Kaiser cancelled from AFL-CIO convention

A short CNA clip from Kaiser nurses.  The AFL-CIO convention was apparently ready to applaud kaiser as the model health care provider.  The California Nurses Association (now an AFL-CIO affiliate) contacted the AFL-CIO complaining about Kaiser's anti-worker anti-patient practices and published this statement:
Nurses once again let Kaiser Executives know that we will not be idle while Kaiser Cancels Our Patients’ Care.  Kaiser was slated to be spotlighted as a model healthcare company at the AFL-CIO convention.  When we let the AFL-CIO know about Kaiser's plans to cancel our patients' care Kaiser was cancelled themselves.

"Our patients have too much at stake for us to allow Kaiser Executives to move forward with their plans.  Patient care should always be first." CNA states.

Unfortunately, the same AFL-CIO leadership pushed the Team Concept on Kaiser employees when John Sweeny was president and  Sal Roselli's Local 250 was still in SEIU.  The CNA was not in the AFL-CIO at the time and did not join the team to my knowledge.  Naturally, there will be no internal debate about the disastrous consequences of the Team Concept and the idea that bosses and workers have the same interests or that the same AFL-CIO pushed it with gusto. Cancelling a glowing presentation from the bosses at the AFL-CIO's convention won't do much to turn the tide either.

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Talking to workers

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

I wrote the other day about how helpless we can feel when we watch too much TV. Especially the 1%'s news programs that are designed to make us hate and fear each other. Everyone is out to get us, the neighbor, the black youth with the hoodie, the guy up the street, the Sikh with the turban and quite naturally, the Moslems and most of the people outside out borders.

For me, the best antidote for this is to get out there and talk to people.  This is one advantage of the drinking establishment.  Now I'm not saying that pubs (I am not talking about the extreme dive bar here) don't have their negative side. But, let's face it, these are places that workers congregate. If you want to meet the American people, you might try a bar.

I probably drink more than Dr. Phil would say is wise.  But I don't drink much at home, I come from a culture where parents, their kids and quite possibly the kids grandparents might meet in a pub to talk about life and escape from the drudgery of working life.

I remember when the guys at work used to invite me for a drink after the workday and warn me, "We don't want any of that union or political talk, Rich, give it a rest once in a while.".  "No problem",  was usually my answer.  But no sooner had we got to the establishment and especially after a couple of brews, I was overwhelmed by the questions about the Union or what's happening in America and on and on. Workers like to talk about the world around us.

Some readers might be aware that my wife and I are victims of a house fire and at the moment we are living in a motel.  I needed to get out for an hour or two tonight and headed to a bar the receptionist at the hotel recommended. I found it easy enough, an Irish (Irish American) bar not too far away.  When I first walked in, there were only two or three people sitting at the bar and another couple playing pool.  None were Irish I don't think. I ordered my first pint form the bartender, a woman from Kentucky and sat there for a bit before turning to the guy next to me and opening up a conversation. I can't see the point of being in the company of other human beings if you don't talk to them.   It turned out he was a union guy, a member of the Operating Engineers, a huge US construction union that I think is the largest construction union in the world.   He was a good union guy but was very unhappy with his leadership.  Most workers don't generally express it this way tending to attack the union as an institution instead.  I explained my views on this which I think I have done many times on this blog so I won't repeat them but we had a good chat.  He agreed with me that at some point in this country there is going to be some upheaval. He raised that he had a contractor friend who hired mostly Mexicans as "Americans don't like to work". 

I differed with him on this.  The big business press is always talking about how workers in Mexico or Vietnam are "more willing" to work for less than Americans and that Americans refuse to do the jobs they will do or that we're lazy.  "It's not that the Mexicans are more willing or harder workers" I said, "They are more desperate, that is the reason." There's nothing wrong with American workers wanting more, the point is that we should demand it for everyone, all workers.

Anyway, he left and there was a woman sitting on the other side of him so I got talking to her. I have to admit, that it is normally me that starts these conversations but I don't necessarily finish them.  She was a single mother and had, like so many of us, been through some difficult times I gathered.  She eventually started working for herself cleaning homes and commercial property.  She described how hard it was for her to find a job but she did research on the internet trying to find what sort of industry might be best for her to break in to as an individual and house cleaning seemed the best opportunity. She did most of the work herself though occasionally hired people.

We talked for a while about child rearing, work, women and men and what makes us behave the way we do. She was explaining what it was like with two kids that her personal life was never separate form her wondering if the kids were OK and was she away too long etc. The bartender came over and she talked about growing up in Kentucky and how wonderful her father was as she never knew her mother and her father raised her. She talked about working as a bartender for 25 years and how she loved it because she got to talk to people and,listen to them as they talked about their lives. These two women were very sharp, interesting characters.

We discussed many issues relevant to life and work.  In the hour or two I was there I had discussions with American workers like myself about war, work, child rearing, the difference between men and women and more. I was so happy among my own people.

At times, I feel a bit self conscious that I am what is called an extrovert and talk to anyone. I don't do it for any other reason that I believe humans are collective and gregarious creatures, when you talk to people, they talk back. There's almost no such thing as an uninteresting life.  Human beings are interesting. We care about each other.  The 1% learned in the Vietnam war not to bring the reality of war to the evening news because when we see other's suffering we are moved by it no matter the race, religion or color of the people involved; we want to help.  So now all we hear on the evening news is one murder after another, the degeneration of our humanity in a society that places profit above all things but even this is a warped version of reality. Every minute of every day, we cooperate with each other in some way or another.

The frustrating thing about these experiences is that I want the rest of the world to experience them. I want those whose only experience with Americans is a drone attack or as invading forces to see that we are also struggling in our own way, that the Dick Cheney's Donald Rumsfeld's, Georg W Bush's or Barack Obama's do not represent what we are.  They can call themselves Americans but they are not the Americans that vast majority of us associate with and live with every day of our lives. The members of the US Congress are all millionaires, most Americans have nothing in common with them and to be honest despise them.  What to do about it is another issue.

