AC Transit drivers ATU 192 reject contract

The sign says it all. Let's make it happen.

A quick comment on the transit situation in the Bay Area.

by Richard Mellor Afscme Local 444, retired

AC Transit workers, members of Amalgamated Transit Union 192, rejected a contract yesterday by a vote of 576 to 257.  The local's executive board had recommended the contract by a 8 to 5 majority. This is an extremely important result in that BART workers are also still in contract talks although the state has stepped in and imposed a 60 "cooling off" period preventing a strike. The train operators at BART are members of ATU 1555, the bus driver's sister local.

The no vote reflects the strong opposition to a concessionary contract and an organized campaign for rejection among the ranks of local 192.  A solidarity committee composed of workers from other unions and the community also provided support and solidarity to local 192 members.

As I stated in an earlier piece on this issue, I do not believe much more can be gained at the table in these situations but a new opportunity opens up here.  An important next step would be a mass meeting of the members of all BART and AC Transit workers. There is an opportunity here to turn the tide more in labor's favor as out of such a meeting, a rank and file strike committee could emerge  that can prepare for a transit strike that can actually have a chance of victory, not just for transit workers, but for transit users and workers throughout the Bay Area.  

The bosses have waged a ferocious war against BART workers in their media and this has to be countered in a serious way by building links with the communities (not the business and "official" leaders but those who are fighting at the grass root level) in which we live and work.  A powerful combination of public sector workers and the community can literally change the balance of forces between capital and labor in this country but it is important for the unions to place demands on the table that are relevant to the public and as things develop, bring elected community activists from the strike committee as well as representatives of the unemployed, the unorganized and youth in to the talks at least as observers.  We have given some examples of this in earlier commentaries but free fares for seniors, half fare for the unemployed and those on assistance.  Increased services for the disabled and increased services in general and the jobs to provide them. (see earlier articles) are issues that would be popular with the public that matters.

This is an opportunity for labor to go on the offensive and to do that we must raise our expectations.

By this I mean reject the propaganda from the bosses and their media (and echoed by the union officialdom) that concessions have to be made and that there is no money in society.  The last 40 years have shown that this concessionary bargaining has no end to it---damage control doesn't work.  The more we give, the more they want.  Transit unions should demand that public sector pensions and benefits that are being blamed for the crisis of capitalism should be expanded to all workers.  Sociey has the money, it's simply a matter of what we do with it.

I was a delegate to AFSCME District Council 57 for many years and recall getting a resolution passed at that body for a Public Sector Alliance in the Bay Area.  As usual, the officials never acted on such an idea but it is something that should be re-introduced in to the consciousness of the public sector worker and such a formation would play a huge role in revitalizing the labor movement in the US.

Any time the rank and file of a union rejects the leadership's recommendation in instances like this, it is no small matter.  This vote will send  shock waves in to the boardrooms of the corporate and investment community we can be certain of that.

In the aftermath of this vote, the bosses will be working with the union hierarchy behind the scenes to get something passed and put an end to this. The membership must be brought to their senses as defined by the 1% and their representatives.  Any sign of unity in action between the various unions will be met with counters by the employers.  Attempts to divide the workers, blue collar against white, bus drivers against train operators, must be fought. One local will be offered the carrot in order to break intra-union unity.  This will be done through the leadership and the ranks that have spoken through this vote must ensure this is not successful. The involvement of the community will also increase these divisive tactics from management as well and the best way to combat this is through active committees of rank and file workers and the community.

Congratulations to ATU members who have taken a stand and have no doubt given a great boost to our brothers and sisters at BART.   But the war will heat up now.  The dirty tricks, lies and propaganda will intensify in subtle and not so subtle ways.  The union officialdom at the international level and throughout the AFL-CIO will be working behind the scenes with their allies in the Democratic Party to derail what could develop in to a movement that would undermine their view of the world, and that threatens the relationship they have built with the bosses based on labor peace. Any union official that breaks from this approach would be a positive but the best security is the conscious intervention of the rank and file.

The next steps are crucial and we should not underestimate the determination of the bosses to defeat both the BART and AC Transit workers in this struggle.  I urge AC Transit workers to join the solidarity committee set up to help us win this battle, your presence can enrich and strengthen it. We don't all agree on everything but we all agree that the present situation cannot continue and that we have the power to change things if we use it.  The solidarity committee was formed out of the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee and can be reached at: twsc@transportworkers.org or contact us here at we_know_whats_up@yahoo.com

No more concessions no to austerity. It stops here
For a public sector alliance
Rely on our own strength, workers and the community together
No reliance on Democrats and the party of Wall Street
For a $15 minimum wage
Expand public sector pensions and benefits to all workers
End all wars and occupations bring the troops, and the money home.
We bailed out the banks, the money is there.

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A no vote by AC Transit workers has the potential to usher in a new era for the labor movement.

BART and AC Transit workers show unity at board meeting

by Richard Mellor

Afscme local 444, retired

For the last few months here in the San Francisco Bay Area we have been subjected a barrage of anti-worker, anti-union propaganda in the 1%’s media.  The reason their media has been paying so much attention to worker and labor issues rather than which Hollywood star has abandoned Scientology or the child of those royal wasters in Britain, is the ongoing back and forth between transit workers and the state.

There in no doubt in my mind that there is a bit of a shift in the mood here and this is being manifested in increased strike activity or the threat of it.  Bay Area Rapid Transit workers (BART), members of ATU 1555, Afscme 3993 and SEIU 1021 struck for four and a half days in early July and have been in a back and forth struggle to stave off concessions with the state intervening to keep them on the job. 

City of Oakland workers, also members of SEIU 1021 struck for one day about the same time and have since settled (I do not know if the members have voted) and Alameda County bus drivers, members of ATU 192 have also been in negotiations.  Unfortunately, despite the tremendous unity and desire to fight together the ranks of ATU 1555 and 192 displayed at a Transit Board meeting some weeks ago, the leadership of 192 refused to make joint strike action a priority.  They had their members work in the first BART strike.

 

AC Transit drivers will be voting on a concessionary contract this coming Saturday that their executive board is recommending they accept.  The vote by the leadership to recommend the contract was not unanimous; it passed by a vote of 8 for and 5 against according to reports I’ve heard. It is at times like these that mass consciousness can be broadened as the real nature of our relationship with the boss becomes more apparent. 

Part of the reason we are seeing this increased activity in my opinion is due to the nature of the period. The bosses are feeling very confident after years of successful attacks on wages, benefits and conditions in the private sector in particular. The victory over the autoworkers cannot be underestimated, as these workers were a benchmark for the entry of what many workers here in the US refer to as the middle class, basically, decent paying union jobs with good benefits, pensions and lifetime employment. 

