Here is what was distributed in the East Bay around the BART strike and city of Oakland strike as well as at a rally up at Berkeley. Feel free to print out and distribute. facts for working people Weknowwhatsup.blogspot Building a Democratic Socialist Alternative to the Dictatorship of Capitalism weknowwhatsup.blogspot contact us at: we_know_whats_up@yahoo A BART strike: an opportunity to begin a workers’ offensive Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is the main urban rail system for the San Francisco Bay Area and the Unions representing BART workers are currently in contract negotiations. The economic impact of a BART strike would be considerable and everyone knows that as BART carries some 400,000 passengers a day. Members of BART’s two largest unions, ATU 1555 and SEIU 1021 took strike votes yesterday and in the case of ATU, 99% voted to authorize one. This is a ritual we go through every four years. Very few contract talks receive as much publicity as those between BART unions and the transit agency given that BART workers walking off the job would cause considerable economic disruption. “Commuters have grown wary of the routine”, the Chronicle’s Michael Cabanatuan wrote last week and the agency, as it does every contract time, is making its case in their media. Already, BART spokespersons are claiming that the average SEIU and ATU member’s compensation when pensions, wages and benefits are included is $133,000 and point to the 23% raise the workers are asking for over four years. This may well be true as total compensation but it most certainly is not what a worker takes home in his or her paycheck. But either way, this is a paltry sum when compared to the wasteful expenditure of taxpayer money on predatory wars or the annual incomes of hedge fund managers and other coupon clippers. The fact is though, that as public sector and unionized workers, BART workers will have better conditions and better pay than hundreds of thousands of workers and youth in the communities they serve and instead of trying to apologize for these conditions they should be built on and expanded to all workers; we have nothing to be ashamed of. Other issues are pensions and medical costs, issues that are raised time after time as the bosses’ offensive continues to take back gains that took a century to win. Many workers who will be negatively affected by a strike are unlikely to have any benefits at all and considerably lower pay when compared to public sector workers like those at BART. The employers’ propaganda that BART workers are being selfish and that public sector workers are paid too much and a strain on the community with their pensions and all will get an echo among many workers if their lives are disrupted through strike action. “Why should I support these guys earning three times my pay striking for more money when I can’t get to work for my $10 an hour shit job. Where has the union been for me?” one young guy said on hearing that there might be a stoppage. The bosses will encourage this mood among the public as they remind us of the difficult times we are supposedly in and the need for “shared sacrifice”. The problem is that the Union leadership at the local and national level has no answer to the bosses’ campaign for the hearts and minds of the public; they have nothing Sisters and Brothers. We wish you success in your struggle to maintain and improve your wages, benefits and working conditions and join you on your picket lines today. We are also workers and trade unionists who have spent many years fighting for workers rights on the job and in our communities. We share here some of our thoughts on the present disputes that are emerging in transit and throughout the public sector, not just BART, but the City of Oakland, AC Transit and other public sector workers. United job action in the form of coordinated strikes have the potential to open up a new offensive that can turn the tide for labor in this area and nationally. United we can win. Good luck today and if you are interested in discussing the ideas and issues raised in our newsletter and how we can build a stronger labor movement please contact us. Jack Gerson: jackrgerson@gmail Richard Mellor: [email protected] Jack Gerson is a retired Oakland teacher and OEA member. Richard Mellor a retired backhoe operator former EMBUD worker and Afscme member 7-1-13 6-26-13 on the table that will encourage folks like the young man quoted above to support a strike. He is expected to be supportive because it’s the right thing to do, the moral high ground. Fewer than 7% of workers are organized in the US and many workers feel that unions only care about their own member’s interests. The reality is though that the Labor leadership is unwilling to do even that. The general approach is one of damage control, at best maintain the status quo and return to the period of labor peace. The BART bosses know that they have the upper hand; spokespersons for the unions have assured them of their peaceful intentions through the mass media. They have assured the bosses that they do not intend to bring the power of organized Labor to the table in this war. “What we want is to Bargain” Antonette Bryant, the President of ATU 1555 tells the public through the media, “We’re not interested in talking about a strike.” The strategy is to portray the unions as fair and compromising and the bosses as unfair, greedy and intransigent. Last week, Sister Bryant made it clear that their expectations are quite low and very