Leeham News and Analysis

Union scourge Frank Lorenzo at last tells his story in “Flying for Peanuts”

By Scott Hamilton

Sept. 10, 2024, © Leeham News: Thursday is the day the touch-labor union at Boeing, the IAM 751, will vote on a new contract. The militant union is loaded for bear. Members are voting on a new contract for the first time in more than a decade, and the first entirely refreshed contract in nearly two decades.

They want big raises, saying theirs have stagnated since the 2008 contract and two subsequent revisions in 2011 and 2014. The IAM wants a 40% wage hike over a three-year contract. Recapture of benefits concessions also are being sought. A guarantee that the next Boeing airplane will be built in Puget Sound, a seat on the Board of Directors, and a role in fixing Boeing’s safety culture are all on the table.

The IAM 751 advised its members to start saving for a strike fund as far back as 2019. Training has been underway for weeks for picketing. Members held a rally with 25,000 attendees; 99% voted in favor of a strike if an acceptable contract wasn’t reached.

Frank Lorenzo, left, and Donald Trump, during the former’s courtship to entice Trump to buy the famed Eastern Shuttle. Source: Frank Lorenzo.

Against this backdrop, it is somehow fitting that the memoirs of one of labor’s most reviled enemies comes out today: Frank Lorenzo’s Flying With Peanuts is now available via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and elsewhere. Subtitled Tough Deals, Steep Bargains and Revolution in the Skies, Lorenzo for the first time details his life and his career from his immigrant Spanish parents through the highly controversial career owning Texas International Airlines, Continental Airlines, Eastern Airlines, and purchasing the original Frontier Airlines, PeoplExpress and several commuter carriers; and launching non-union New York Air in one of America’s most unionized cities.

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