We should not underestimate the level of the decline either.  Caterpillar shut a plant down in London Ontario and moved to the US Midwest where wages are 50% lower. Even the head of Fiat threatened his workers he would move production perhaps to the US if they didn’t accept concessions. Who would have dreamed it 40 years ago? 

This war on workers has produced results. “Manufacturing in the US is more and more attractive,” an economist for the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation tells the Wall Street Journal, by attractive he means wages have been driven significantly lower. Bloomberg Business Week.  pointed out that US bosses get almost 25% more goods and services out of us than they did in 1999 with the same number of workers and as wages have declined.  “It’s as if $2.5 trillion worth of stuff---the equivalent of the entire U.S. economy circa 1958—materialized out of thin air” this sober magazine of the 1% adds.Did we get any of that?

The shift now is to the public sector with its much higher union density. Some 35% of public sector workers are unionized compared to around 7% in the private sector. We have seen savage attacks on teachers, and municipal workers and the reduced services that go along with them. Public expenditure crowds private capital from the marketplace and reduces opportunities for profit. 

Social Security, transport, utilities like water, are all in their sights as there is money to be made here and there is less public control if these vital industries are privatized.  Education is a billion dollar industry which is why the teachers unions have to be crushed.  This is a war on the public sector which is why the negotiations with the BART workers are so contentious. They are not going along with it

ATU 192 and the bus drivers vote Saturday and these brothers and sisters are faced with a decision. I had a similar decision some years ago in 1997 when I was a rank and file negotiator for my local, AFSCME local 444 at EBMUD, the water district. We had been in negotiations for months.  The bosses were determined to eliminate our COLA clause and we went round and round about that. 

We had formed a solidarity committee that went to other locals in the area as well as the welfare and unemployed offices as we had demands for 50 union jobs on the table and other issues. We worked in areas of high unemployment and felt it crucial that we fight for jobs for the communities in which we worked. We urged the community to join our solidarity committee and help fight for more jobs for the community.

At one point we realized we could win no more at the table, as in the last analysis it is the potential power and intervention of the rank and file and our allies that gets results.  Three of us on the negotiating team believed we could get more and we planned to recommend against the contract. But we realized we could not recommend a no vote without putting forward a plan.  We had to make it clear that simply sending us back in to negotiate was pointless as nothing more could be won through bargaining, the members themselves had to become active.

We recommended the no vote when it was our turn to speak to our members at the contract ratification meeting.  We made it clear though that if they vote no, they can’t go fishing.  We can win more we told them but you have to join the solidarity committee and build it.  You have to become an activist yourself, help coordinate visits to others union's rank and file, workplaces and where workers congregate.  They had to start with our sister local the white-collar union and its members who were our co-workers.

In short, we said that we have a plan, that we rely on our own strength as opposed to mediators or Democratic politicians who are often brought in by the heads of organized Labor in these instances but are worthless. And we become involved in mobilizing the rest of the labor movement and the community.

As it was, they chose the contract as the line of least resistance and voted it up. It was a good contract by most standards but they have, like all workers, been sliding down the concessionary road leaving an uncertain future for the younger workers. The bosses won't let up.

If I were a member of the ATU going to vote on Saturday I would vote against the contract which is concessionary; we have to put a stop to this at some point. But I would have to explain to my co-workers that we cannot vote no and hope more is forthcoming at the table.  The employers mean business here. A no vote would give a boost to BART workers who are under a major assault and give AC Transit workers an opportunity to reach out to them and return to the mood of unity in action that was likely derailed by the leadership during BART’s strike in July. I would argue for a rank and file strike and solidarity committee to be formed that would do this and that could leaflet BART work areas and wherever BART workers congregate including their union hall.

Rank and file committees like these could be set up in each workplace and unions under any name that explains they are serious about winning, ATU 192 for a stronger Union, SEIU 1021 for a stronger union etc.

The leadership will likely oppose such developments as so far, every step that could have strengthened the workers and win a victory has been avoided.  These committees can call for demands to be put on the table that take workers forward, absolutely no concessions, more jobs, free transportation for seniors, increased bus routes, half fare for people on state assistance or welfare and the unemployed. 

The demand for a $15 an hour minimum wage linked to more jobs will have a tremendous affect on the low waged and youth.  Rally’s can be organized to help build the intra union unity and solidarity with the community so that a successful strike can be won in 60 days and further attempts by the state to deny the right to strike can be challenged through  sheer numbers.

There is also a solidarity committee that has been formed to assist transit and any workers in this major struggle going on in the Bay Area and rank and file union/workplace committees should link and integrate with this group.  We can win here but it means every worker must become an activist and we must reject the idea that we can only demand what the bosses, the Democrats, the media and most of the Union officialdom deems is realistic. We must demand what people need to lead a decent and fruitful life, society can afford it, it’s just a matter of priorities; money for wars and bankers instead of for social need. We cannot continue to operate in the old way as union members, pay our dues and leave it to someone else.

I hope the brothers and sisters of ATU 192 vote against their contract and take some of the steps I think could deflect this attempt to drive us further backwards. We owe it to our youth, those who fought before us and whose sacrifice gave us the benefits we have today, and we owe it to ourselves.

We have the power; we have the numbers.  Society has the money.  The move to coordinate action between AC Transit workers and BART workers would send a message to management that they’re faced with a fight and send shock waves through the corporate boardrooms and shake their friends in Congress. Motions could be made at both unions for their leaderships to call a press conference to announce the introduction of new demands at the table due to management's intransigence and union busting and to announce that the 1%'s austerity agenda is going to be halted here in the Bay Area with this dispute. The present leadership will no doubt oppose such a motion but the struggle for it will clarify what needs to be done and rank and file committees can take these steps.

There is much anger out there and many unions are involved in contract disputes at the moment.  With the right approach, we can make some history here in the Bay Area.

But to vote no on a contract that a leadership recommends is a serious decision with serious consequences. We can’t vote no and go fishin’.

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AC Transit drivers to vote on contract

AC Transit drivers at a Board Meeting last month

Workers at Alameda County Transit will be voting on a contract this Saturday.  AC Transit drivers are members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192.  This is a flier some members of ATU are distributing to their co-workers.  Facts For Working People hopes our readers will share this flier with any bus drivers they know or if you are an AC Transit driver yourself please share it with your co-workers.  FFWP
 
         
         Solidarity Yes Concessions NO!!

