Workers World March 2, 2000: NYC transit contract and public workers' right to strike<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../ui/styles/top.css" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="../../ui/script/ie5.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.workers.org/ui/script/DropDownMenuX.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> window.onload = function() { var ddmx = new DropDownMenuX("menu1"); ddmx.type = "horizontal"; ddmx.delay.show = 0; ddmx.delay.hide = 400; ddmx.position.level1.top = 0; ddmx.position.level1.left = 0; ddmx.position.levelX.top = 0; ddmx.position.levelX.left = 0; ddmx.fixIeSelectBoxBug = true; ddmx.zIndex.visible = 500; ddmx.zIndex.hidden = -1; ddmx.init(); } </script> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#483d8b" vlink="#2f4f4f" alink="#a52a2a">  <table width="65%" border="0" cellpadding="10" align="center"> <tr> <td height="911" align="left" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0"> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <a href="http://www.workers.org/"><img src="../../images/wwlogo.png" alt="Workers.org" width="600" height="58" border="0" /></a></td> </tr> </table> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="menu1" class="ddmx"> <tr> <td> <a class="item1" href="http://www.workers.org/">Home</a></td> <td> <a class="item1" href="javascript:void(0)">Books</a> <div class="section"> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/index.html">Selected works of Sam Marcy</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/sambol/index.htm">Bolsheviks and War</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samtech/index.htm">High Tech, Low Pay</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samsoc/index.htm">Soviet Socialism: Utopian or Scientific</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/indonesia/index.html">Indonesia 1965</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/cm/empire.html">Expanding Empire</a> </div></td> <td><a class="item1" href="javascript:void(0)">Subscribe</a> <div class="section"><a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/email.php">Email list</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/orders/index.php">Print edition</a> </div></td> <td> <a class="item1" href="http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php">Donate </a></td> <td> <a class="item3" href="http://www.workers.org/mo/index.html">Noticias en Español</a> </td> </tr> </table> <print> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr> <td width="19%" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#E2E2E2"> <p class="caption">Support<br /> anti-war,<br /> anti-racist<br /> news </p> <p class="caption"><a href="http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php">:: Donate now ::</a></p> <hr /> <p class="caption"><print><a href="http://www.workers.org/cgi-bin/mailww/mailww.cgi"><img src="http://www.workers.org/graphics/email.gif" width="21" height="20" border="0" alt="Email this article" />Email this article</a> </print></p> <p class="caption"><print><a href="/print.php"><img src="http://www.workers.org/graphics/printer.gif" width="21" height="20" border="0" alt="Print this page" />Printable page</a></print></p> <hr /> <p class="caption"><a href="mailto:letters@workers.org">Email the editor</a></p> <form method="get" action="http://www.workers.org/cgi-bin/search/search.pl"> <input name="Terms" id="fdse_TermsEx" size="12" maxlength="255" class="email" /> <input type="submit" value="Search" style="align: center; padding: 1px 2px 1px 2px; background: #DCDCDC; color: darkslategray; font-size: 9px; border: solid #696969 1px;" /> </form> <p class="caption"> </p></td> <td width="81%"> <blockquote> <div align="right" class="translate"><a href="http://www.faganfinder.com/translate/ref.php?from=en" title="click here to translate this page into any language, using the Fagan Finder Translation Wizard" target="new" hreflang="en">Translate this page</a></div>  <h1>NYC transit contract and public workers' right to strike</h1> <P><b>By Milt Neidenberg</b><br> </P><b>New York</b></P> <P>The hard-fought battle by the 33,000 members of Transit Workers Local 100 to win a decent contract from the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority has ended. The workers who run the subways and buses--women and men of all nationalities--have ratified the proposed agreement.</P> <P>The vote was 11,570 in favor and 7,069 opposed, according to Local 100 President Willie James. He had waged an all-out fight to get approval. </P><P>More than 14,000 members didn't vote. This reflects the bitter controversy between New Directions, a strong opposition faction that narrowly lost the local's last election, and the Willie James leadership. They clashed over the contract's merits.</P><P>The agreement provides a 12.48-percent compounded raise over three years. The MTA also pledges to reduce the workers' pension contributions by 3.3 percent.