But I was buoyed tonight as I so often am by the associations I have with the people that make society function.  It's experiences like these that give hope for the future.

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Labor, value and capitalist production

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

If we ask workers, or even capitalists where profit comes from, the answer generally is that it comes from selling the product that the particular industry makes above its cost of production. But this is not so.  Profit is made not by selling a product higher than the cost of making it it but in the labor process itself.  The capitalist sells the commodity the worker makes for more than the capital he or she put out in the labor process, the capital for machinery, plant etc along with wages or the price of labor power. But the added value is present in the commodity itself prior to sale, it is merely realized or set free through the sale which is why we live in a 24 hour marketplace and the imbecile Bush urged us to "go shopping" after 911.

This added value contained within the commodity and realized in the sale has its origin in the labor process because the worker produces a certain amount of money value in the labor process (with the assistance of the means of production that the capitalist owns) but in return receives money (wages) that equals only a portion of the value the worker produces.  If the workers produce the value (let's say shoes) of their wages in 6 hours for example, the capitalist doesn't send them home. What would be in it for them?  So while it appears because we are paid a wage, that we receive 8 hours pay for the value we produce in 8 hours work, we are only paid for part of this working time. The value (again, shoes for example) that we produce beyond this we receive nothing for. It is an unequal exchange, the owner of capital receives value or a finished commodity that contains labor power they paid for and labor power they didn't.  This unpaid labor power is the source of profit and Marx called it surplus value.

I am not an economist but this view of the world makes absolute sense to me and explains concretely how workers are exploited in what we call capitalist society; it corresponds to objective reality as I see it.  But what got me to thinking about this was an ad I just saw on TV.  This ad started off stating something like how can an idea become reality "without the capital to make it happen?". I agree with that statement incidentally and understanding exactly what "capital" is, is another task for workers who want to understand how the world actually works.

Then there was another ad that immediately followed it saying the same thing about a "vision" how a vision can become concrete or a real.  A vision can only become reality with "financing" the ad tells us. The ad is right, capital, money or financing is absolutely necessary to make ideas real. 

But in both these cases there is another vital aspect missing and that is human labor power or labor as most people would say.  It is as if this function doesn't exist.  Someone has an idea, another has money and presto, you have society.  But as I explain above, labor is the source of profit and therefore all value creation or wealth.  The short term payroll loan that the capitalist takes out from the banker is simply a reserve capital, the product of labor power past.  It is a collective product.

Not only was human labor missing in these ads, it reminded me of when I hired a guy to do some work on my old house before I sold it. He gave me the contract to sign and I noticed that at the end he had a percentage under the heading "profit". Nowhere was there a column or a mention of the unpaid labor of the workers he employed although his payment for labor power was there, the hourly rate he paid his painters but naturally, there was no mention that he paid them less in wages than the value they create through their labor power.

So at least, labor was in existence in this example but profit again, or its source is not defined.

Someone, I can't remember who, once said that the system works behind the back of society, even the capitalists if you ask them do not really think it through.  They attribute bubbles and excess simply to "animal spirits" or claim "crony capitalism" the culprit whatever that means. They refuse to recognize that these occurrences are an inherent aspect of this system of production, of capitalism and its many contradictions.

As a wage worker all of my life, even before I became political or was introduced to socialist and/or Marxist ideas I used to get mad when I would read or hear something  like, Donald Trump or Howard Hughes built this or that hotel or resort.  "No they didn't" I would say to myself angrily.  Welders, iron workers, laborers, bricklayers, painters, plasterers, carpenters, they built that resort.  Waiters, servers, cleaners, maids, bartenders accountants and other workers operated it, made it function.

Capitalism is an exploitative system, we know this in our gut, but it's a bit harder to see that in a wage system where we are told we are paid 8 hours pay for 8 hours work which is not possible, than in feudal society for example where the exploitation was much clearer as the surplus was given in kind.  The serf would see the product, food for example,  of two or three days labor be handed over to the feudal lord not to mention tithes and rights the lord had like sleeping with your bride on her wedding night.

For the feudal aristocracy the peasant was there to serve their interests, they were the rightful owners of the land and everything on it bar the commons and their wealth came from the peasant's labor.  The capitalists view wage workers in the same way; it doesn't even exist in the creation of things.  All is needed is an idea and some money.

Without production there is no life and without labor there is no production.

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Wireless companies responsible for worker deaths.

Two workers fell from tower in Texas

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

When I was active in my Union I was for many years a member of the Contracting Out Committee. Working for a public utility we were always trying to prevent the private sector from getting our work.  The developers and real estate firms, in league with contractors that would do this work, had representatives on the Board of Directors that would assure their interests were protected.  They would generally be supported by building trades unions that wanted the work for their members.  So workers in the public sector were forced in to competition with workers in the private sector for who got the work.

I always argued for more hiring, bringing workers in as public sector union members expanding our workforce. Public sector employment even today after the onslaught we have faced, is generally a more humane and less competitive workplace with more security and better benefits and retirement, that’s why they want to smash the public sector Unions.

Sending out work to private (non-union) contractors in particular, always means workplace safety suffers as the effects of the market are greater.  The telecommunication companies like Sprint contract out a great deal of their work to contractors and sub contractors much like the retail giants contract work to sweatshops.  The race to provide faster, more extensive and advanced networks has led to an increase in the deaths of tower workers and 2013 has been a bumper year with ten tower workers dying in falls so far. After 2006, when 18 tower workers died, OSHA declared tower climbing beat out fishing and logging as “The most dangerous job in America.” *

I touched on the ineffectiveness of OSHA in an earlier commentary on the market driven catastrophe at the fertilizer plant in West Texas (hereand here) pointing out that today there are 2200 OSHA inspectors for 8 million workplaces. It’s hard not to laugh at statistics like that were the consequences not so dire. Workers cannot put our lives in the hands of a state agency that was opposed by many politicians and the US Chamber of Commerce. If it was set up to seriously protect workers on the job, the ratio of OSHA inspectors to workplaces would be much different.

