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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Opportunity knocks (again) for BART Unions. Trayvon Martin murder is a union issue

Trayvon Martin. Caused his own death according to Florida court

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

As to be expected AFL-CIO and Change to Win leaders don’t have too much to say about the Zimmerman verdict and what I could find on the AFL-CIO website was pretty lame. I looked at the CTW website which while not quite so drab also had nothing on there about this defeat for workers in this country and for black workers in particular.  On the AFL-CIO page Randi Weingarten of the AFT issued the following statement:

 “While we believe in the rule of law and the jury has spoken, the implications of the acquittal are profound. It is very disappointing that a racially profiled, unarmed African-American young man wearing a hoodie can be shot dead and there be no consequences for the perpetrator. This case reminds us that the path to racial justice is still a long one, and that our legal and moral systems do not always mesh. The proceedings in the Sanford, Fla., courtroom may well have dealt with the criminal aspects of the case, as defined by Florida law, but we will continue to deal with the moral ones. As the AFT pledged in a resolution passed at our 2012 convention, we remain steadfast in our commitment to fight for laws, policies and practices that will prohibit racial profiling at the federal, state and local levels.

“The disposition of this case is the antithesis of what we teach our children in school—that the law protects innocent victims and that no one has the right to take the law into his or her own hands. Everyone’s child matters. We pray for the strength of Trayvon’s parents and loved ones in this difficult time.”

Lee Saunders, the president of AFSCME, my former Union says:

“AFSCME is calling for the Justice Department to immediately conduct an investigation into the civil rights violations committed against Trayvon Martin. We know that it will take federal intervention and a massive grassroots movement but justice and positive change is still possible.
Bottom of Form

“In the fight for justice, it is time to stand our ground. As we have throughout our history, AFSCME will work with faith leaders, community groups and civil and human rights activists to create a more just society for all.”

Ho hum! Reading this reminds me of Nina Simone’s words from Mississippi Goddamn:

Picket lines
School boy cots
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
For my sister my brother my people and me

Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying 'Go slow!'
'Go slow!'

But that's just the trouble
'Do it slow'
Desegregation
'Do it slow'
Mass participation
'Do it slow'
Reunification
'Do it slow'
Do things gradually
'Do it slow'
But bring more tragedy
'Do it slow'
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know

Nina Simone

I checked the National Education Association’s website (NEA, the largest union in the country, and couldn’t find a word about Trayvon Martin and his murderer’s acquittal. I clicked on the link “Minority Community Outreach” and there was nothing there either. Like the Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden affairs where heroic individuals are being ruthlessly persecuted by the state for making the public aware of the violence, corruption and lies that are the norm for this government, Trayvon Martin is a non issue even on a page that deals with minority community involvement. This is as these issues are topics in every workplace, every coffee shop, every dinner table and drinking establishment.

And what does Ms. Weingarten mean by the “Rule of Law”. Laws are made by politicians of the 1% and in the interests of the 1%.  Would she say as a union leader in Nazi Germany that “we believe in the rule of law”? And what about the Jim Crow laws in the US Apartheid South? They were changed through direct action and violating the law not praying. One sees this term in the big business press all the time it means to respect laws that protect the capitalist class and their system, that’s what it means.  If those heroic figures that built the trade Union movement in this country had that attitude we wouldn’t have unions at all. We wouldn’t have sick leave or unemployment benefits, meager as they are; the UAW wouldn’t exist.  The Apartheid South would still be thriving if people had respect for the “rule of law”.

The union hierarchy is the only force that slavishly obeys the law except when it comes to dealing with their own members and the internal life of our organizations that they head.  Wall street crooks steal billions, politicians lie cheat and live off the fruits of bribery and the Union tops claim sainthood.  The bosses pass laws that are clearly against the interests of union members and all working people and the union hierarchy ensures they are not broken; anything to avoid a fight; send an e mail to the president and vote Democratic. They are terrified of a victory as it would increase expectations and inspire millions of workers drawing them in to activity after decades of savage attacks on our living standards.  Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is the trademark of the Union leaders atop organized labor.