Bay Area Transit workers united have power. The July BART strike alone cost $73 million/day in lost productivity to big business - not counting losses to restaurants and stores. A joint AC-BART strike could have doubled their losses. By refusing to unite with BART workers on July 1st, ATU 192 leaders gave up their leverage to make the bankers and corporations pay and reverse the massive cuts of 2010.   By going it alone all these years and constantly making concessions, WE ARE NOW $5.00 PER HOUR UNDER THE BAY AREA AVERAGE. $28.20, after 3 years, doesn’t even bring us up to what SAMTRANS makes now! This proposal continues the trend.

Wage increases are not retroactive to July 1^st. Since they start in October, the 3.5% increase in 2015 is only effective for 9 months – not 12.

First year wages increase by 2.75% or 71¢/hr for Top-scale bus drivers to $26.39hr

First year medical premium of $70/mo = 1.10% in “pre-tax $” (assuming a 28% tax bracket) @40hrs/wk -- Net Gain = 1.65% or 42¢

Second year wages increase 3.25% or 86¢ to $27.25

Second year medical = $140/mo = 2.13% pre-tax.  Net Gain = 1.12% or 31¢

Third year wages increase 3.50% or 95¢ to $28.20

Third year medical = $180/mo = 2.65% pre-tax. Net Gain = 1.10% or 31¢

Total gain over 3 years = 3.87% or $1.04. Compared to 7.5% COLA=3.88% loss.

Cost of living Loss from 2010-2013 wage freeze = 7.1%.Average Loss for 6,5,3= 5%  We need 12.1% clear just to catch up to 2010. In addition, Projected COLA 2013 to 2016 = 7.5%

STOP SCREWING NEW WORKERS WHO CAN’T VOTE!

OPPOSE THE 6 MONTH INCREASE IN NEW HIRE PROGRESSION!

ATU 192 leaders save AC bosses $Millions in exploitation of new hires with 6 months more of lower wages for the same work performed. This is collaboration, pure and simple. It is also divisive of the membership. In addition, fixed medical payments hurt lower paid workers more.

For workers now earning @$18.00/hr (beginning drivers and service employees) the wage increase of 2.75% = 50¢ - $70/mo medical = 1.57% pre-tax = 29¢ with a net of 1.18% or 21¢.

Second year wage of 3.25% = 61¢ - $140 medical = 3.04% pre-tax or 56¢. Net gains .21% or 5¢

Third year wage of 3.5% = 68¢ - $180 medical or 3.78% pre-tax or 75¢ =28% loss or -7¢!

Total 3 year gain: 1.11% or 19 cents!

AC saves $Millions more again as the Veteran’s Day Holiday, guaranteed tripper pay, and the straight-time spread time pay from 12:15 to 13 hours was not recovered from the 2010 arbitration.. They reduced the number of absences leading to termination from 10/year to 9 and the number for 5-day suspensions from 9 to 8. They also denied AC couples double health coverage just 3 years after reducing opt-out payments by two-thirds.

ATU 192 saved the district approximately $1 Million by eliminating the traditional sign-up.

AC Transit is also the only major Bay Area Transit district that does not provide medical coverage for spouses of retirees. MUNI pays 50% premiums while PERS is the same as active employees. Transit Workers’ Solidarity is the answer to the transit bosses’ cutback plans.

VOTE NO ON THE CONTRACT!!!!     

                                    BUILD BAY AREA TRANSIT UNITY!!!

Bay Area Transit Unity Committee – AC: 510-325-1268; Muni: 510-207-0222

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BART Strike: It can be won if the Unions change course.

Tom Hock, the 1%'s man at BART.  Reason enough to support BART workers

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

At the request of California Governor Jerry Brown, a judge has stepped in and prevented Bay Area Rapid Transit workers from walking off the job. 

There is now another cooling off period, a 60 day one this time in the hope that the two sides can come to some agreement.  The judge, Curtis karnow, issued the injunction he said because the law said that he "shall" do so if he found that a strike would "significantly disrupt public transportation services and endanger the public's health, safety or welfare."   He added, "I read the word 'shall' as direction from the Legislature that I have to issue the order if the conditions are true,and I understand the parties all agree that those conditions are true."

In 60 days the unions can legally strike although as each day goes by the chance of winning one decreases.  Why the 1%’s courts wouldn’t claim a strike would,  “endanger the public's health, safety or welfare.” 60 days from now one can only wonder.

This dispute can be won but BART workers alone cannot win it and by that I mean make gains rather than slightly less aggressive concessions which has been the policy of the strategists atop organized Labor for decades. It cannot be won without the involvement of the communities in which we work and live. The power is not at the negotiating table; it is in the ranks of the trade union movement acting in unity with all workers and our communities.  As one of the prominent leaders of the 1%, George Schulz pointed out: “Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table.”   He is right about that.

The power of a united movement and direct action tactics must be brought to bear on the force behind this dispute and that’s the 1% whose intention it is to crush public sector unions and privatize public services. This comes after their victories over the autoworkers with the help of the UAW leadership at the highest levels. It is part of their plan to put the US working class on rations.

Unfortunately, the strategy and tactics that the leadership of the unions involved have applied so far, along with those in the International and regional bodies to which these unions are affiliated, have actually isolated BART workers further and made victory more difficult.

My view as I explained in previous commentaries, is that the unions involved, ATU 1555, AFSCME 3993 and SEIU 1021 which represent BART, and ATU 192 which represents AC Transit workers, the bus operators, should have been meeting way prior to the deadlines.  There should have been mass meetings of the members of these locals and out of this, a strike committee formed that would not just direct picket lines but also reach out to the rest of the trade union movement and our communities and develop a program that meets our needs rather than one that is acceptable to the 1% and the Democratic Party.  City of Oakland workers who were also in contract talks at the time should have also been approached. Other public sector unions were, and some still are in contract talks.  What good is a national organization of working people if local unions are left to fight what amounts to the forces of global capitalism alone? The best way to avoid a strike is to be fully prepared to win one beforehand and bring our natural allies on board.

Instead, when BART workers struck last month for four and a half days, bus drivers at AC Transit represented by ATU 192 could have legally struck but the union leaders refused to bring them out and they worked through it. This weakened both BART workers and AC Transit workers in their struggle for a better contract after years of concessions. City of Oakland workers in SEIU 1021 that also represents BART workers were also in contract talks and went on a one-day strike at the time but all these struggles were disconnected.  SEIU 1021 settled with the City of Oakland and ATU 192 has settled with AC Transit leaving BART workers out there on their own.  You don’t have to be a labor “expert” or an academic to see the flaws in this strategy. The mood at the Transit board meeting I went to before the strike was one of unity and cooperation between the members of both ATU 192 and 1555.