The fierce competition for market share and profits trumps safety, “…there is so much work this year that many crews are working around the clock and haven't taken days off in weeks.”,  industry representatives tell the Wall Street Journal,  “crews are working 12- or 16-hour days and, when they get tired, forget to clip on safety lines or clip them on improperly.” One project manager adds.

But am I not right in thinking there’s 20 to 30 million workers that capitalism refuses to put to work?  Yes, but it’s a better business decision to have people work longer hours than shortening them and hiring more people----it’s more profitable.  Sure, the pace of work destroys the body, the family and leads to unnecessary deaths and the tendency towards drugs that increase energy and keep you awake when your body demands rest.  But in order to win the bid to do this work for the telecommunications giant, a contractor has to underbid his or her competitors.  The wireless industries PR departments sing the same old tune workers are all too familiar with. Sprint says it is “deeply saddened” by the recent spate of deaths and “requires subcontractors to maintain written safety programs and designate one employee on site responsible for ensuring safety.”

OK, they’ve covered their asses, it must be the workers’ fault.  Let’s not forget though, that here in the US, a corporation has personhood; a corporation is a person and with the same rights as a person. And as any worker knows, the person making the decisions does not tend to take positions that are against their own self-interest. If the company-designated employee for safety takes action that hurts profits, they’re in trouble. This is why the Team Concept in the workplace is so destructive as it undermines independent worker power on the job. You can’t mobilize the power you have, and in our case it’s numbers and the ability to stop production, if the object of your activity is supposedly on the same team.

It’s obvious that a huge cause of death and injury in the workplace is the pace of the work and the competition between workers as we are forced to cut corners in order to help our bosses win market share from their rivals. 

One of the major contractors that oversees work for Sprint instituted a “Tower Construction Acceleration Program” that pays a $3000 bonus to contractors that finish on time and with no defects (workers health and happiness aside). One construction manager told the WSJ that some jobs pay $12,000 in bonuses per site and that the bonuses “encourage them to work more quickly.”  Nothing new there.

Many of the telecommunication companies are unionized so contracting work out eliminates those concerns, it’s the private, unorganized sector getting a hold of public work through these contracts and workers suffer for it, not just in in lower wages and benefits which is most often the case, but also in quality of life and workplace rights. Some tower workers admit that the carriers set “pricing and schedules that can create strong incentives to cut corners.”

The word terrorism is thrown about a lot these days.  Every individual or force that stands in opposition to capital’s rapacious quest for profits is given the terror label and their actions “terrorism”.  Some have not liked that I refer to the West Texas catastrophe or the mine explosion or the Fukushima disaster acts of market terror but they are exactly that; they are not accidents in the way we think of an accident.  Capitalism is an economic system that exists through coercion and force and is, by its very nature, a system of terror.  Workplace terrorism, economic terrorism, we don’t have to buy in to the language and terms that the 1% use to describe life’s events.  We have our own view of the world and our own language which describes what happens around us more accurately.

In the case of the tower worker, of course a bad decision by an individual worker might lead to an accident or death.  The issue is under what conditions are the decisions workers make made.  We have free will, Marx once said, but we rarely, if ever, get to choose the circumstances in which we exercise that free will.  And in the case of the workplace, there is no democracy there, we do not control the labor process, we are simply a part of it under the direction of the owner(s) of capital.

There are only two sources of power in the workplace, the bosses and the organized workers. Without organization it’s every man or woman for themselves as each individual tries to make a deal and the boss sets one against the other. Safety is strongest where workers are organized and elected worker representatives have a real presence on the job. The power to shut down an unsafe project is something workplace representatives must fight for.

Building and strengthening the organized workers’ movement in the workplace and in our communities as well is what will reduce injury on the job and disasters like the recent spate of mine deaths and catastrophes like the BP spill that killed 11 workers and did untold environmental damage. No one can work an eight-hour day these days and pay the rent.  Sixteen-hour days, speed ups caused by the competition between capitalists for market domination---this is why 13 tower workers have died this year.  They were victims of the free market at work. 

The Union hierarchy has all but abandoned any attempt to win a shorter workweek with no loss in pay or win anything for that matter. As recently as 1984, the AFL-CIO platform to the Democratic Party called for a continuation of the historic norm of reducing the hours of work.  The Democrats of course will do no such thing just like this party of Wall Street will not put any teeth in to OSHA. Along with workers having independent organizations in the workplace, independent of the bosses, we have to have political independence as well in the form of our own party based on these organizations and the communities in which we work and live.

I want to stress as another author on this blog did a few days ago, the small businesses that cannot afford a $15 or $20 an hour minimum wage must join with workers in the struggle for it.  For most community businesses don’t object to such a wage, they just can’t afford it.  The workers’ movement in return must fight to free small business from the clutches of the corporations, the insurance companies, the taxman, bankers and others that weigh heavily on them.  It is absurd that a community business should provide health care for workers; the sickness industrial complex, the hospital and pharmaceutical industries, must be taken in to public ownership and these vital services can be managed in the public’s interest.

These are all steps we must take that will curb the power of the bosses over our lives in the workplace and outside it. But each victory in this regard is only temporary until we take control of the labor process and the management of society as a whole.

