Look Back to 1980 Strike When Talks Resume

The Southern California grocery strike/lockout will soon set a record as the longest American supermarket strike in recent memory. Negotiations are supposed to restart early this month. When they do, both sides would do well to remember the sad tale of Pacific Southwest Airlines. PSA began flying between the Bay Area and Los Angeles in 1949 and had much of the California market for the next 30 years. In 1980, however, its pilots struck for 52 days. By that time, the industry had been deregulated and other carriers quickly put their planes on PSA routes. Eight years after the strike, PSA had disappeared.

For the last three months, the parties to the grocery strike have been pushing consumers to other markets and teaching them about the many alternative sources of groceries in the area. Like the airline carriers that took business from PSA during its strike, those other markets will seek to hold on to their new customers whenever the dispute ends. Let’s hope that the parties to the grocery dispute keep the lesson of PSA in mind when they resume negotiations. Where will they be eight years from now?

Daniel J.B. Mitchell

Professor

Anderson Graduate School

of Management, UCLA