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Summary:

Collision Course traces the dramatic rise and fall of workplace cooperation at Eastern Airlines. In so doing, the film uncovers the deep-seated assumptions which underlie our culture of industrial relations and prevent us from breaking out of our industrial impasse. Collision Course begins in 1983 with Eastern hurtling towards bankruptcy, beset by years of labor-management hostility, high wage cuts, and a poor service record. An informative history traces this adversarial relationship back to the dawn of the wage system and the rise of scientific management. When Eastern once again demanded wage cuts, the machinist union responded with a bold counter-proposal reconceiving the traditional "wage bargain" by giving workers both a 25% ownership stake and an unprecedented say in the company. It was the most profound change in labor-management relations in any major American Company. The results were stunning. Autonomous work teams took over the shop floor. Wage increases were tied to productivity improvements. Encouraged to use their brains, newly motivated "cost teams" invented ways to save the airline $100 million. Yet when competitive pressures re-emerged, the innovative agreement was pulled apart by the very people who put it together. In 1986, Eastern was sold to Frank Lorenzo's notoriously anti-union Texas Air and soon thereafter went down in flames. Eastern's rise and fall provides a vital case study of the do's, don'ts, and maybe's of workplace cooperation.

Contributors:

Gibney, Alex , producer, screenwriter, director

Jigsaw Productions , production company, http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/prn

California Newsreel (Firm) , production company, http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/prn

Pacific Basin Institute , production company, http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/prn

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

In English.

Subjects:

Eastern Air Lines

Industrial relations — United States

Labor disputes — United States

Industrial relations

Labor disputes

United States

Genres:

Documentary films

Short films

Online media

Internet videos

Performers:

Narrator, Peter Coyote.

General Notes:

Title from resource description page (viewed August 21, 2017).
Streaming media.
Restricted to the University of North Texas System.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 video file (48 mins.))

Digital Characteristics:

video file

Call Numbers:

Online Video

OCLC Numbers:

1003395363

Other Control Numbers:

3573855 (source: VaAlASP)
[Unknown Type]: ASP3573855/avon