I have been in a couple of meetings of a solidarity committee that union officials also attend and they actually made the point that the public has to be included, that “an attack on BART workers is an attack on all workers “ which it is. The BART workers’ message, according to Chris Finn, Recording Secretary for ATU 1555 must get out to the public. Unfortunately, that message isn’t clear other than the quote above, and even that is somewhat muted. I saw Pete Castelli, the Executive Director of SEIU 1021 representing 52,000 workers at the solidarity meeting and heard him on TV later where he pointed out that a major problem was that BART was not negotiating in good faith.  Perhaps brother Castelli mentioned the solidarity committee and urged members of the working public to get involved with it bringing their issues to the table and the media censored these comments, but I doubt it.

“Negotiate in good faith” is a commonly used term used by top labor officials as to why   contract talks are stalled or strikes occur.  More often than not, union officials take workers out on strike over unfair labor practices like this not bargaining in good faith nonsense because they accept the bosses argument that concessions have to be made to make us competitive so striking for gains is pointless; they accept that society can’t afford it.

The fact that the 1% want to undermine BART workers pensions and health benefits has nothing to do with negotiating in good faith like some character flaw. It is a continuation of this process to take back from us what we have won over a century or more of struggle. Workers should not be ashamed of defending wages we can live on and a pension that is enough to keep us form working at MacDonald’s in our later years to get by. Every labor struggle should demand such retirements for all workers.

The bosses never negotiate in good faith, never have and never will. Despite gag orders or during cooling off periods, the war against the BART workers in the 1%’s media has been ferocious and has had an effect as polls indicate.  A KPIX 5 poll two weeks ago found the public supported the management by a 2-to-1, margin. Throw enough mud at someone and some of it will stick.

In today’s San Francisco Chronicle, one of their mouthpieces, the columnist Chip Johnson points out that “..few public or private blue collar workers outside California have the kinds of generous retirement plans offered by CALPERS, the state’s municipal retirement system.”  “ Well they should have.” should be organized labor’s public response. And if generosity means being able to take ones family on a vacation and not have to go work at a fast food place at 65 to make ends meet, what’s wrong with that?

He then goes on to make the point that behind the BART workers’ motivation is that they’re blue collars workers who “like their counterparts in the private sector they have watched with disbelief and disgust as other public employees…….game the system for small fortunes.”  Among others, he gives city administrators, police and firefighters as an example.

But even those public administrators who “game” the system as he calls it cannot be compared to the activities of the hedge fund and private equity crowd and the bankers and other coupon clippers who plunder the wealth of society, not to mention the trillions of taxpayer dollars spent in predatory wars fought on behalf of the global corporations.  Someone earning $200,000 a year is not the cause of the capitalist economic crisis, especially in California, the home to most of the world’s billionaires. The system is fundamentally flawed and in crisis.

A serious weakness in the way the union officials are conducting this dispute is that the war for the heart and soul of the public is a one sided one. The leaders of the Unions involved though they have made appeals to the public for support and made reference to the attacks on BART workers being an attack on all workers have nothing concretely to offer the public. There is nothing on the table for the public that can counter the bosses’ propaganda against the workers. (See previous commentaries for more on this issue under the BART label on this blog).

If the union leaders want to make gains in this dispute as opposed to accepting slightly fewer concessions than the bosses want, they have to change course.  If they are a serious about building community support they have to have concrete issues on the negotiating table that appeal to the public, that make the difficulties they face through a strike worth going through and that will bring them in to it as conscious participants. But nether Chris Finn of the ATU or SEIU’s Pete Castelli, who have influence in these unions that those of us who want to help from the outside, have indicated they are serious about winning.  They have not said anything that would appeal to the public and counter the bosses’ ferocious propaganda war, nor have they reflected on the present strategy and made any efforts to correct it.

Just last weekend Roxanne Sanchez president of SEIU 1021 stated "BART management must come to the table prepared for real negotiations to reach a fair resolution so that we don't have a situation where we are all sitting here on Day 59 with no meaningful effort by management to negotiate,"

What does this mean; ”real negotiations” and a “fair resolution”?  The forces that brought in the union buster and privatization Czar Tom Hock know exactly what they’re doing.  They are clear on their goals and their goal is to do to the public sector what they’ve done to the private.  Let us consider that that autoworkers wages were cut in half by these people. You can read sister Sanchez' election program here.  You won’t see opposition to the Team Concept, the most destructive union policy on it.

"As we've said all along, we want to get an agreement," said another SEIU spokesperson, which is a meaningless statement. The bosses’ want an agreement too, but it’s what’s in that agreement that is the issue.

Chris Finn, ATU 1555’s Recording secretary who says the public must hear the BART workers’ message, pointed out Sunday through the media that BART workers took $100 million in concessions and that BART has a $125 million surplus but then urged the public to contact their representatives and their legislators and get them to look at BART’s finances. But the vast majority of the public, those workers who would actually get involved in this dispute if there was reason to, have no faith in these, legislators. Pointing out that the money is there is correct but left alone, many less fortunate workers and the unorganized will see this as just limiting the issues to those workers involved. It would have been more fruitful to urge them to get involved in the solidarity committee and point out what such unity could bring them. George Poppyack, the chief negotiator for the AFSCME local made a similar statement that if BART put the money on the table they’d talk. This does not help undermine BART’s propaganda that their employees are just greedy.

Urging workers to appeal to Democratic legislators, Union officials are urging us to place our faith in a party their own members and most of the working class have abandoned.

“There’s no reason”there should be the threat of a strike, Brother Finn announced through the media.  But there is.  The bosses will not stop. The 1% will not be coaxed away from their goal to place US workers on rations and the Democrats cannot be relied upon to halt their patron’s agenda.  This is not complicated.  None of the so-called friends of labor, like Barbara Lees or Gavin Newsom and all the other Democrats that take our money when its time to get elected, have come out publicly in support of the BART workers.  Their silence is deafening. With friends like these, we don’t need enemies. 

We have seen strike after strike go down in defeat over the past period not because the rank and file involved have been unwilling to fight, but because the heads of organized labor refuse to mobilize the potential power of their members and workers as a whole.  They start from a position of concessions and damage control because of the Team Concept policy that workers and bosses have the same interests.  For them, to mobilize this sleeping giant can only lead to chaos; they must help the bosses out. This is what holds them back primarily, not corruption as so many workers believe, or the generally obscene salaries and perks many of them receive which are secondary issues.

It is not unlike the union hierarchy to take workers out on strike due to the anger that exists in their ranks and as a means to alleviate some of this pressure from below which is why they do so with an approach that has brought defeat time and time again; appealing to the Democrats rather than relying on our own strength and making every labor dispute a social one. The UFCW had its members out here in California for 5 months in 2003 as the officials bargained for concessions at the table.  This caused untold hardship for these workers and left many of them disillusioned and demoralized and new hires hating the union for selling them down the river, after all, new hires don’t get to vote on contracts they have to work under and resent doing the same work for less pay and fewer benefits which creates division and weakens the organization further.

