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NEWS & LETTERS, February-March 2006NYC Transit workers defy anti-union lawNew York--Some 37,000 militant transit workers of Transport Workers Union Local 100 nearly brought New York City to a standstill by going out on strike for three days beginning Dec. 20. The walkout followed the expiration of their contract on Dec. 15 and a weekend of negotiating in bad faith on the part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. As the largest mass transit system in the country, seven million people utilize the city’s buses and subways daily. For three days we were reminded of the power of the working class to bring capitalism to its knees at the very heart of its global system. The strike also demonstrated how well placed urban transportation workers are to exploit a vulnerability of capitalism, its need to move workers to work. Central to the union’s demands were maintaining retirement age at 55, vital for transit jobs that are high stress or underground, and opposing payments into health and pension plans from new hires that would have created a two-tier system. Primarily this was about respect on the job, in opposition to the despotic workplace control transit workers labor under. While the real strike issue was not wages, the MTA proposal of less than an 11% increase over three years may not even keep up with the region’s inflation rate, much less compensate for sub-inflation raises under the sellout contract the union signed three years ago. The transit workers received support from other unions and from workers throughout the city. A rally the day before brought out other city unions, hotel workers, retail clerks, nurses, teachers and janitors. The union was under assault, however, from major media outlets and the mayor, and from the governor, who has authority over the MTA. In a thinly veiled racist attack, Mayor Bloomberg referred to the mostly non-white workers as thugs, called them selfish and greedy, and threatened to fine each worker $25,000 per day. A state judge fined the union $1 million a day. The TWU International joined the public denunciation, calling for Local 100 to end the strike. The last time Local 100 walked out was in 1980, for over a week. This time around the leadership, which rose out of the radical New Directions caucus, seemed compelled from below to show its mettle and gain something for the workers. Many accuse it of now being disconnected with the rank and file. In 1966, under the leadership of Mike Quill, the union staged a major walkout that lasted 11 days, during which the leadership was jailed. In reaction to that strike, a year later the state legislature enacted the extremely harsh Taylor Law, which declared strikes by public employees illegal. Under that law not only are state and city workers’ unions penalized with fines, but each worker loses two days pay for every day they are out on strike. Despite such threats the transit workers took a valiant stand against the further erosion of pay, benefits, and workplace control that afflict workers everywhere within an increasingly globalized capitalist system. Part of what was at stake was the very effectiveness of strikes and how the public perceives them. The way this strike was framed in public discussion worked to undermine support for it. All attention focused on the strike’s illegality, not on the MTA's illegalities. The Taylor Law provides no protection against management bargaining in bad faith. At least as important as the legal issues was the disregard for the notion of "No contract, no work," which used to be an axiomatic principle of the labor movement. The climate is such that many city employees, including teachers, paramedics and EMTs, who recently held a rally at City Hall, now often work years under the terms of an expired contract. This contributed in large part to the union backing down. In an effort to get negotiations restarted after the MTA broke them off when the strike began, the TWU said they would go back to work without a contract and would negotiate if the pension issue were taken off the table. The mayor and the governor, however, publicly pronounced that there would be no negotiations while workers were out on strike. The union capitulated, at least publicly, before having won anything. After three days in which both sides met with mediators, the union’s Executive Board, claiming progress had been made, voted to go back to work and agreed to a media blackout while negotiations resumed. While the strike won a victory in keeping the pension issue off the table and keeping the retirement age at 55, was returning to work under these conditions a missed moment? If the rank and file ratifies this contract expiring in January 2009, which seems likely, workers will pay 2% of their salaries into their health plans, which will drop the raises further below inflation levels. But they will still pay nothing into their pension funds. The MTA had wanted to make new hires contribute more, just as other municipal unions have already accepted two-tier terms. Local President Roger Toussaint argued that a two-tier system would mean the death of the union. --Joshua Skolnik |
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