NEWS & LETTERS, June - July 2008
Strike was victory, contract was defeat
Detroit--In a workshop at the Labor Notes Conference in April titled "Black Workers Organizing," Tim Schermerhorn, Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100, NYC, emphasized that the essential nature of a labor organization is determined by whether it has a rank and file orientation. Below is what he told N&L. --S.V.G.
In the early 1980s we had to connect the rank-and-file upsurge with the Black rebellion. The leadership of the TWU was always weaker than the movement that created it. Now there is an accelerating retreat/surrender mentality prevalent in the established leadership.
The Dec. 20-22, 2005, strike was NOT organized by the union leadership. The strike began at 3 am. On that picket line were a few TWU workers, supported by a number of homeless people. The union leadership didn't even inform the rest of the workers about it.
Today, many transit workers will still tell you that the strike was the greatest experience of their lives, despite the betrayal in the settlement. The rank and file had organized itself. Without that organization, we would not have won. I say "won," because the strike was the victory; the settlement was the defeat.
There had been networks of people doing job actions all along, and the strike was built on that. The working class of NYC joined us, the homeless people who helped start the picket line, prostitutes volunteered. Localized expressions of solidarity included several workplaces taking up collections. At one particular school the teachers collected funds and donated them to someone whom they identified as a strike leader.
Today, transit workers no longer have a dues check-off and fully half the local is in bad standing. It is an organizational mess, but we are in a better political place in terms of our consciousness. People will strike again if there is different leadership.
To answer those who see only complacency or apathy among the union membership: you have to see "I won't strike" as "I don't think we can win." People have to see their union doing something and the union must build people's self-confidence. Complacency is a cover-up for a lack of confidence. The union must really listen to what people are saying.
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