance depot.

“Without servicing, TWA cannot put their planes in the air,” Eitelberg told Reuters.

Report ‘Blatantly Untrue’

TWA spokeswoman Sally McElwreath conceded that “apparently the maintenance facility at Kansas City had a large number of people who did not show up for work or joined the picket lines,” but spokesman Hilliard added that “it is blatantly untrue that the facility in Kansas City is closed down. Just because people decide not to cross the picket line does not mean the facility is closed,” he said.

But at the Kansas City maintenance plant, Herb Hawkins, IAM Local 1650 representative, said 98% of the machinists had refused to cross the lines.

“We’re staying away,” Hawkins said. “It’s got to start hurting them. . . . They (machinists) are real solid in St. Louis too. If you shut down the hub, you shut down the airline.”

For TWA, Hilliard also denied that TWA operations at John F. Kennedy and Chicago airports had been halted.

‘Flights of Fancy’

“We had 85% of our machinists turn up for work at Kennedy, and 180 out of 181 machinists turned up at Chicago. IFFA must be having flights of fancy,” he said.

Hilliard stressed that the immediate impact of difficulty at the Kansas City maintenance facility would be minimal because it is used for long-term maintenance rather than day-to-day maintenance.

TWA Chairman Carl C. Icahn has said that he asked the flight attendants to accept a 22% wage cut as part of a stringent economy plan to save the airline.

The attendants claim that Icahn was really asking for a 45% wage reduction.

TWA, the nation’s sixth-largest carrier, had called off half its flights when the strike started, but hoped to get more planes into the air starting today by using newly hired attendants and management personnel.

52% of Flights Flown

McElwreath said TWA flew 52% of its scheduled flights Saturday and planned to bring 25 more planes back into service Monday, including two international flights from Boston to Paris and Rome.

“We intend to bring 25 aircraft back into operation on Monday, another 50 on Tuesday, with substantial additions on Wednesday and Thursday to bring our operation up to 100% by Friday,” she said.

The flight attendants’ union said TWA’s target is unreachable.

“The only way the company can return to full operating conditions is with our cooperation. And that means signing a contract with the union. As long as this strike continues the company cannot resume full service,” union spokeswoman Cynthia deFigueiredo said.

DeFigueiredo also said that some of the 1,500 attendants trained by TWA to replace the strikers were refusing to cross the picket lines and were even joining the lines.

‘A Nasty Surprise’

DeFigueiredo refused to say how many replacement attendants had joined the strikers. “We want TWA to get a nasty surprise,” she said.

At the strike headquarters in St. Louis, attendants’ spokeswoman Helen McDermott said, “We’re going out to win.”

No new talks were scheduled.

Icahn took over TWA early this year after a nine-month struggle. He predicted that the attendants would strike and said last week “we are ready and able to take a strike.”

TWA’s pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Assn., agreed to cross picket lines of other unions in its own wage concession pact reached with Icahn.

The pilots agreed to wage cuts of 25% and the machinists accepted 15% cuts.

But the machinists refused to agree not to cross the picket lines.

Icahn said the concessions were needed to cut TWA’s losses, which last year hit $193 million. He predicted the airline would lose $125 million in the first quarter this year and said a flight attendants’ strike would add $100 million to the loss.