* A New Spate of Deaths inthe Wireless Industry WSJ 8-22-13

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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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Work and the Union: Great sacrifices---great rewards

The good old days: co-workers supporting my city council run 1996

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

I was active for many years in my Union local, for most of the time in some sort of leadership capacity, not as a paid official but as an elected rank and filer. After contract negotiations in1997, myself and a few others that were on the negotiating team made the conscious decision to step down from leadership positions although we remained active as members

Part of the reason was to encourage others to take these positions, plus, we recommended a no vote on the contract.  We urged the members to vote no but made it clear that there was nothing more to be had at the table, that we could win more but they would have to be active in building a movement beyond our own local in to the rest of the Labor movement and the communities in which we live and work. The membership took the line of least resistance and voted the contract in.  It was a relatively good contract by most standards but we definitely could have gotten more had our approach been adopted by the membership. The membership being unwilling to adopt our strategy but willing to vote us in  to office convinced us that we needed to step down.

Not long after we stepped down, I was in a second step hearing for our grievance procedure with a steward who I have known for many years but who was new to the role.  He had filed a couple of grievances and some of us helped him with them.  The second step is the last internal step before arbitration. I was only there because of him.

I couldn't help looking at this guy in question, Phillip M, as he fought for this co-worker, learning to deal with the employer as he went along.  This particular grievance was over an important issue but the last one was a sure loser; still, I encouraged him to fight the case as best as he could and that it would be a great learning experience for him. Unlike the “professional”Union reps, the grievance procedure for me was also a way to have the grievant/co-worker get their day in court and have a go at the boss. It was also a way of building stronger links with the members one represents and helping other co-workers that were interested in becoming active. I always wanted to counter the business unionism model that we were lawyers and that there was not much point in filing a grievance if we couldn’t win it.

Most grievances are lost and the fact is that the bosses wouldn’t even talk to us if we didn’t have an organization and numbers.  But understanding and participating in the process is important as long as one understands that it is the organized and conscious activity of the ranks that wields the real power.

Phillip was about my age at the time, early 50's.  I first met him 17 years prior when he started as a temporary worker.  He is a solid guy and here he was defending workers on the job.  He has a real history though.  He spent five years or so in jail for bank robbery.  The gun he used had no bullets in it if I recall.  He's a sort of nice guy, wouldn't really want to hurt anyone.  He is a Latino guy but was adopted by a black family so he has an interesting style about him.  In the early eighties we were both having problems with cocaine abuse. 

He got really bad, started freebasing (I pretty much stayed with the nose candy). Cocaine was almost the fashionable thing to do here in the U.S. in the latter half of the seventies and early 80's.  Phil also came under some pressure because as a temporary worker he crossed the lines during our strike in 1985. Some guys always reminded him of this when they got mad at him but he was always a good union man.

I remember him waking me up at 6.00 am on a Saturday morning, said he wanted to borrow $40 for breakfast; $40 was about the price you could pay for a half gram of cocaine at the low end.  I peeked out the front door and Phil had a couple of women in the car; treating them to breakfast no doubt. Things got worse and our relationship became a little strained.  He wanted to borrow my car one time for a weekend, a red Maverick, two-door.  I couldn't get the damn thing back.  We almost got in to a fight in the hallway at work because I got so frustrated.  But I later found out that he was living in the car.  I was trying to take his home away.

He eventually got in to a program and kicked the coke and alcohol too. He had to or he would have lost his job. The union fought for him. I made him mad again when he came to the union to borrow the money for the cost of the program and I voted against it because I didn't believe the union was in the money lending business.  He brought his mum down there and got the money but was mad at me for a few years. He has been clean ever since. I should add that I fought for a program for our members but I was opposed to lending money as I thought it would lead to a whole lot of members coming to the union to borrow funds.

After he got clean, Phil had a young daughter and a girlfriend but she got in to the crack thing and he eventually moved her out taking the responsibility for the young girl who was around 3 or so.  He bought a house and came to union meetings although it was difficult having a 3 year old daughter to raise. Phil was always a hard worker, but like of lot of us that have spent our lives in blue collar work, and have never had a formal education, we lack certain skills and therefore confidence when it comes to an arena that requires more reading, note taking, researching contract language, dealing with the boss etc.  I explained to him that I was in the same position and that it was the union that helped me develop these skills.  Not only that, the intimidating way that things are set up is conscious on the part of the employer to give them the upper hand. 

They have secretaries, access to legal advice. They have hours of paid time to look at documents like contracts etc. I remember speaking to the board of directors in my early days as  an officer in the local.  Here I was in hip length boots covered in mud looking up at them on the podium.  I had come from a job and barely had time to clean up.  The other thing though, was that I wasn’t interested in impressing them.  I was not ashamed of my work of my friends and co-workers. I wasn’t looking to advance at their expense and took my role as a union rep seriously, and that’s what was one of Phillip’s great qualities, he had good class consciousness, wasn’t involved in the Union to use it as a stepping stone to management as some are inclined to do. We asked our co workers to vote for us and we felt a real obligation to follow through.

Phillip knew which side he was on. He had no love for the bosses, (I’m not talking about individuals here) isn't fooled by them for a minute. He became disappointed in the leadership of the union who he felt didn’t fight hard enough but compared to the struggle against the boss, the internal struggle inside the union over its direction and policies is much more difficult, but it is a struggle that has to be taken up. The time Phil spent in Jail and the drug and alcohol abuse are avenues that so many workers end up taking for want of an alternative, a way to fight back.

After a union meeting following the bombing of Afghanistan where I came under a bit of attack for introducing a resolution against it, Phillip called me the next morning before I left for work.  He wanted to cheer me up.  Told me not to quit that "we need you".  I thanked him and told him that we need him too; that I was grateful he was still around after all these years and our ups and downs. Phil has since retired.

Life is interesting that's for sure. We often don’t realize how important our work relationships are and how these relationships get us through the day.

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Egypt. Worldwide. Yeats. Joyce. Homesick.

by Sean O'Torrain

In my home country (Ireland) the old way is to make out you know as little as possible. Like African Americans came to learn showing your were too smart could get you killed by the ruling elite. So like many others of my background I will say "You know you might be right there, by God your are not so slow, I will have to think about that now." As I said, the rule tended to be whatever you say say nothing.

