After job action by state workers
Ventura attacks the right to strike
By Steve Argue
St. Paul, Minn.
Beating back Minnesota Gov. Jesse "the Body" Ventura's
"final offer," government workers have gotten a better contract
proposal by going out on strike. While the contract is not yet
ratified by the membership, union officials have already
returned the members to work.
Now Ventura is saying he will cut jobs and needed government
programs because of the strike. In addition, on Oct. 22,
Ventura stated that government workers should not even be
allowed to strike.
Ventura warned striking workers of the American Federation
of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the
Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE) that
they would lose their jobs if they didn't drop their strike and
give in to his demands.
Those on strike included highway maintenance workers,
janitors, tax collectors and office clerks. Also included in
the union are parole officers. The strike started on Oct. 1 and
lasted two weeks.
Ventura claimed that workers would have to be laid off if he
gave into their demands because there would not be money to pay
them. Peter Benner, AFSCME Local 6 executive director,
responded, "There are layoffs in good times. There are layoffs
in bad times. So this doesn't deter us."
Ventura has now repeated this threat of layoffs, claiming
the money isn't there to keep the workers. AFSCME Local 6
refutes this claim, reciting the government's own budget
records. What this looks like is retaliation against the
workers who stood up against Ventura's concessions contract. If
the governor gets away with it, social programs will suffer as
well from his cuts.
The 28,000 workers were forced out on strike by the
governor's concessions contract proposal, which included an
increase in health care costs for workers. Also included was a
small cost-of-living increase of 3.8 percent in the first year
and 2 percent in the years after. These cost of living
increases would have been offset by the new health care
costs.
The new contracts that are coming up for a vote include a
3.5-percent increase this year and next year for AFSCME
employees and a 3-percent increase both years for MAPE
employees.
What was obvious with the governor's earlier proposal was
that workers would pay a lot more for health care. What the
proposal left unclear is how much more. The clinics that
workers use would be rated first, second and third tier, and
different tiers would charge different amounts. Making this
proposal completely unacceptable was the fact that the clinics
were not even rated yet. Union members had no way of knowing
what their health care cost increases would be under the
proposed contract.
Under the new proposal the clinics are now rated. Workers
will now know how much more they will be paying and be able to
weigh that when they vote for or against the contract. In
addition, MAPE employees will get a one-time lump payment of
$250 designated to offset increased health care costs.
Overall the contract is better than the earlier proposal,
but is still questionable in charging more for healthcare than
in previous years. The contract comes to a vote in
mid-November. Governor Ventura cited the war as the reason why
workers should have accepted the earlier concession
contract.
On Oct. 4 on a conservative talk-radio show, Ventura stated,
"Personally, I would be going to work, because it's a tough
time. We're going to war, in my opinion. Everybody has to bite
the bullet a little bit."
In times of war and economic crisis the capitalist class
always wants workers to pay the price while the bosses live in
their luxurious mansions. Ventura's anti-union war drumming
places him squarely alongside the ranks of the anti-worker
politicians of the Democratic and Republican parties.
In addition, Ventura mobilized 1,000 National Guards to do
some of the work of strikers at state-run facilities such as
veterans' homes, hospitals and treatment facilities. The
Department of Transportation also took out ads for scab
snowplow drivers.
Teamster truck drivers refused to cross picket lines. Yet
deeper union solidarity could have ended the strike very
quickly and resulted in a better settlement. In the mid-1990s
Gov. Arne Carlson's plan to call out the National Guard against
bus drivers was thwarted by the Teamsters telling the governor
that if he did so, they would call a general strike. This type
of action, flexing union power against state power, should have
been repeated.
AFSCME and MAPE workers deserve solidarity. They stood up in
the front lines defending the standard of living of the working
class against the ideological onslaught of the government,
which was telling workers to sacrifice for the profits of the
rich in a time of war.
No to layoffs! No to cuts in social services! No to
curtailments on the right to strike!
Reprinted from the Nov. 1, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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Email: ww@workers.org
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