Bart workers have tremendous potential power but the forces against them are also powerful, the media the state, the police and the politicians. We must use this power to halt the 1%’s austerity agenda here in the Bay Area but we cannot succeed if we do not start from a position of what workers and our communities need to live a decent life and reject the 1%’s propaganda that there is no money in society.  History teaches us that the heads of organized Labor will not wage a serious offensive of our own without the threat of a militant movement from their ranks that threatens their role.  This is the task facing activists in the ranks of organized labor.

A real victory for BART workers would inspire millions of workers tired of years of defeats and concessions and a strike at BART can still be won. But policies that have failed us time and time again have to be abandoned and a real offensive of our own built with the intention of changing the balance of forces between capital and labor in this country.

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BART Strike: BART workers left to fight the forces of Wall Street alone

by Richard Mellor

Afscme local 444, retired

The San Francisco Chronicle this morning makes the point that politicians in California are “paralyzed”in the wake of the mass transit dispute and another possible strike after California governor Jerry Brown put a stop to the last one at the last minute.

This paralysis is due to “offending”voters on the one hand as the polls seem to indicate the management is winning the propaganda war, (with the help of the mass media) and, as Democrats, fear of losing union members’ money that the officialdom hands over to them for their election campaigns. They have no fear of that really as the heads of organized Labor have nowhere else to go politically.  Supporting the Democratic Party is better than running independent candidates which puts them in the hot seat as they’d have to produce the goods. They can blame the Democrats in the present set up.

“Most of the elected leaders have stayed on the sidelines” the Chronicle writes.  But they are not on the sidelines. Their silence has consequences and it shows how all the money these Democrats receive from members’ hard earned money doesn’t buy much when the fight breaks out in to the open and sides have to be taken. 

As things are, the BART workers are facing a formidable combination. They are at the negotiating table alone while the bosses have BART management, the imported union buster and privatizer Tom Hock from Veolia, and mediators.  Mediators are not objective; not neutral. Their job is to bring a settlement on the basis of labor peace, which means favorable to the bosses.  Mediators are a poor substitute for the power and conscious involvement of the union rank and file and workers in our communities.

These Democratic Party politicians who refuse to take sides have no problem taking our money. They are taking sides and they know it.  They are silent in the face of a war against workers’ living standards that is part of a general offensive against social services and the public sector which has a higher union density than the private and generally better working conditions. What friend, what sort of ally, stays silent when you’re under attack? 

These politicians, the Barbara Lees, Newsome’s and others are, by their silence, by their refusal to take sides, contributing to what will be a defeat for all workers, our communities and for the young people looking for decent jobs.  A politician or political party that claimed to represent working people or the poor, or claimed to be the party of the people as the Democrats do would be campaigning for the workers in this dispute.  Such a party and its political representatives should be countering the propaganda of the 1% that American workers are the problem and that society can’t afford social services or decent jobs. They would expose the “shared sacrifice” myth for what it is.

But as candidates of a party of the 1% and Wall Street, it is impossible for them to defend our interests.  The Democratic Party relies on the support organized labor gives it at election time, precinct walkers, phone banks, votes and of course money.  My former union, AFSCME provided some 40,000 volunteers for Walter Mondale’s campaign.  Who says we can’t have our own party? Despite giving billions to Democrats over the years it has not stopped the assault on workers often led by the very people who received that money.  It’s no wonder some 138 million Americans opted out of the process last election cycle.

Barbara Boxer and the other multi-millionaire, Dianne Feinstein whose husband is the notorious coupon clipper and former sweatshop owner Richard Blum, sent a letter to what the Chronicle refers to as the “warring parties”  urging them to work together “negotiate in good faith” and all that rubbish.

The problem is that the our organizations are infiltrated by representatives of this Wall Street Partythrough the union officialdom. Chris Daly, the “political director” of SEIU 1021 is a Democrat and San Francisco supervisor.  Political directors in the union officialdom are all about integrating organized Labor with this party of Wall Street and ensuring that any movement form below that threatens this relationship is subverted.  The Democratic Party is the political agent of the 1% inside our organizations.

We cannot drive back this offensive of capital in a money war; they have more of it. That’s why they’re called capitalists.  Our power lies in building our movement, our unions and an independent workers political party, independent of the two capitalist parties, in open opposition to them and based on our organizations in the workplace and the communities in which we live and work. Our power lies in stopping production.  Let’s be a little clearer on that issue. Stopping production is not a problem for the 1% when they shut down factories or businesses or public services because there’s no profit in it.  Here’ they’re shifting capital to more profitable ventures like speculation of gambling for example, But when we do it, against their will, that is different. When they do it in defense of their economic interests it's good; when we do it in ours through refusing to work, that's bad. That's mass terrorism.

At every step of the way in this dispute the union leadership involved has refused to take steps that could win over the public and win advances for their members and the community at large. I have written about this in detail during this dispute. In the first strike at the beginning of July when ATU 1555, SEIU 1021 and Afscme 3993 struck, the drivers at AC Transit, also in ATU but a different local chose not to come out. Not being in that local I am not privy to the internal goings on but I was at a board meeting a couple of weeks earlier when the rank and file of both locals packed the room and there was a strong commitment to stand together, a strong sense of unity. How come this never came to fruition? 

Any activist knows that the international leadership in these situations keeps an eye on things and there is no doubt in my mind that the reason the BART workers struck alone was the leadership of ATU 192 probably in conjunction with the international leadership made sure AC Transit drivers wouldn't go out. All sorts of fears would have been fed.  The union hierarchy is very good at telling us what we can’t do.

To the best of my knowledge, there was no public criticism of this mistake from the leaders of ATU 1555, AFSCME or SEIU 1021. It is taboo in the labor movement for the leadership of one sector or local to criticize another but that’s a mistake too; it’s a unity of leadership against the ranks. On top of this, City of Oakland workers, also in SEIU 1021, could have struck and many other unions are or have been in contract talks in this period. We cannot win without mass involvement and mass action.

I cannot see the bosses allowing the BART workers to strike again and I am sure that the top officials will make some deal. However, we have to be conditional about such things as there is tremendous anger in society and among the rank and file of the unions so keeping things under control is not always possible.  There will be a sincere effort ahead I think to legislate the BART workers’ right to strike away and because the union has no real message for the public, has nothing on the table for the public (see other blogs under the BART label) and without a generalized struggle drawing in the communities and the rest of the labor movement, the chances of defeat increase if they walk off.

