NEW YORK
Transit workers ready to fight for justice
By Milt
Neidenberg
New York
Everyone in the city watched closely as the clock ticked
toward 12:01 a.m., Dec. 15. That was when the contract between
the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the 33,000
members of the Transport Workers Local 100 expired.
The question was, can the TWU get a full measure of economic
and social justice without a strike? Not if New York Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani has his way.
The mayor made it clear that he opposed a decent contract as
well as a strike--even though there are billions of dollars in
surpluses in the city and state coffers. Giuliani was provoking
the union, demeaning its demands and illegally interfering with
the collective-bargaining process.
The MTA, by law, is a state-mandated employer that
negotiates contracts with the Transport Workers. Giuliani
flouted that law.
In a series of news conferences, the mayor tried to create
an anti-union panic among the 3.5 million subway riders and the
millions of city dwellers. He set up a task force that added
3,000 more police to patrol the subways.
He put the police commissioner and the head of his Emergency
Management Office in control of the entire city. He was a mayor
out of control, trying to hold the union and its allies hostage
to his commands.
The mayor also publicly charged the union with criminal
activities--without a shred of proof. Giuliani charged that
transit workers activated a switch that moves a local train to
an express track, temporarily disrupting service. He said he
would hold the union responsible for any deaths that may occur
during a strike.
He demanded--and won--a temporary court injunction even
before any strike, to back up the state's Taylor law. The
Taylor law prohibits public-employee strikes and penalizes
public workers who do strike.
Using the monopoly-owned press and electronic media,
Giuliani tried to create fear and panic in order to intimidate
and break the determination and the will of the 33,000 union
members.
Transit workers and their allies responded to these attacks.
They carried out a slow-down, working strictly under the MTA
rules of operations. The New York City Taxi Alliance announced
that its members will defy Giuliani's rules for cab drivers to
pick up multiple fares in the event of a strike.
Bhairavi Desai, organizer for over 2,000 taxi drivers,
announced that the cab drivers would work together with the
Transport Union if there is a strike.
A strike of over 33,000 transit workers would make all the
mayor's contingency plans for a strike inoperable and
unmanageable. It would put the mayor on the hot seat as the one
responsible for provoking the strike.
But Wall Street is cheering the mayor on. It is this force
of billionaires, bankers, corporate heads, giant real-estate
developers and department-store moguls who are in fear and
panic over any possibility of a strike.
The profits that pour into their pockets are enormous and
obscene. The timing of a strike during this money-making
holiday season, the possibility that it could go on into the
new year and the difficulty of alternative transportation
during the winter season can only blow their minds.
What they lost during the 1966 and the 1980 transit strikes
was peanuts compared to a strike now. They depended on
Giuliani--the racist, anti-union, anti-poor, anti-immigrant
mayor--to generate a panic to scapegoat the union and to assure
Wall Street there will be no strike.
Giuliani's reward? The promise that he will get the support
to become the next New York senator in the 2000 election.
Taking it to the streets
Meanwhile the union was seriously going about the business
of negotiating wages, benefits, and working conditions that
reflect the needs of the membership. The union entered
round-the-clock negotiations while at the same time preparing
for a strike.
Thousands of multinational, rank-and-file members and their
supporters jam med midtown Manhattan streets on Nov. 17, and
there was an even bigger turnout on Dec. 8--all to send a
strong message to Wall Street, the mayor and the MTA that they
were not intimidated by the hard line against the union. These
rallies were aimed at strengthening the negotiating committee
at the bargaining table.
The negotiating committee has created a number of
sub-committees to handle the many complex issues that had been
imposed on them over the years--including wages, as well as
disciplinary actions by management, health benefits, farmed-out
work and sexual harassment.
Workfare workers--who have been used by management to
replace hundreds of union subway cleaners--have been taken off
the bargaining table. These super-exploited workers are being
used by the MTA bosses to drive down wages and expand
layoffs.
There was a feeling among a number of the division
chairpersons that the MTA was stalling on many of these
issues--a strategy that would leave them unresolved.
This multinational union work force was prepared to
accelerate strike preparations. The union put out a list of
picket headquarters by boroughs. Discussions were held to
quickly implement placing strike captains at each reporting
location and terminal. But workers were not being told who
their strike captains are at each reporting location and
terminal.
There were other tasks that also need to be addressed. At a
militant union rally Dec. 8, information on this was included
in "Hell on Wheels"--the newspaper of the New Directions caucus
of Local 100.
Other proposals in the newspaper called for a mass
membership meeting on Dec. 14 and a mass march across the
Brooklyn Bridge on Dec.15.
Unfortunately there are tensions between the New Directions
caucus, led by Tim Schermerhorn--which holds 22 out of 46 seats
on the executive board--and Local 100 President Willie James
and his leadership. Both are under attack from Giuliani.
The rank-and-file members want and need unity among their
leaders.
And unity must also be forged with other public-sector
workers such as those represented by AFSCME District Council
37, the United Federation of Teachers and others who are
negotiating their contracts at a time when the Giuliani
administration has attacked their members.
This is a fight that can only be won through unity in the
streets.
The day after the splendid Dec. 8 demonstration of transit
workers, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney came to New York to
support the Teamsters strike against the Overnite trucking
company. Sweeney had just returned from Seattle, flush with
success from the tremendous victory against the World Trade
Organization.
The unity that prevailed in Seattle needs to be applied here
against Giuliani and the same financial powers that dominate
and run the WTO.
Sweeney has the power to make it happen. The transit workers
need it.
The militant transit workers' demonstrations in recent weeks
confirm that the rank-and-file subway and bus workers are
prepared to do whatever is necessary to get a measure of
economic and social justice.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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