I am only rambling on here. Well maybe not. I am a wee bit homesick today, missing the grey mist of rain, the grey rocks sticking up through green grass, the grey Atlantic crashing on to the western shores. While here I am in in Chicago, a flat ugly city where if you go over a bump on the road it threatens to give you an erotic experience.

So anyway where was I?  I had a wee read of Yeats there to keep me going, I know he was influenced by fascism towards the end but he was a poet of great genius. He also had a bit of humor. He wrote:"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through periods of joy." I am laughing here.

He also wrote: "Things fall apart the center cannot hold." This brings me to today. I am getting old and this is a factor. I have some health problems and this is another factor. But this not the full story. The full story is that I just cannot keep up with all the gigantic uprisings and wars and civil wars climate destruction, the rising of the women, the movements against sexism and racism,  and new issues with which we are being confronted. Never has there been a time like this. Yes it for sure is right. For capitalism things fall apart the center cannot hold.

But for the working class thing are not so good either. The center is not holding together too good there either. The big issue is this. What force will arise or will a force arise that can overthrow capitalism and take society forward to its new phase  of international democratic socialism before all is destroyed by climate change, mass starvation and nuclear war. The union and labor leaders control the organizations of the working class and should do this job. They should be providing the aggressive offensive center. But they will not. Cowardly, intellectually duller than ducks, with their badly designed suits huddling beside the Obamas and the rest of them, they are terrified. Only if a movement is built below them that threatens all their privileges and positions will they do anything.

So new forces will have to be built. We see the youth and workers and women in Egypt forcing the overthrow of Mubarak, then making the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood untenable, and now taking on the military. It is heroic, beyond heroic. We see them taking on the US armed military with only rocks and their bare hands. I cannot see the steps forward that are necessary internationally being taken without such steps.

I do not think that what Marx said that capitalism could be changed peacefully is any longer accurate. Look at the richest of the major capitalist countries the US. Before the working class are even rising the capitalist class have armed its state to the teeth, are spying on just about everybody. They are ready to put the workers movement down in blood in every country. Is the Egyptian  military's decision to put down the Muslim Brotherhood come hell or high water not the music of the future?

Unless.

Unless, that is, fighting forces are built in the working class. Not just amongst the courageous youth.  But also amongst the big battalions, the working class, in the factories, the transport industries, the energy sectors, the huge retail chains and so on. And fighting forces that take on the divisions, the sexism, the racism,  and are prepared to fight and literally fight, that is not just by giving out flyers. This will be important of course in the struggle for the consciousness of the working class but serious combative measures will be necessary.

I remember being at a meeting of auto workers in Detroit some years ago. I think it was around the Delphi struggle. There were about a dozen workers around the table talking tactics. I made the point that the bosses would win unless the factories were taken over and physically defended, other forces mobilized on the outside to fight and an all out battle such as the 1930's waged, such as the youth of the black revolt waged. I remember so clearly how the eyes of the workers turned away. They were not ready to hear that. The Delphi bosses won. The working class will have to stop turning away, will  have to face this reality, will have to be ready to hear this, or face defeat.

And what about the left and the radical forces here and internationally. I agree with putting forward a program for a new society and also using the transitional method. but I do not agree with leaving the issue of strategy and tactics aside. We have to tell the truth. The bosses will massacre the workers in their millions if they are allowed to in their effort to keep the power. I believe the bosses would be prepared to drop tactical nuclear weapons on their own cities to keep the power. Not only do we have to prepare to fight but we also have to tell workers they have to organize to fight and this also means winning over sections of the state apparatus. The gains of the thirties were won by fighting, the gains of the 60's also. They are all being taken away.

And back again to wee Yeats and also Joyce. Yeats said "Do not wait to strike when the iron is hot but make it hot by striking." He said "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." He wrote :"Think like a wise man (woman) but communicate in the language of the people."  Wee Yeats  was not so slow.

Then there is the man himself wee Joyce. But before quoting him. The revolutionary left and this includes all of us, including myself, have achieved the most pathetic of results in this period of worldwide upheaval with the center not holding. I believe this has been because of a combination of left sectarianism, ultra leftism and opportunism. I may be wrong on this. But there is some reason more than the objective situation for our pathetic failure. We have to stop this what we used to call at home :"whistling past the graveyard." That is pretending that all is well when anybody with an eye in their head can see it is not. And when the proof is there for all to see. There are no mass forces moving to the revolutionary left.

So to Joyce. He wrote: "A man's (woman's) errors are his portals of discovery." What do I mean by putting this here. I mean that the revolutionary left have made mistake after mistake in the past decades. Myself included. We have to face up to this. And dialectically turn these mistakes into their opposite that is "portals" which if we enter can allow us to correct our ways. This means openly recognizing and articulating publicly our mistakes. I do this regularly. What makes me worry more than anything else is that most of the small forces which claim the mantle of revolutionary socialism continue to go on as if they have never made any mistake, as if they are still correct on everything. This is a recipe for disaster. We have to as wee Joyce said see that our errors are made into portals for discovery. This means openly and publicly articulating our errors and discussing these in the working class movement in as Yeats says the language "of the people.

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BART Strike fears: The bosses' propaganda war heats up

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

The San Francisco Bay Area papers are on the offensive this week as the cooling off period that ended a four and a half day strike by BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) workers ends in two weeks.

The bosses have had time to prepare for an all out war if necessary, meeting with the developers, bankers, investors and other representatives of capital who make the decisions behind the scenes.

"BART worker Costs Soaring" is the front page headline in today's Oakland Tribune.  "Rail Line's Employee Costs Soar Even as Pay Remains Flat" says the Daily Review.  The Oakland Tribune has conducted its own investigation and there is no surprise at what this mouthpiece of the 1% tells the public the problem is, "Half of the $69 million in new revenue BART raked in since 2010 has gone toward the rising cost of employee health care and pensions."  the paper writes.  As the war for the heart and soul of the public heats up, the bosses turn to their paid flunkies in academia to bolster their position.

