Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 20, 1991                   TAG: 9103200423
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MAKING WORKERS PAY FOR AIRLINE'S LOOTING

From 1976 to 1986, nearly $1 billion in employee wage concessions allowed Eastern to finance new aircraft and update computer equipment in return for job security and corporate voting stock.

Frank Lorenzo in 1986 purchased Eastern with the heavy use of junk bonds. He immediately siphoned off Eastern assets to his other airlines and then demanded wage concessions from its employees. These actions led to self-help: a strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and eventually the demise of Eastern.

Mr. Hess wants to equate intelligence with the degree of skills one desires to obtain. Mr. Lorenzo was declared by the bankruptcy court "not competent" to run Eastern, and I do not believe it requires much intelligence or desire to obtain that level of "skill."

There is, should be, and always will be disdain for such people as the Lorenzos of Eastern or the Currys of Greyhound who want to stuff their corporate pockets at the expense of the working man. CALVIN E. ASHE SR. Delegate, IAM Local 165 WIRTZ