</P><P>The economic package far exceeds the average settlements won by the labor movement these days. However, the contract has language allowing the MTA to alter job descriptions in subway and bus maintenance. The changes threaten seniority rights and job security, and will be a factor in production speed-ups.</P><P>The contract also allows the MTA to continue using workfare workers. Management forced this on the union in the 1996 contract--replacing some union-wage jobs with slave labor.</P><P>For these reasons and others, New Directions opposed the settlement. Those members who voted for the contract felt that it was the best they could get once the strike threat was removed and momentum was lost. Those who voted against the contract wanted to fight on.</P><P>The 33,000 train and bus workers must now close ranks. The MTA, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and Wall Street are unhappy that because of the pressure from the strike threat, they had to grant a settlement that is better than the average economic packages. They will want their revenge, and will find ways to violate the contract, punish the workers and push them to produce more.</P><P>A major factor in this contract fight was the arrogant interference of the union-busting Giuliani and Wall Street. It began in October 1999, when the union threatened to strike during the winter holidays, including the period of the millennium new year celebrations. The strike threat was a response to the MTA trying to jam a totally unacceptable contract down the throats of the rank and file.</P><P>A transit strike during the holidays would have been a major economic catastrophe. It would have cost the corporate and banking establishment, real-estate tycoons and employers in general hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. And it would have been a political disaster for Giuliani--who was preparing to run for the Senate.</P><P>The strike threat was backed up by a series of militant demonstrations and train and bus slowdowns by the rank and file. These sent a message to the mayor that the workers were prepared to strike for economic justice--despite the infamous, anti-union, strike-breaking Taylor Law that would fine them two days' pay for each day on strike. </P><P>On the final day of the old contract, the mayor got a judge to put a gun to the head of the union to head off the strike. The judge issued an injunction that threatened fines of $25,000 and up for each striker and $1 million for the union--if they even talked about striking, let alone actually struck.</P><P>It was an unprecedented, unconstitutional use of the powers of the mayor, the courts, and the cops--who threatened to round up members if they even said the word strike or carried a sign. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Giuliani's Democratic senatorial opponent, joined in by voicing support for the Taylor Law and denouncing any attempt by public-sector workers to strike.</P><P>Unfortunately, the local and national AFL-CIO leadership failed to respond to these vicious strike-breaking tactics. The strike never materialized.</P><P>Clearly, this was more than a struggle for a decent contract. It was class war unfolding. And it highlighted as a primary issue public-sector workers' right to strike.</P><P>A great deal of credit should be given to New Directions. Its members aroused, organized and gave leadership to workers in the struggle to challenge the Taylor Law. And they stood up as well as they could to the anti-union drumbeat from the mayor, the media and Wall Street.</P><P>The 33,000 MTA workers face another union election in the near future. The lessons of this bitter struggle and the conduct of those leaders who fought the hardest against the MTA, Giuliani and Wall Street should remain fresh in their minds at voting time. Inevitably, it will be these leaders who will have to again face the class enemies who are determined to undermine their union contract and deny them their basic constitutional right to strike.</P>  <p>This article is copyright under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">Creative Commons License</a>.   <br /> Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011<br> Email: <a href="MAILTO:ww@workers.org">ww@workers.org</a><br> Subscribe <a href="MAILTO:wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net">wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net</a><br> Support independent news <a href="http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php">http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php</a>)  </p> <p class="caption"><a href="http://www.workers.org/">HOME</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/us/">U.S. NEWS</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/world/">WORLD NEWS</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/editorials/">EDITORIALS</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/orders/">SUBSCRIBE</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php">DONATE</a></p> </blockquote> </body> </html>