Here in the Bay Area, a 4 day strike by Bay Area Rapid Transit workers galvanized attention for a

ATU members on strike

period.  Due to the ability of the BART workers to cripple the local economy contract negotiations between these two forces always makes headlines.  The bosses went on the offensive and demonized these workers in their media.  The union leaders as I explained in an earlier commentary have no answer to this as their general approach is that concessions have to be made. After all, we all have to share the pain, there is a need for “shared sacrifice”.

The decision to halt the strike for 30 days was a mistake as it is hard to get workers back on the lines once they’ve been taken off.  With a strike you either win one or lose one. The decision to end the strike for what is termed a “cooling off” period was in order for the union hierarchy and their political allies in the Democratic Party to make some deal that the members can accept, hopefully with minor changes that bring less aggressive concessions.  It is my view that they were forced to call one due to the anger from below and the pressure they were facing to let off some steam in case the pot boiled over. 

It is still not too late but the labor leadership will not act unless they are absolutely forced to from below or replaced. The anger in the ranks is significant for BART workers as they have not had a raise in five years but all workers have been savaged over the past period. There is a golden opportunity that must not be lost here.  The other transit workers that operate the buses have their contract up and could legally strike with the BART workers, they are also in the same union as the train operators, the ATU. SEIU 1021 also represents BART employees like station agents and janitors. The city of Oakland workers  also in SEIU 1021 have suffered serious cuts and can also strike.  Water workers are also in contract talks and their contracts expired at the end of May I think.

Unfortunately, despite a mood among bus drivers to support BART workers at a transit board meeting, the decision by union officials not to bring bus drivers out with the them was a serious mistake and made victory less likely for both. Both BART and AC Transit workers face aggression and acts of violence from the public. The same is true for teachers.  But labor’s response is not more policing. Increase policing never helps workers and the poor and certainly doesn’t help the most oppressed sections of our class. All the ills and pressure of society weigh heavily on public sector workers like transit, city, teachers and water workers as we deal with the public every day. Our response must be jobs for all, housing, education, urban renewal, wages and an end to racism and sexism.  This will strengthen us with the public and will unite the class rather than dividing it.  Unity is not an abstract thing.  What are we uniting around?  It has to be made concrete. We cannot win without building links with the communities in which we live and work.

A strike by BART, AC Transit and the City of Oakland workers would open the door to the transformation of the mood among workers in and outside the unions. You want public support?  Here’s your chance. Taking a major public stand against the Zimmerman verdict and against the ongoing murder and incarceration of black youth will get a tremendous echo in this community along with a call for community involvement and help to win the strike around such demands as:

No to the 1%’s austerity agenda

No more police, no more jails but a massive hiring and job training program under the direction of the unions and community organizations.

A $20 an hour minimum wage

Free public transportation for all seniors

Increased services in mass transit (especially buses) including for the disabled

Free public education at all levels, reopen closed schools reduce class sizes and hire one million teachers

For a national public health service

Organized the unorganized.

The money fro these basic things can come from making the rich pay, ending all wars an occupations and nationalizing the banks to suggest a few.

These are just a few small ways a movement can be built around such a strike that would undoubtedly challenge the 1%’s austerity agenda and drive back their offensive. The slogan should be No more business as usual, it stops here in the Bay Area, the home of two huge general strikes.  

No more Trayvon Martins—no more shared sacrifice. Jobs for all.

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Word to Castlemont Rally Organizers: Stand Together or Hang Separately

by Jack Gerson

Yesterday I attended a rally organized by a group of teachers and administrators at Oakland's Castlemont High School to protest cuts to important programs and support services -- special education, security, and technology. There were about 75 to 100 present at the rally, including at least 50 students.  Many, but not all, Castlemont teachers were at the rally -- but not all were enthusiastic about the rally and its organizers. I talked to several teachers -- I was the teacher union rep (shop steward) at Castlemont for several years before retiring three years ago. Some teachers grumbled that the rally organizers were an "in crowd" of teachers and administrators, and that while their demands were OK they failed to take up the most important issues: egregious union-busting, favoritism, and the systematic cuts, school closures, privatization, and overall strangling of public education throughout all of Oakland.