"Something has to be done. If we keep kicking the can down the road, then our children will pay for it," Terry Moe, a professor of political science at Stanford, one of the most famous institution of capitalism tells the tribune.   Us and our children are being forced to pay the cost of bailing out the banks as well as the cost of the 1%'s predatory wars amounting to trillions of dollars.  The massive cuts in social services and public employment are a product of this wasteful spending of taxpayer funds as is the general offensive of all the gains workers have made since the 1930's. But Mr. Moe puts our BART workers in the firing line. 

Another academic, Sarah Anzia, is dragged out to add credibility to the argument that society can't afford to provide workers a decent life: "It seems like the large majority of the public is upset with the unions for being rigid" she says, "...compared to what I contribute to my retirement or health insurance this is nothing.". Ms. Anzia is a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley and it is quite clear which public she represents.  I'm not a professor and never even went to college but I couldn't use the words "health" and "insurance" in the same sentence without explaining how ludicrous it is that such a system exists.

So we can dismiss them for what they are, soldiers in ideological warfare which is part of the general plan to defeat yet another group of workers daring to fight back.  The goal to put the US working class on rations to pay for the crisis of capitalism must not be sidetracked.

Everything is the workers' fault.  BART wants to add new train cars that will "provide a cleaner and more reliable ride"  but that will only be possible if they "keep overall compensation the same over the next five years." The management wants to do that by having workers pay more for their health and pension benefits and, get this for generosity, treasure this idea so much, they're "willing to give small wage bumps so each employees net take-home pay would stay the same."  Try preventing the bosses' from making profit for 5 years and they'll kill you. Can't pay your rent? Lost your job? you're put on the street.

We should understand clearly what's at stake here. This is not just about BART. As I have said many times before, this assault on the public sector, our jobs and our social services, comes on the heels of a successful war on the section of the working class who were once the benchmark for a relatively secure, long-term job, the auto workers.  With the cooperation of the heads of the UAW, their wages have been cut in half and benefits savaged. Caterpillar recently closed a plant in London Ontario and moved it to Illinois where wages are 50% lower. That's what they're after here make no bones about it.

Barely 7% of the US working class is in Unions. It would be even less than that if the public sector, which is around 35% unionized, is taken out of the picture.  The public sector's wages, benefits, relatively decent pensions by most standards must go as they are a benchmark that can be used for all workers.  This war against labor has continued for decades so that we can have a 40 year Safeway worker earning $20 an hour in the state of California in 2013.

The BART board hired a union busting negotiator Thomas Hock at a cost of $300,000 according to reports. Hock works for a notorious anti-union private transportation company called Violea transportation. Veolia operates a local transportation company called MV transportation, one of its slogans is "We provide freedom". It is presently in the process of firing workers and weeding out warm bodies as bosses like to call workers in jobs as opposed to empty positions.  MV pays its drivers less than public transportation drivers at AC Transit or San Francisco's MUNI. Getting wages, benefits and conditions down to these private sector outfits is what this is all about. The workers at MV transportation are unionized but there is no attempt by the leaders of either union to bring these workers' wages and benefits up to those at BART and MUNI which is a shame because the bosses as we can see are certainly working on bringing BART and MUNI's down to MV's.

I explained in a previous commentary that it was a mistake to end the strike and enter in to mediation with representatives of the state picked by Jerry Brown, the Union busting California governor.  We can only rely on our own strength. Mediators immediately imposed a gag order which restricts the union from making its arguments in public or mobilizing the public in order to generalize a strike and make gains for BART workers and our communities.  Employers never obey the law so they are not restricted in the same way. The offensive in the papers today with two weeks left in the cooling off period is orchestrated and in coordination with Bay Area movers and shakers in the big business world. This is a small lesson in understand the fallacy behind freedom of the press.  It depends who owns the press and its not us.

It was also a mistake that AC Transit workers who operate the buses and are in the same Union as the train operators at BART did not strike with BART despite being legally able to do so. City of Oakland workers also could have struck and through a joint strike and united campaign could have linked with the communities they serve to force BART to not only back down but make other concessions.

It's not too late to turn the tide. The ILWU local 10 passed a resolution calling for a labor solidarity rally with BART workers on August 1st that I believe the San Francisco Labor Council endorsed. The resolved reads:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Local 10 supports ATU Local 1555's call for a labor solidarity rally on Thursday August 1 at Oakland City Hall across the street from PMA. This time BART workers will not stand alone. We will march under the ILWU banner “An injury to one is an injury to all” to BART headquarters and then to the Oakland Port Commission, protesting these anti-worker attacks, 

FURTHERMORE, we will join with the BART workers unions ATU Local 1555, SEIU Local 1021, AFSCME Local 3993 and ATU Local 192 seek the support of all transport unions and those affected by austerity cuts as well as the Alameda, San Francisco and South Bay Labor Councils in a show of solidarity in the BART workers fight for a decent contract. A victory for the BART workers is a victory for all of labor!

This is a positive step but I think any activist who has been around for any time at all recognizes that the bosses are not moved by rallies and protests; more has to be done.   The full weight of the Bay Area trade Union movement has to be brought to bear if we don't want to another setback. In order for this rally to be successful it must be attended not merely by the faithful and the layers of staff and Union officials but an attempt must be made to reach in to the depths of the labor movement to reach the ranks.   The resources that the labor movement has, money, full-time staff, meeting places, printing facilities can be used to organize meetings in the workplace, outside of work, at the union halls and explain how we can start down the road toward the end of austerity and union busting right here. But a campaign can't be built around solidarity in the abstract. It has to be concrete.

