What Lorenzo did was manipulate the bankruptcy laws to attain his person agenda which was to cancel the union contracts with his employee groups. Lorenzo was anti-union before he ever got his hands on CO. He despised all unions and was determined to get them out of the way. Did his efforts improve the quality of service at CO between 1983 and 1991? Oh hell no. In fact, CO continued to develop a negative reputation, largely because Lorenzo never valued his employees and treated them crap.
Lorenzo also did his best to screw over his former protege, Don Burr, who started People Express. Lorenzo started the non-union New York Air to compete directly against Burr's PE. While Burr was still at TI, Lorenzo humiliated Burr because the latter proposed to that the airline actually listen to its employees and give them a voice in decisions affecting TI.
When Lorenzo took over Eastern, they were having issues sure enough. But the SOB claimed to have purchased Eastern with the intent of re-building it into a stronger airline. Instead, because of his continued hatred for unions, he did everything he could to provoke, incite, slam, bicker and denigrate Charlie Bryan and the IAM. Lorenzo did everything he could to force the hand of and coerce the mediator to declare a 30-day cooling off period. He also backed the IAM into a corner with the intent of forcing them to strike.
Meanwhile, while all this fighting was going on between Lorenzo and Bryan, Lorenzo sold off Eastern's computer reservation system, its South American route system, its aircraft and other assets. When given the opportunity to sell to a group that included former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, Lorenzo played little games with him and diddled around so much that Ueberroth backed out. Lorenzo even did the same to Carl Icahn his evil twin.
I don't see how he can look at himself in a mirror or get a good night's sleep. He literally destroyed thousands of lives.
And what idiot wrote that article???
I loved this quote: "Lorenzo loves to talk about the airline industry, but said he has no regrets about leaving it in 1990. "I was CEO of Continental and its predecessor for 18 years," he said. "I put in my time. Afterwards, we set up a private investment business, Savoy Capital, in Houston and New York, and I love what we do now." WTH????
Leaving? He was banned for the rest of his life by DOT, from ever working directly in the airline industry due to his unethical business practices.