To understand this, some background is needed. Last year,  Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Superintendent Tony Smith unilaterally imposed a union-busting reorganization on Castlemont and the two other high schools that serve the lowest-income areas in Oakland (Fremont High and McClymonds High).  Smith's plan forced all teachers at Castlemont, Fremont, and McClymonds to reapply for their jobs every year, a blatant violation of union due process rights and seniority.

The Castlemont faculty was divided on the reorganization. Some Castlemont teachers -- including several veteran black teachers -- argued that this was outright union-busting; that it went hand-in-hand with punitive measures taken against teachers who spoke out against the reorganization or stood up against the school and district administrators on other matters; and that it would very quickly lead to more cuts and even more top-down control by district administration.

But others saw it as an opportunity to gain a measure of autonomy: more freedom to design curricula, collaborate more closely with colleagues, eliminate bureaucratic red tape and make better use of resources. Most of these teachers had less than five years' teaching experience. They were cultivated by OUSD and Castlemont administrators, who told them they were "awesome" and "brilliant" and far superior to more experienced veteran teachers. Many of them worked closely with Castlemont's administrators. Some of them were named "head teachers" in the redesigned schools.

The opponents of the plan were right. Even the reorganization's supporters now recognize that they are suffering more cuts. And they also realize that the district's promise of more autonomy and more freedom was a ruse. Indeed, the main organizers of yesterday's rally were teachers and administrators who had supported the union-busting reorganization.

It's good that they've had one eye opened. But they still won't oppose the reorganization. They still won't call for putting an end to teachers having to reapply for their jobs. And they won't give up the notion that they're somehow special: they claim that Castlemont is "the exception", being treated more shabbily than all the other schools in OUSD. But badly as Castlemont has been treated, McClymonds and Fremont have been treated just as shabbily. So have many middle schools and elementary schools in the low-income, overwhelmingly black and Latino sections of Oakland.

To get support, it's necessary to give support.  That won't happen until the rally organizers and their cohort oppose the reorganization that forces teachers to reapply for their jobs every year at Castlemont (and at Fremont and McClymonds Highs) and until they demand adequate support, resources, and funding for all Oakland students at all Oakland schools (not just at Castlemont).

I want to address one more question: Why did the rally organizers support the reorganization in the first place? What impelled them to look for a special solution for their school alone, repudiating job security and due process rights, lining up with -- and, let's face it, cutting deals with -- district and site administrators? A good part of the blame for this has to be attributed to the failure of the local, state, and national teacher unions to adequately respond to and beat back the assault on teachers and public education.

For the past ten years, Oakland public schools have been relentlessly attacked by the corporate forces out to decimate, privatize, and ultimately destroy public education.  In other pieces I've written -- for this blog and elsewhere -- I've detailed the savage cuts inflicted on Oakland public schools under the state takeover of OUSD (2003 - 2009, when the district was essentially handed over to the minions of Los Angeles billionaire Eli Broad) and then deepened in the past four years by OUSD Superintendent Tony Smith after the state takeover officially ended. Enrollment in Oakland public schools declined from 55,000 to 37,000 over the past decade, while charter school enrollment quadrupled.  Outsourcing to private consultants and contractors soared, as did spending on compensation for district administrators. School libraries were closed; the Adult Education program was annihilated; many elective programs were eliminated. Oakland teachers have been without a contract for the past five years, and are now among the lowest-paid teachers in the state (earning on average more than $12,000 a year less than the state average).

This did not have to be: a determined campaign by OEA, backed up by the vast financial resources of CTA (the statewide teacher union) and NEA (the national teacher union) could have beaten back the attacks and inspired others elsewhere to fight too. But OEA, CTA, and NEA did not fight. Instead, OEA's primary leaders insisted that OEA was too weak to fight, and that it was essential to collaborate, cooperate, and act as team players with the Oakland school district leadership. Many teachers -- particularly younger, newer teachers -- concluded that since the union can't or won't defend them, their best bet was to seek out individual solutions. That's what happened at Castlemont. But it doesn't have to remain that way. If the union will take the lead in building a united fight with parents and community, it can build support and assert the kind of power in the streets that we saw from Chicago teachers and parents last September.

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