Because AC Transit drivers in ATU 192 have settled as have the SEIU with the City of Oakland (a huge victory according to a high level official but you have to talk to the dues payer to get a more accurate appraisal), this means BART workers are out there on their own.  This is what happens in all these cases, one local or one group of workers left to fight the forces of global capitalism alone.  Important union officials from higher bodies will talk about solidarity with BART workers or that they bring solidarity form their members but this is simply rhetoric. In most cases these days, their members don’t even know who they are.

We can’t win without changing course, without doing things differently. The union officials at the highest levels, committed as they are to the Team Concept and labor/management cooperation, will not wage a real fight and build an offensive of our own, will  not take any steps forward unless they are absolutely forced to do so from below. There is nothing they fear more than a victory that will unleash the anger and frustration that millions of American workers feel after decades of defeats.

The rank and file union member has to step up to the plate and transform this situation.

*If you are interested in discussing where we go from here, not simply in the Unions but what we can do to change the balance of forces in US society more in our favor, please contact us as we are considering where we go from here and want to discuss this with other workers and eventually have some sort of meeting as well as possibly set up some sort of listserve for those out of the area.  Contact us at: we_know_whats_up@yahoo.com

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BART Strike: BART workers come under assault from the state

CA. governor, Jerry Brown, former left demagogue, organic farming advocate and seminarian. Uses his legal power to stop the BART strike. Who passed that law I wonder?  Do we think  for one minute they'd pass a law forbidding the closing of fire stations and health centers? Laws have a class base just like everything else. It's not against the law to throw people out of their homes. The Democrats are not our friends. Never have been.

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

The much anticipated strike of BART workers here in the Bay Area was called off at the last minute after California governor Jerry Brown stepped in and imposed a seven day break. He has appointed a three member board of inquiry to find out the facts from both sides apparently.

As I pointed out last week there are some important lessons that arise in situations like these, one of them being the class bias of the mass media. In US society there is a massive and permanent ideological war waged by the mass media that Wall Street controls aimed at obscuring and actually denying the class nature of society, and indeed, that class struggle even exists, but when workers are forced to defend our interests in the way the BART workers are presently doing, the class nature of society is laid bare for all to see.

Jerry Brown, a politician representing the interests of the bankers, hedge fund managers and other coupon clippers----in short, the US capitalist class-----claims he stepped in to this dispute to save us all hardship.  If the dispute cannot be resolved in this seven days through the intervention of the board of inquiry, then “Brown is expected to make a swift decision on seeking a 60-day cooling off period.”, the San Francisco Chronicle reports this morning. Brown will ask the courts to impose this 60-day cooling off period and if the court decides that a strike “Will significantly disrupt public transportation services and will endanger the public’s health, safety and welfare.”, a strike will be illegal.

But Brown’s justification for stopping the strike at the last minute Sunday night was that the strike would, “significantly disrupt public transportation services and will endanger the public’s health, safety and welfare.”.  Why would the courts reverse that? Is it likely that a strike deemed by the state through one of its major representatives a threat to our health and safety last Sunday, will be declared fine and dandy a week later or 60 days later?

We are not stupid.  In our communities, Brown and other representatives of the 1% are ordering fire stations closed because we can’t afford to keep them open they say. Might this be a tad dangerous for us; put us at risk?  Might closing fire stations, schools and health care facilities in a society where national health care is dismal,  “..endanger the public’s health, safety and welfare.” We know it would.  Brown knows it does but it is a political decision Brown and his class colleagues make as a necessary part of their agenda to put the US workers and middle class on rations. It is necessary to shift the crisis of capitalism in a global economy on to our backs and take back all the gains that have been won by working people over a century and a half of struggle. It is part of the declining influence of US capitalism on the world stage.  We have to be more competitive and that means, work cheaper, faster and without unions that actually go on the offensive to oppose this strategy. Profits come before safety in capitalist society.

The BART workers have been demonized daily in the mass media. They’re lazy, greedy, get paid too much etc.  But they don’t want to go backwards like any of us. They want to keep at very least their pensions, benefits and wage rates. Workers should support this as their loss will simply increase the downward trajectory Wall Street has for all of us. The 1% uses the most extreme violence to protect their interests.  But for the 1%, a strike is mass terrorism because it hurts their profits, the public’s health and safety be damned.

The 1%’s public voice, the San Francisco Chronicle, reports that the strike earlier this month “plunged the Bay Area into a morass and congestion.”  The strike cost $73 million a day “…in lost time, productivity and wages.”, the Chronicle adds.  But what about profits?  It is profits that are the issue and profits are severely affected when workers cannot be brought to the workplace where profits are born or to the stores where we are to buy stuff. So in a society where profits are everything they are left out of this equation. 

We only have to stop and think for a second to remind ourselves amid the mass of lies and propaganda that their claims of public safety are a smoke screen. Every American worker knows that the people in power in this country don’t give a damn about the rest of us. Everything we have in this country, every social benefit, every political advance, every material gain, has come about by doing what the BART workers are doing.  The capitalists have capital, the media, the police and the courts, and the military when they need to call on troops to fire on their own kin, ( a risky business) but we have labor power.  Without the ability to strike we are left to the mercy of the institutions of the 1%. 

The 1% is using all their “legal” tricks to halt the possible success of a BART strike.  It’s profits yes, but there is the effect on morale as well as after years of defeats and declining living standards any victory by labor over the forces of capital would inspire all of us, would show us that we can win, that we can make gains, that we can drive back this offensive and austerity agenda of the bankers, the hedge fund wasters and all the coupon clippers who plunder the wealth of society. 

The US bosses actually fear the potential power of the US working class, fear that the stifling bureaucracy at the helm of the trade union movement might not be able to control their members and derail and undermine every movement from below as was done in Wisconsin, the strikes of the 1980’s and the Occupy Movement and its attempts to build strong links with organized Labor. This is what’s at stake here for them.  It was to stem that power that Taft Hartley legislation was introduced after the mass strikes of the 1930’s and the huge strike wave of 1946. We have to have a mass defiance of these anti worker laws.

The Chronicle in today’s editorial warns that “shutting down this transit lifeline will send shock waves throughout the region” and appeals to Brown to ensure that he must use his political power to ensure a strike is prevented. 

As is always the case the strategists atop organized Labor (and lets not kid ourselves, the bigwigs at the AFL-CIO and the CTW coalition in Washington are in on all this behind the scenes) are doing what they can to ensure that things don’t get out of hand.  Our power lies in our ability to stop production and draw the rest of the working class and our communities in to this struggle. I was at a solidarity meeting for the BART workers over the weekend and when I left that meeting with 7 hours to deadline, representatives of the union representing BART train drivers and Station Agents as well as the Executive Director (Sounds a bit like a business doesn’t it) of the Union representing other staff like custodians for example, stressed that they were in strike mode. They were going to strike at midnight as management was not showing any effort to negotiate in good faith.