reasonable telling the SF Chronicle that the Union “would sign a contract today if it keeps up with the cost of living in the Bay Area and gives us health and safety protections.” This is the limit of the Union leadership’s ideological warfare, let us keep what we have and we’ll go away. Why would the bosses do that with 30 million without a decent job and wages declining everywhere? An SEIU spokesperson makes the point that they haven’t had a raise in five years but the bosses have learned after years of collaboration that they have nothing to fear from those at the top of the organized labor movement. The union leadership is more afraid than the bosses that the troops will get out of hand. It is at times like these that class-consciousness is stronger as most workers recognize that if we want to win all workers must unite and they look around for class allies. Not the same allies as the Union tops, the Democratic politician that’ll send an e mail to the governor or walk a picket line for a day but other workers. There is always a danger that the ranks will break out of the straitjacket imposed on them by their leadership, something made all the likely when there exists a genuine fighting opposition caucus of sorts within the union. AC Transit, the local bus service whose workers are represented by the same unions as those at BART is also in negotiations and their contract expires the same time as the BART workers. If the Union leadership had the slightest intention of going on the offensive to get back what we’ve lost over the years and make gains, they would be preparing for a joint action as AC Transit normally picks up some of the slack if BART shuts down. A joint strike with joint demands could transform things here if fought properly. Instead, as an assurance to the employers that workers will fight this war with one hand behind our backs ATU officials at AC Transit announce in the mass media that, “It is unlikely, though not impossible that drivers would strike in conjunction with BART workers” Well I’m sure the employers are pleased to hear that. In this case, even if there is a strike it is likely the BART California’s governor, Jerry Brown will impose a 60-day “cooling off” period before workers can walk off the job despite BART management’s request that he doesn’t; they would rather face a strike now than 60 days from now. The media, the politicians, the police, the justice system, these are the forces the workers are up against and the Union leadership has no plan for such a struggle. A strike could be won and could galvanize the entire Bay Area and transform the local labor movement but in order to do that, workers must go on the offensive which means that labor disputes cannot be limited to the members involved alone. Along with the two transit unions several other public sector contracts are up and being negotiated. City of Oakland workers, EBMUD (the local water district) workers, regional park workers are all in negotiations. A first step in transforming the balance of forces in this area would be to form a public sector alliance and put some real meat on the table. Through such a formation public sector workers could reach out to the private sector, our communities and the unorganized. Instead of damage control and pleading with the bosses for restraint, the union leadership could demand what we need instead of what the bosses want, wage increases, more vacations, increased sick leave, a shorter workweek with no loss in pay etc. To win the support of workers like the young man quoted above as well as our communities that would be negatively affected by a public sector work stoppage, links must be built with these sectors, not by appealing to them to do the right thing and support “our” issues, but to generalize the dispute and place the demand for more jobs on the table as well as free transportation for seniors, reduced fares and more buses etc. It is minorities, poor people and older people who rely on what is already a poor public transit system; making this an issue would draw the public in to the struggle. There are numerous struggles around all sorts of issues going on, all labor disputes must be linked to these community battles. Simply announcing preparations for such a strategy would shift the balance of forces, demanding a $20 an hour minimum wage using such a dispute to wage a massive organizing drive among the low waged an unorganized would tend to counter the effects of the employers propaganda that unionized workers care only about our own issues. The bosses will cry poverty but we know that is not the case. There is plenty of money in society it is simply a matter of where we spend it.* We know that the union leadership will not mobilize for such a fight as they are wed to the Team Concept, the view that workers and bosses have the same interests and will do what they can to prevent such activity. We cannot rely on them. So this Fight to Win strategy must come from below and through the building of fighting caucuses within our unions that campaign openly against the failed policies of the present leadership and that sink deep roots in to working class communities. No matter what happens in this instance it is not the first battle nor will it be the last. * Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, two Kochs, and four Waltons made an average of $6 billion each from their stocks and other investments in 2012. A $6 billion per year person makes enough in two seconds (based on a 40-hour work-week) to pay a