We cannot win without the communities in which we live and that we serve.  The problem is that a strike is disruptive and that is what the bosses are playing on through their papers and mass media.  Also, as public sector workers, our wages, benefits and  conditions tend to be somewhat better than the private.  Too often I have been on picket lines handing out official union fliers asking the public not to cross or shop at the facility because the employer is eliminating benefits. "What are benefits?" so many workers will say, "I don't have any benefits and where has a Union been for me?".  We have to have an answer for this other than it's the right thing to do not cross a picket line. I was discussing with a young worker the other day who was complaining about the benefits BART and the dockworkers get and how they earn so much more than him. 

"Wouldn't you like to have those wages and benefits?" I asked him

"Well, yeah...er"   Enough said.

We had a good discussion after that as to where the money comes from and it's not our children as the bourgeois academic says.  There are plenty of billionaires in this country for one thing.

We counter the bosses' anti-union anti-worker propaganda by making every labor dispute a social issue.  Every labor struggle is left to fight bosses alone despite us belonging to national organizations.  We are told by labor officials how powerful the boss is and that we can't break the law or our contracts although the bosses do that as soon as the ink is dry.  If we want the public on our side and expect them to endure the losses they incur in a strike we have to offer them something.

We must use the power of organized labor to demand what we need not what bosses, their politicians and their academic allies say is realistic. More jobs through a shorter workweek is a start.  We must demand increased bus routes free transportation for seniors. We must demand a $20 an hour minimum wage. How can anyone earning over that deny it someone else? We must stop the privatization of public services and property and transform education from a business to the social need that it is under control of those who use it rather than functionaries of the 1%. We must make organizing the unnorganized a priority and we won't be successful at that without fighting for them and that means standing for something, not sending an e mail to a Democratic Congressperson. We reject that there is no money as opposed to where capital is allocated. We demand a massive injection of capital in to social infrastructure.

Labor must be a champion of social causes and in the fight to end racism and sexism. It is shameful to to put it mildly that the heads of our movement did not call a press conference and unequivocally condemn the Zimmerman verdict. Oscar Grant was also a worker killed by the police, shot in the back. These issues, just like the trillions spent on the corporations wars abroad are Labor issues. 

Bay Area Labor has an opportunity now to change the balance of forces in US society in favor of workers and the middle class. We cannot allow their media to gag us.  It must be made clear that this is a war of our own against austerity and the stripping of all the gains workers have made over the last decades. Unions weren't built by obeying the law and they won't be saved by obeying it either.  

A dominant factor holding back this approach on the part of the heads of organized Labor is  their support for the Team Concept. This is the view that bosses and workers have the same economic interests. They are restrained by their own consciousness form organizing a generalized offensive against a force they consider a team mate and against a system, capitalism, that they consider the end of civilization.  They apply the Team Concept on the job with the employers and in the political arena through their support for the Democratic Party, one of the two Wall Street parties. We also cannot build worker solidarity with accepting this world view 

It is obvious form the amount of press the BART workers got prior to their 4 day strike and the intensifying propaganda against them in the media that will continue over the next weeks that the bosses recognize the potential power of this section of the working class, that's why they are so determined to bring them down a peg.  The bosses are also aware of the resolution passed by the ILWU and are always hoping that the officials will be sure to keep things under control and within the bounds of nicety; but they know history and are also aware of the anger that exists under the surface of US society and in this case among the workers in transportation; anger that might not be contained.

Lets not let another opportunity pass us by.

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Union hierarchy: silent on Snowden, silent on Manning, won't lead a fight for their own members.

by Sean O'Torrain

The union leaders discussed in the various links on this list  and the left forces who are supportive of them will not change the class balance of forces in this country. They will not halt and throw back the capitalist offensive and open up a new workers offensive similar to what happened in 1934.

Take one event and think about it. It does not even involve directly the even greater issue of wages and conditions and jobs.  I am talking about the revelations by Snowden. What has the union leadership at the highest levels said about this?  I know of nothing. This is one of the greatest scandals and attacks on the working class. Yet these cowardly pro capitalist elements say nothing. Incredible. The union leaders like Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO stand in a supporting role beside the drone man Obama. Their  role is one of  betrayal. They take no action never mind say anything while Snowden is stranded in Moscow airport,  Assange is stranded in an embassy in London, and Manning is being tortured in solitary confinement in an American jail. What a bunch.

Not only that, the massive spying on the US people and all people, is part of the capitalist offensive where every US city and state has recently been arming its cops and state forces with full body armor. Remember the scenes at the Occupy events. The war against women is being carried out viciously. Racism is being used to further confuse the working class and keep down minorities, see the Zimmerman trial and the repression in the minority areas. Public education is under attack, wages jobs and conditions are under assault. All that has been won in the 1930's and 1960's is to be taken back if capitalism has its way. And not only do the union leadership refuse to fight on these issues but they also refuse to stand up for Snowden, Assange and Manning. The degree of this betrayal and what it is part of has to be pointed out. It is nauseating to see the bumpkin Trumka standing beside Obama to support him and his policies. Meanwhile the rich and the corporations are making profits never before seen.

The union leaders and their left supporters will not change the situation in this country.  It will be changed by explosive events in the streets and workplaces. This will take the form initially of united front type movements such as the Occupy movements, the Direct Action Network, the movements in support of strikes such as at Decatur and the Chicago Teachers. But change will not come through protest movements. The movements that will stop the capitalist offensive will have to take the form of mass direct action both in the form of general strikes and occupying the workplaces and refusing to leave them and taking over the streets and refusing to clear them and taking over the homes under threat and refusing to vacate them. Walking up and down with picket signs will not do it.

Mass direct action to stop what is going on, no more business as usual, this is what has to be carried out.  The task of the left activist and left forces is to encourage and develop these type of united front struggles but on a mass direct action united front bsis, taking on and stopping the capitalist offensive not making concessions to it as all wings of the labor leadership are doing, both in the industrial and political arena, both with the team concept and support for the Democrats.  