In fact, this is what the Executive Director of SEIU 1021 repeated on the TV news a few hours later; management was refusing to negotiate in good faith.  These are two major themes that arise, the bosses won’t negotiate in good faith and we want a contract. He nor any other official had anything to say about workers needing to fight for more at the expense of the 1% or the public’s needs and how the union was fighting for more transit, free fares for seniors, half fare for the unemployed, more jobs, 24 hour trains or increased routes and transit for the disabled and how this can be paid for by the rich and ending trillion dollar wars. 

He certainly never mentioned any solidarity committee and how the public could get in touch with it to join organized labor in our struggle for a better life for all. This is because the official union strategy doesn’t include an agenda for the working public so they have no intention of broadening this struggle to include the communities. The appeal to the community is merely a tactic to get some (normally well meaning leftists and some not so well meaning ones) to help organize a few rallies and such here and there to pressure the bosses to be a little less aggressive. Many seasoned leftists/activists know this but refuse to point this out so the left bureaucracy can play this game safe in knowing that the strategy will not be challenged.

The response to these two points the officials raise should be obvious: (1) the bosses never negotiate in good faith. (2) They want a contract too.  The difference is what is in that contract.

This is at the heart of the matter. This particular dispute is not about the right to a contract but what’s in the contract.  The problem is that the Union officialdom from all three locals immediately involved do not want to discuss this issue in depth.  Like the leadership of organized Labor as a whole, they accept that some concessions have to be made, or more accurately they have no intention of doing what needs to be done to make gains, not just for the BART workers but for workers as a whole including those that have to use BART every day and who will be adversely affected by a strike. The president of ATU 1555 made that clear when she told the SF Chronicle earlier this month 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.”

Yet a short while after that as the intransigence of management became obvious, the solidarity committee was formed to help draw in the rest of the labor movement, the communities that BART serves and working class and poor communities in particular. I attended the first meeting of this solidarity group at ATU 1555’s hall where 1555’s Recording Secretary made it quite clear that “We have to get our message out to the public”.

When I asked what that message was, it amounted to this: “An attack on BART workers is an attack workers.” This is a good start but if we are to build a genuine union rank and file/community support network that actually gets involved in this historic struggle between capital and labor we must offer something in return.  We cannot be seen as we so often are as simply at the table with the boss defending only our own narrow interests.

The reality is this.  We cannot counter the massive propaganda war against the BART workers in the media if the Unions aren’t fighting for those workers who depend on BART as well as those who work for BART.  We have given many examples of some issues that can be raised. But not only must these issues be raised in the media, they must be raised at the negotiating table on behalf of the communities and with real rank and file community activists involved which they can be through a real solidarity support committee. I say this as when the Union hierarchy talks of linking with the community, they generally mean with leading business or religious and pro establishment figures in these communities rather than the folks at the grass root level who are serious about changing the present situation.

At the rally for the BART workers last week we heard the same generalizations but no specifics about what we must be done to win.  Leaders of unions as far away as Wisconsin and even Danny Glover talked of the need for solidarity with the BART workers, but what does this mean without a program and strategy to win it?  It’s empty rhetoric and I’ve heard it for 30 years.

Here are some examples suggested on a flier we published on this issue, some issues the the unions should fight for and what steps that can be taken to build something real:

* Free transportation for all senior citizens

• Half fare for the unemployed and all those on public assistance, welfare etc.

• Increased and free transportation for the disabled.

• A massive increase in bus routes and in areas where seniors live, shorter distance between stops.

• Job training programs in conjunction with the unions to be set up in each community and a $20 an hour minimum wage

• End the Team Concept, no more labor/management cooperation--peace through strength. Start by firing consultants Cornu and Mooney as their negotiators (both are big players in the California Democratic Party)

• A shorter workweek with no loss in pay to create jobs

• No to austerity----end all wars and occupations bring the troops home

The bosses are serious about taking away from us as all the gains made through the great struggles that took place with the rise of the CIO in the 30’s and the Civil Rights movement. We cannot defeat them alone, no one local can stop them in isolation nor can individual communities.  We have to start where we are, if in a union by building rank and file opposition caucus based on a program and strategy that demands what we need rather than what is acceptable to wall Street and a “fight to win” strategy for accomplishing these goals. In the communities we do the same and in each case we link these struggles together as well as reach out to workers internationally.

The AC Transit drivers (also in ATU but a different local) contract ends at midnight on Wednesday and they are threatening a strike if their issues are not resolved although there is no reason to think they would strike when they refused to at the time they were strongest.  When BART workers struck, under the direction of the leadership, the AC Transit drivers union weakened the strike and their own member’s interests by picking up some of the slack. Only a short time before, the unity and mood between these two groups of workers was strong and there was no doubt in my mind they would have used their united power to win a better contract for all had the leadership been willing to lead. (We should not discount the role of the International leadership in these instances as they undermine any local leadership that violates the relationship they have with the bosses based on Labor peace by going on the offensive.) The leadership atop these organizations are deathly afraid of their own members.

We cannot win if we blindly obey laws that are made by politicians of the 1% in the interests of the 1%.  Mass violation of the law is unavoidable if we want to stop this assault on workers and the middle class.  We all want a peaceful life, but they won’t let us have a peaceful life, unless we passively agree with their agenda which is to drive us down to the wages and conditions of third world countries.  They’re already on the way to doing that here in many industries especially the service sector and industries that employ women and minorities.   But they have also successfully cut wages in half in auto with the help of the leadership of the UAW leadership.

If they are successful in defeating the BART workers especially if they successfully deny them the right to strike which Governor Brown is doing temporarily but is on the cards in a more permanent fashion, it will be a huge setback for all Bay Area workers.  A strike is disruptive, not just for the public but for the workers involved, and it is obvious that I am critical of the how the heads of organized labor conduct these affairs as well as their role in general. But we must sift through the rubbish we hear and read in the 1%’s  media and support these brothers and sisters.

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BART Strike lessons: The media is not neutral.

by Richard Mellor

Afscme local 444, retired

At the height of the Occupy Movement the support for these mostly young people was considerable.  They were attacking the 1% and speaking out for all workers.  Here in Oakland I remember being on the back of a flatbed truck about to speak on the day of the big strike that shut down three shifts at the port of Oakland and felt a tug at my ankle. It was my former boss.