year’s worth of benefits to the average SNAP recipient. Just 20 Americans made as much from their 2012 investments as the entire SNAP budget for 47 million people. A BART and AC Transit strike can halt the bosses’ offensive 6-27-13 The Labor spokesperson for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system launched a shot across the bow in the bosses’ ideological offensive against BART workers. He was reported as saying in today’s SF Chronicle that the strike authorization by BART workers was, “a clear signal our employees are willing to shut down the Bay Area and cause commuter chaos to make their case for a 23% raise.” Yesterday, another spokesperson said that the BART worker’s total compensation is $133,000 a year knowing that with the huge number of lower waged workers and hard times people are facing due to the attacks by the bankers and their political representatives on public services and jobs, such a figure will seem extreme. But it is not a wage figure and BART workers have gone five years without a raise. The propagandists for the bosses use the word willing in a way workers would never use it. They say that Indonesian women are “willing” to accept low wages or that Mexican immigrants are willing, much more willing that US workers, to work for starvation wages and no benefits, the point being that US workers are lazy. But the more desperate we are, the more willing we are to succumb to the economic terrorism and coercion of the bosses, the 1% or the capitalist class to put it more succinctly. It doesn’t matter so much what we call them; all workers know what they are. It is their strategy to keep us in a never-ending state of insecurity and fear. This is what the unemployed are used for also, to keep those of us still working on edge and afraid to speak out. A BART strike will wreak havoc on the local economy especially if the AC transit drivers (the local bus company) join them which would increase the chances of a victory. AC Transit’s contract expires on Sunday, the same time as BART’s. So it’s not that workers are “willing” to “cause commuter chaos”. If you’ve been on strike you know it is a very difficult decision to make. The bosses are the ones willing to cause commuter chaos forcing workers to withdraw their labor power in order to maintain (at very least as most unions don’t fight for gains these days) their living standards. We strike when our backs are against the wall. The bosses and their politicians go to wars, slaughter hundreds of thousands of people to defend and keep their profits yet workers are supposed to take the punches and thank them for it all in the name of “shared sacrifice”. If we study our own US working class history we see that they have shot, deported and imprisoned us for fighting for our rights, for a decent living standard and the right to self-organization independent of the employers. In my own lifetime these same forces terrorized and murdered black people for demanding the right to vote. So we must reject their propaganda that blames workers for the disruption a strike causes. The bosses don’t care about the public or they wouldn’t have a hero like JP Morgan who famously said “I owe the public nothing” after he robbed the public blind. If they cared about the public they wouldn’t have eliminated 700,000 public sector jobs. They wouldn’t close fire stations, shut down bus routes or close public schools forcing children to travel an hour an a half on a dwindling transit system to get to school. Most of these schools are schools in communities of color worsening an already crisis ridden situation with mass unemployment and the resulting crime that brings. If they cared about the public they wouldn’t have shut down public parks or be trying to privatize the US Post Office and close 4000 of them. No, what they care about is profits and their goal to make all workers low waged in order to maximize them; this is why they are prepared to create chaos for the commuter. “The strike would damage the regions’ resurgent economy in addition to causing commuter chaos.”, the SF Chronicle points out. You see which issue comes first here. The source of that quote is Jim Wunderman, the head of the Bay Area Council, a business group. “It would create a regional paralysis…” he tells the Chronicle, “..it would put us in a world of hurt.” Workers must remind ourselves time and time again, including when a strike inconveniences us, that it is profits that matter for the enemies of workers and our organizations, not the welfare of the public. Shutting a fire station is putting the public at risk, sending troops to Afghanistan or Syria (not to mention our tax money) is hurting the welfare of the public as we have to pay for their profit driven wars through cuts in social services and jobs and some of us pay with their lives. There is a golden opportunity here for the power of organized Labor to open up an offensive of our own that will drive back the assault of the 1% on American workers and the middle class. Aside from the two transit agencies, the City of Oakland workers are facing a possible strike after years of cuts and the savaging of their wages and benefits. Three Afscme locals are in negotiations; two at the water district and the workers at the East Bay regional park District. The Alameda Labor Council (the county arm of the AFLCIO) should organize and help facilitate a united public sector alliance and all these unions should strike together. The huge full time apparatus of the unions should be used in