NYC transit struggle goes into round three

By a razor-thin margin of seven votes, Local 100 Transport Workers Union members have rejected the tentative contract agreed to between TWU leaders and the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). As of the noon deadline on Jan. 20, two-thirds of the 33,700 union members had voted, an exceptional turnout. The vote was 11, 234 to reject the contract and 11,227 to accept.

There is no indication that TWU President Roger Toussaint is seeking a recount. The rank and file have spoken. Although Toussaint campaigned hard to get the tentative contract ratified, and lost by an unprecedentedly close vote, he is honoring the mandate of the membership.

This was the first time the TWU had conducted a ratification vote through the Internet and over the telephone, the members having been issued secret pin numbers. The vote was organized and monitored by the American Arbitration Association.

Now it is back to the bargaining table and uncertainty. The next step for the union is a strategy session with the executive board. It is critical that Toussaint and the opposition find common ground to improve the tentative agreement rejected by the rank and file. This is a tall order.

TWU under attack

MTA chairperson Peter Kalikow, a real estate tycoon handpicked by Gov. George Pataki, has proposed binding arbitration under the rules of the anti-union Taylor Law. Earlier, Toussaint had rejected binding arbitration, preferred by employers because it removes the decision-making process from the rank and file and their elected leaders. It should be rejected again.

The MTA strategy is to create tensions and exploit differences between TWU leaders and the rank and file in order to undermine the power of the transit workers, who for three days shut down the largest city in the country and paralyzed the financial institutions of U.S. imperial power.

The campaign has begun. In newsprint and on television and radio, the capitalist media have zeroed in on subway and bus riders who will attack the union members as greedy and self-serving. They have also searched out disgruntled TWU members.

The New York Times found one such bus driver, who works on the B43 route in Brooklyn. They got a quote from him to exploit tensions between older and younger workers: “This contract is for the older guys. ... I started in 2000 and this contract doesn’t benefit me in any way as far as getting anything new. There’s like one more vacation day. The 1.5 percent [referring to a new health cost deduction] is the worst thing.” (New York Times, Jan. 21) There was a lot new in the contract that the Times failed to mention.

In the same article, the Times quoted the president of the Partnership for New York City, the city’s largest association of business leaders, most of whom had taken heavy financial hits during the three-day strike. “It’s a sign of substantial problems between union leaders and members,” Kathryn S. Wylde said happily.

The attacks are nothing new. Trinidad-born TWU President Roger Toussaint and the multinational rank and file, overwhelmingly Black and Latin@, were subjected to an extremely ugly, racist campaign during negotiations and especially throughout the three-day strike.

A New York Daily News editorial headline urged “Throw Roger from the Train” and called the settlement the “MTA Gravy Train” under which the TWU had “made out like bandits.” The New York Post characterized the members as “You Rats” on its front page and the Wall Street Journal, mouthpiece of the ruling class, accused the MTA of having “caved on pension reform.”

Governor Pataki and billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined the racist chorus, calling the members “thugs” who carried out criminal activities. They were furious that the TWU had defied the infamous anti-union, strike-breaking Taylor Law and was rewarded with a contract far superior to the MTA’s original “final offer.” Pataki had sworn there would be no negotiations until the strike was over. But he was wrong.

Gains won in the contract

The MTA had agreed to guarantee lifetime health care for about 13,000 retired members and dropped its demand for a two-tier proposal that would have forced new hires to pay into a pension plan. It also dropped its demand to extend the retirement age for new hires from 55 to 62.

The TWU also won over $130 million in the reimbursement of pension over-deductions for 22,000 current members and retirees. However, backed by Wall Street, Governor Pataki threatened to renege on the $130 million retroactive payment, which he had vetoed twice previously. This infuriated the rank and file.

The 37-month contract included a 10.5 percent wage increase over three years, a paid Martin Luther King Day holiday, and an independent authority to restrain the MTA on disciplinary citations that have averaged over 16,000 annually. Toussaint called the citations “plantation justice.”

The contract included maternity leave stipends for the first time, and no broad banding that would eliminate jobs and double up work loads. Faced by a work environment fraught with danger below and above ground, the union won on-the-job death benefits and state disability compensation was doubled. Bus drivers, train operators and conductors could get two years’ assault pay if attacked on the job.

The sticking point for many workers was the payment of 1.5 percent of their annual earnings, including overtime, toward health care costs. And if MTA health care payments were to exceed a certain level, the members would bear the brunt of further increases and the percentage deducted would be raised.

Fearful of an open-ended plan and the sky-rocketing cost of health care, a slim majority of the members rejected the tentative contract.

Even though the MTA had guaranteed it would pick up the tab for the $130 million pension payback in the event of a Pataki veto, this issue also contributed to the no vote.

Solidarity in struggle

Some labor academics want to stir up the pot of discord and divisions. David L. Gregory, a labor law professor at St. John’s University, told the press, “The militant members of the union will continue to work, but they may be prone to a wildcat job action or slowdown which could be almost as chaotic as a system-wide shutdown.” (New York Times, Jan. 22) The Times writer refers to “so much anger, ill feeling, dissent, and political jockeying ... that some unpredictable and undesirable things might happen if the union members or its dissident leaders flex their muscles.”

Contrary to this description of an unpredictable and disorderly work force, the facts are the rank and file waged a disciplined, orderly and well-managed struggle to get a decent contract with respect and dignity. They exerted a power that was truly awesome. The rallies, demonstrations and work-to-rule job actions, and finally the three-day strike, were carried out by the Local 100 leadership, headed by President Roger Toussaint, in a militant, unified and coordinated manner.

The 33,700 rank-and-file transit workers have established this splendid precedent. They have waged an independent struggle for respect and dignity and they don’t need to be lectured to nor influenced by different sections of the capitalist class and their mouthpieces.

Some facts are clear. The MTA has deep pockets. It can afford to absorb the health care costs, just as it does for its executive board and supervisors. It admitted to a $1 billion surplus this year. Reportedly, two sets of books were kept on the agency’s finances. Exposure of other hidden assets in real estate and other investments will justify a major mobilization, carried on in the same spirit that won solid gains, to reverse the 1.5 percent wage deduction for health care.

The TWU needs allies in this fight. Lack of health care is a disgrace in a country where over 45 million working poor, organized and unorganized, can’t afford coverage. The TWU struggle resonates far beyond New York City. The AFL-CIO and the Change to Win Federation have a big stake in the outcome. They can’t afford to be cheerleaders, urging the TWU to fight their fight. Mayor Bloomberg has already indicated he will pressure other public sector workers to accept the 1.5 percent.

Call for a general strike

During the strike, the Area Labor Council in Troy, N.Y., a small mid-state city, had called for a “General Strike to Support NYC Transit Workers.” Its resolution stated: “The Troy Area Labor Council of the AFL-CIO calls on the New York State AFL-CIO to organize a General Strike of all New York State Union Workers to bring these Anti-Worker politicians to their senses and to obtain a just settlement of the Transit Worker Strike.” Referring to the Taylor Law, the resolution said: “The right to strike is a fundamental human right without which all other rights of workers become meaningless.”

This resolution is more timely now than ever. Under the Taylor Law, Toussaint is subject to jail time, the TWU could be fined $3 million and each member is subject to six days of lost wages. This deserves the attention of the state AFL-CIO and its affiliates. The potential to reverse decades of givebacks and concessions is front and center.

Said the great African-American leader and historian, Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will.”