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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 28, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------Progressive slate wins
NY transit workers choose New Directions
By Milt Neidenberg
New York
On Dec. 16, members of Transit Workers Union Local 100 packed a New York union hall to welcome their newly elected leaders, including President Roger Toussaint, head of the progressive New Directions caucus. Toussaint won over 60 percent of the vote--a sweeping victory. He will now represent the 36,000 New York subway and bus workers.
The New Directions slate took control of the 38 executive board seats and won six of the eight division-head positions. Each division has between 3,000 and 6,000 members.
New Directions grew up as a rank-and-file caucus. Its main focus was opposition to the incumbent bureaucracy and it struggled for years to win the members' confidence.
The election victory's significance lies in the fact that New Directions did more than criticize the union bureaucracy. It took on the Metropolitan Transit Authority, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Wall Street and their union-busting allies, who one year ago threatened to break up the union and jail New Directions leaders and others for planning a walkout during the winter holidays.
The strike threat came after transit bosses tried to force a totally unacceptable contract onto the rank and file. In response, New Directions organized a series of militant demonstrations and train and bus slowdowns to prepare for a possible strike. This won over the hearts and the minds of TWU members.
Injunction vs. protests, free speech
The proposed 1999 strike would have cost the corporations, bankers, real-estate developers and department store tycoons millions of dollars in profit during the holiday season. It would also have been a political disaster for Giuliani, who was then planning to run for the U.S. Senate.
So the mayor got a state judge to issue an injunction threatening fines of $25,000 and up on each worker and $1 million a day on the union if they organized demonstrations or even used their right of free speech to encourage a strike.
This injunction--bolstered by New York's strike-breaking Taylor law, which penalizes public sector workers two days' pay for each day on strike--was an unprecedented combination of unconstitutional intrusions by the mayor, the courts and the cops on the basic democratic rights of transit and bus workers. It was the New Directions caucus that challenged this anti-labor conspiracy.
The overwhelming vote for New Directions leaders confirmed that the rank and file correctly gave them the credit for organizing and leading the struggle against the mayor's anti-union hysteria.
Although the strike never materialized, New Directions leaders had been tested in the heat of class warfare. The rank and file rewarded them with the election victory.
Clearly, this was more than a struggle for a decent contract. It was a political struggle that highlighted public-sector workers' right to strike against the repressive capitalist state and the ruling class.
Unfortunately, AFL-CIO leaders, along with other public-sector unions, were nowhere to be seen during the crisis. The rank-and-file transit and bus workers led by New Directions fought this monumental battle practically by themselves. There is much to be ironed out in the labor movement in the days ahead.
Appeal for unity
Although they were united in fighting for a decent contract, deep divisions arose among the 36,000 members over last year's contract settlement.
New Directions strongly opposed then-President Willie James, who agreed to language that allowed the Metropolitan Transit Authority to alter job descriptions, combine job classifications and threaten seniority rights. James also allowed the MTA to use workfare workers--replacing 500 union-wage jobs with slave labor conditions.
The majority of members felt the wages and benefits were good enough to approve the contract.
Last week, Toussaint's appeal for unity was expressed judiciously in a leaflet inviting the rank and file to the victory celebration:
"The results show that longtime divisions in our union are finally beginning to heal. We ask President James ... to honor the mandate and the will of the membership."
An article in the Dec. 14 New York Times quoted Toussaint as vowing to "return the union to its roots of being a strong public advocate."
He stated: "The union will adopt strong stands against unnecessary fare increases and repeated service reductions and interruptions... We have to be as accountable to the public as we are to members."
The multinational character of the 36,000 transit workers is a microcosm of the millions of subway riders they serve daily. The New Directions election victory can be a link to the ongoing struggles against racism, the bashing of immigrants and workfare workers, and attacks on the poor and homeless.
The rank and file has given Toussaint and New Directions a mandate that can be a major factor in the direction of New York's labor movement. It can be the catalyst to change the unfavorable relationship of forces between labor and management.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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