As I looked out in to the crowd, some estimates put at 30 to 40 thousand I saw co-workers and management personnel who I never see at events like these.  People have had enough.  Thousands of decent jobs lost, people thrown out of their homes in to the street, poor people cut off from public assistance and those protesting the shutting down of fire stations in their neighborhoods or the state parks where they took their families for the only affordable vacation around, were there looking for some solution to this crisis that is being shifted on to the shoulders of workers and the middle class. And this, after we bailed out the bankers and dragged their system from the edge of the abyss.  Older people, the disabled, youth, a Lucky Stores worker earning $21 an hour after more than 40 years on the job described how powerful the feeling was to be there that day and shut down the docks.

The wages of US workers have been driven so far back we are now becoming attractive fare for global investors. Italian manufacturers have threatened their employees that they will move to the US if they don’t accept cuts.  US firms in Canada have shut plants and headed south in order to benefit from wages that are half that of our Canadian brothers and sisters.  The 1% in the US has, with the help of their media waged an unprecedented war on US workers and our organizations aided also by a leadership atop organized labor that has cooperated all the way in the hope of a return to the good old days.

Power attracts as they say which is why the Occupy Movement gained such widespread support among the population.  Somebody was fighting back and fighting back in a way that we would have to fight if we want to win. Defiance of the law and mass action, occupations, pickets, generalizing the struggle and stopping production is what works, it always has and always will in a society where the wealth of that society has its origins in the labor process. (Occupy made some serious mistakes too)

So we must recognize it for what it is when we read in their mass media the not so subtle attacks on BART workers here in the Bay Area.  Bart workers are not even the highest paid workers but it is not in our interests, any workers interest to help the 1% drive wages of any of us lower.

I have been a wage-worker all my life. I retired as a public sector worker here in the Bay Area and I have a retirement I can live on, I am not ashamed of it. I don’t clip coupons and earn a million a year doing that. I don’t buy and sell currencies or speculate on the price of food, a human need. I didn’t earn $5 billion dollars one year betting some older person, some poor person wanting a roof over their heads would be overwhelmed by interest payments and be kicked out of their home like John Paulson, a major coupon clipper did.

I am like millions of us out there and very much like a BART worker. We are not fools.  I ask all my class brothers and sisters to consider this.  The Daily Review continues the propaganda war against BART workers that another bourgeois rag the Chronicle has been doing all week.  It has all sorts of figures out today showing how most members of the public oppose the workers and support BART management. 70% oppose the strike and 30% support it.   53% feel BART workers are overcompensated 16% think they’re undercompensated. These papers are organs of the 1%. The contents are not written for them by them, they are written by their paid mouthpieces for us, to influence our views of the world around us.  al Qaeda is out to get us.  Foreigners are jealous of us.  The wars abroad are about freedom and defensive wars as opposed to predatory offensive actions. There is no money in society to provide a decent life for all, education, mass transit, health care etc. The figures above come from the Bay Area Council, a business group. It is profits, profits, profits, they care about, not inconveniencing the public.

The bosses are determined to win this one as they did with auto and as they did with the events in Wisconsin where a movement of thousands of workers was derailed and directed in to electoral politics and that black hole we call the Democratic Party.  This was the strategy of the labor leadership and still is.

Negotiations are continuing through this weekend but the unions are outnumbered as other representatives of the 1%, state and federal mediators are in the room.  The point has been reached where nothing can be gained at the table if it is not backed up by the power of the workers and our communities, as George Schultz pointed out, “Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table.” We can learn from our enemies.

It is still possible that the union leaders could agree to continue working and avoid a strike or California governor Jerry Brown could intervene and call a 60-day cooling off period.  The Union leadership of the entire Bay Area are responsible if the bosses have their way and defeat the BART workers.  The objective is to privatize public transit and at the same time undermine the workers in this field by introducing anti-labor legislation. “Working class people can’t afford this (strike)” says a representative of the business council, “Our region can’t afford it”.  Once again, he is referring to the business community, to profits and the incomes of the wealthy and the 1%.

The present situation cannot go on indeed, it has to won by them or by us but we can’t win it unless we change course and we know the union leadership will not do that so the rank and file of the Unions cannot remain passive followers when it comes to the policies of the leadership that have such a profound affect on our lives.

What must be done if working people are not to suffer another defeat in the bosses’ war on our living standards is that serious demands must be put on the table including demands that relate to the traveling public like free transportation for seniors, half fare for the unemployed and those on public assistance. The corporation’s can pay and fares can be lowered for all. We have to raise the stakes and demand what people need to live a decent life as opposed to what is acceptable to the 1% and their representatives in the Democratic Party. (If you would like a pdf of the flier we handed out at Thursday’s rally explaining our views in more detail send an e mail to we_know_whats_up@yahoo.com

As I explained in a previous commentary, bus drivers should strike with BART workers.  They are in the same union. What good is a union if we can’t have this basic solidarity, if we don’t take advantage of the power we have as workers to force the 1% to back off. The leadership of the ATU at the highest levels refuses to do this because they are unwilling to fight; they have the same world view as the 1%, they worship the market and see it as the answer to all things including mass transit and water. It’s like entering a boxing ring with one hand tied behind our backs. A mass mobilization of workers can only lead to chaos from their point of view and they will resist it ferociously.

This is why they appeal to mediators and the politicians as opposed to relying on their own members and the power of workers in general. Jerry Brown, a union busting Wall Street politician is supported by Bank of America, Wal Mart, Facebook and billionaires like Steven Spielberg and Ari Emanuel who is the brother Rahm Emanuel , Obama’s buddy who is savaging Chicago’s public schools planning to close 150 of them.

Yet unions will support Brown in his efforts to stay in the governor’s seat and some are like SEIU 1000 (SEIU also represents BART and City of Oakland workers) that represents state workers who Brown has waged a vicious war against.  The policies of the present heads of organized Labor have been a disaster for us. We cannot buy the favor of Wall Street politicians like Brown or any of them.  We can’t defeat capital with capital because they have more of it.  That’s why they’re called capitalists. We can defeat them with labor, we have more of that, much more which is why they divide us along race, gender and religious lines and why they blame the poor for our predicament or public sector workers, immigrants or foreigners, anything to turn one section of the working class against the other, union against non union.  Al Qaeda would wish it could inflict the pain and misery on US society and workers that our own 1% do.

Rely on our own strength. Demand what workers’ and the public need not what is acceptable to the bosses, Wall Street and the Democrats and use our power as workers to win it. Build a mass workers’ party as an alternative to the two parties of Wall Street.

We are witnessing an historical battle going on in the Bay Area. But we're fighting it with one hand tied behind out  backs.

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