Solidarity picnic for bus drivers

WW photo: Ed Childs

After the successful action at the summer bid for job postings at the Washington Street yard June 21, Steelworkers Local 8751 held a solidarity rally and barbeque at the union hall in Roslindale, attended by hundreds of drivers, their families and community supporters.

City Councilor Charles Yancey led off the rally, thanking the union for being there through thick and thin, driving all his children to school throughout their school years. He called for a moment of silence for Rachel Nasca, a tireless union supporter who died suddenly a year ago, and for Hector Rivas, a union mechanic who was killed by the company’s neglect. Rivas suffocated to death due to carbon monoxide poisoning because the company refused to pay $40 to repair a defective ventilator.

Steelworkers International Rep Joe Carlson expressed the support and solidarity of the Steelworkers behind the union’s stance of “No contract, no work.” Rich Rogers, secretary-treasurer of the Greater Boston Labor Council, AFL-CIO, told the drivers that all Boston labor was with them and behind them and would stand fast with them on June 30. Tony Hernandez, an organizer in Painters and Allied Trades District Council 35, expressed the painters’ solidarity and support.

Ahmad Kawash of the Palestinian American Congress expressed unconditional support and called for workers’ solidarity around the globe, from Palestine to Roxbury. Sandra MacIntosh of Work for Quality thanked the union for its support of the struggle for quality and choice in education and declared herself the chairperson of FOBU—Friends of the Bus Drivers Union.

University of Massachusetts professor and co-chair of the Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee Tony Van Der Meer expressed solidarity with the union and talked of the importance of having a contract in the wake of all the economic attacks coming down on the community. He linked this need directly to the bankers’ economic crisis and the costs of the Iraq war.

Solidarity messages were also given by the Community TV host of “The Emancipator,” by former driver Leo Edwards and by Padma Balasubramanian from the International Action Center. All the drivers expressed their militant determination by responding enthusiastically to the speakers. The supply of USW Task Force for Contract Justice T-shirts with the “Will strike if provoked” logos was gone in short order. In conversations over the plentiful food at the barbeque, the buzz was that the union was stronger and more united than ever.