conjunction with shop stewards to coordinate regional and mass meetings of workers to run such a strike and develop the mass direct action tactics to win it, a strike after all is mass direct action if run properly. Meetings should be organized in our communities, workplaces and where workers, organized and unorganized congregate. As workers we should always support those workers at the higher end of the pay and benefit scale as defeats for them simply places further downward pressure on all our wages, benefits, and pensions. The wages and benefits of workers like those at BART should be expanded upon. Their so-called free market cannot put 30 million of us to work because it is not profitable for them to do so, so the 1% speculate and hoard capital, wealth our labor power has created. We must support all the demands of the transit workers but demand more, a shorter workweek is needed for our own sanity and to create jobs for the public we serve. We must demand a minimum wage that doesn’t force us to take three jobs, $20 an hour is reasonable and affordable in our society. We demand health care, education etc. In this short clip weknowwhatsup.blogspot. com/2013/06/a-bart-and-ac-transit-strike-can-halt.html we see the disabled man speaking at a transit board meeting attended by many BART and AC transit workers. He explains how it takes him hours to travel a few miles. If the politicians in the two Wall Street Parties cared about the public this would not exist. After this man spoke a worker asked and the rest of us demanded, that the board read his statement to us which they reluctantly did so I include it. It was good to be among them. Free public transportation for seniors and the disabled is another demand the union leadership should place on the table. A strike is a sacrifice for those involved and for those workers affected. But it is a necessary sacrifice; it is how we have come this far. To undermine the propaganda from the bosses that we don’t care about the public, a combined union effort must reject the idea that we demand what is acceptable to the bosses and the Democratic Party and demand what we need to live a secure and productive life, not just us on the job, but all workers. Demands of the movement must include social demands, no more austerity, increased social services, no more closing of fire stations schools etc. We know there’s money in society and we want it spent not on corporate wars but on social needs and jobs, jobs that don’t threaten to destroy our environment as well. Trillions was allotted to bail out the banks; we have different uses for that money. Opportunity knocks here. The unions can answer that door but there is an important last point that must be made. The union leadership from the top down supports what they call the Team Concept. This is the view that workers and the bosses are on the same team and have the same economic interests. This philosophy is a disaster and leads us in to competition with other workers and a race to the bottom; we cannot build solidarity and the unity needed to win with this philosophy. It is the basis for all the defeats and betrayals that have occurred under the present leadership of the AFL-CIO and Change to Win groups. At the transit board meeting the head of the Alameda Labor Council spoke saying as they always do that the 100,000 affiliated workers are behind the transit workers. But 99% of the workers affiliated to the ALC would not even know who she is because this body has no significant presence in their lives; she is speaking on their behalf and they don’t know it. This leadership will not take steps to mobilize and activate this potentially powerful force which would make the difference. Accepting the employers’ view of the world the Labor leadership, or what is sometimes referred to as the Labor bureaucracy will not lead a real struggle against the bosses’ certainly not willingly. Rank and file unionists, shop stewards, militants and anti-capitalists of all stripes when in unions should participate and lead in the building of fighting opposition caucuses that can offer an alternative to the concessionary policies (and in many cases outright collaboration) on the part of the present heads of organized Labor. An open campaign against these policies will draw in the most combative workers who see that there is a fight developing and that there is an organizational formation they can turn to and build. Continued concessions only bring more concessions; weakness breeds aggression as they say. Regardless of what happens in the present situation, this is a general outline we believe will begin to transform the balance of class forces in society and inspire millions of workers to take action. There is tremendous anger beneath the surface of US society that cannot yet find organizational expression which is why the Labor officialdom is afraid of mobilizing its own members or raising expectations they believe the bosses can’t fulfill, they see this anger and they saw also that despite its mistakes, the Occupy Movement with its mass action and its willingness to defy the law had widespread support. BART and AC transit workers must be supported in their struggle for higher pay, increased benefits and more humane conditions on the job regardless of how their leaders conduct this struggle, further defeats for these brothers and sisters is a defeat for all workers.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 17:36:01 +0000
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