At the same time the left has to help build within this movement a revolutionary socialist current which works to end capitalism and replace it with a democratic socialist society. This means that left commentators and activists must speak out openly and directly on the role of the union leaders and assist workers in their struggle against their policies as any union member or genuine fighting rank and file opposition force within organized labor that is serious about fighting the bosses will come in to conflict with the union bureaucracy; this cannot be avoided. The left must, in order to clear the slate and learn from the pas, talso discuss their own role in which on many occasions they have covered for the role of these union leaders or their left liberal wing instead of standing up for the workers against the betrayal of these union leaders. 

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Chip Johnson attacks City of Oakland workers on behalf of the 1%

Oakland city workers downtown yesterday

by Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

Chip Johnson writes a twice-weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle and in this morning’s paper makes the case for the 1% in the dispute between the City of Oakland and its workers, members of SEIU Local 1021.

“Oakland Can’t Afford Raise Workers Want” Johnson’s headline announces. And what’s worse, asking for the city to pay for health and pension costs is pure “folly”.  Johnson makes the case for the 1% under the cloak of defending ordinary folk, “It’s not fair to ask citizens, including some who’ve lost as much or more than city workers to foot the bill”  Johnson writes. Despite not having a raise in almost 6 years, the Union is being unrealistic if not downright greedy because the workers don’t really understand how the “..economic crisis has affected the taxpayers who have to foot the bill.”, Johnson writes.

Johnson goes on to thrash Oakland’s Mayor who set the police on the Occupy Oakland  as weak and city government as, “..the weakest kneed municipal government in the Bay Area.”

Johnson’s ideological offensive against city workers will get an echo as it is true many other workers are worse off than city workers and have nowhere near the same benefits and many people have suffered great depravation due to the capitalist crisis and the bailout of the bankers and other coupon clippers by the US taxpayer.

It will get more of an echo than it need to because the labor officialdom directing this dispute does not have a real counter to Johnson’s phony defense of the citizens of Oakland.  In a dispute like this, the Union leadership should make it absolutely clear that the citizens of Oakland should not be made to pay for city worker's raises and benefits.  No taxes of workers or the middle class should be the slogan---“Make the rich pay.” The citizens of Oakland cannot afford these wars, cannot afford the billions spent spying on us, cannot afford to pay for the yachts that the coupon clippers like to float around in. This is what Johnson should be saying.

Not only that, there should be more city jobs and increased hiring.  A shorter workweek with no loss in pay is one way of getting that ball rolling.  As for public sector pensions, it should be made clear in disputes like these that the Union demands all workers receive these pensions.  As for health insurance, it is an insane situation to have to pay a middleman, an insurance company, a fee so that you can receive medical attention.  A national health system extended to all is crucial to improve a failed and hugely expensive (about 18% of GDP) US health system dominated by corporations and the coupon clippers that run them. Most bankruptcy for workers and mom and pops are caused by medical bills.

When I ran for Oakland City Council in 1996 it was made clear to me that the decisions that affect the workers and residents of this city are made behind the scenes by investors and moneymen and they are based on such issues as Pacific Rim trade and global economics.

Oakland city workers, no more than any other city, cannot defeat what amounts to the 1% and global capitalism alone. And this war cannot be won without countering the propagandists of the 1% like Chip Johnson.

We know there is plenty of money in society and we make it clear that we reject the idea that one section of the working class must pay to keep food in the mouths of others or a roof over their head. There are coupon clippers that earn $5 billion a year on investments; there is trillions being spent on predatory wars abroad making the world safe for capitalism and to keep labor cheap and cowed.  The four WalMart heirs have more wealth than almost 50 million Americans. This is where the money is, in the pockets and banks of people who do no productive work but live off the work of others who do.

Lastly, when Johnson attacks Oakland City Workers for their pay and benefits he is attacking all of us because it’s part of the 1%’s strategy to bring us all down to the lowest level. 

Yesterday’s strike was really just a protest organized by the Union leadership to let off a little steam.  They recognize that their members are angry and looking to fight back but one day strikes are not sufficient.

SEIU’s rank and file have to counter their leadership’s limited approach and ensure that the public is won to their side by making it clear they are fighting for the public not just themselves and do not expect other workers to foot the bill. In this way the community can be drawn in to the struggle and our collective strength increased.  Most importantly we must reject the propaganda that there is no money in society. There's plenty of money; how its allocated is the issue.

No to austerity

Jobs for all

For a $20 an hour minimum wage

Health care for all

End all wars and occupations

Organize the unorganized.

No taxes on workers or the middle class

Make the rich pay.

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Bay Area News: anti-worker, anti-union

The power to do this can be put to good use

by Richard Mellor

Afscme local 444, retired

Some 30 years ago here in the US there was a strike of air traffic controllers. These folks had very important jobs, they made sure two planes didn’t collide in mid air.  Still, the thug Ronald Reagan fired them and, with his power as president of the US, barred them from ever working in their profession again.

The heads of the US trade union movement did practically nothing other than organizing a few rallies here and there and this gave the bosses the green light in their offensive against US workers which increased intensity throughout the eighties. Their offensive was victorious primarily because the heads of organized Labor refused to lead a fightback.  Two incidents from that period stayed in my mind. One was when an air traffic controller described her job to me, “Have you ever played Pacman” she asked me.  “of course, I love the game” I responded, (this was the eighties after all)  “Well, when two blips collide on my screen I lose 500 people” she said.

That strike was as much about working conditions as it was about money, even more so which is normally the case.  But I remember watching the news one night and a reporter was interviewing a passenger at an airport in the Midwest and he asked the traveler whose flight was delayed due to the strike, “What must it be like to be held hostage by the air traffic controllers?”

Well no bias in that question is there?

On my local news tonight the first issue raised was a poll that the station did.  This station is owned by Rupert Murdoch and, would you believe it, their poll found that 238 members of the public, said that the transit strike was the “workers fault”.  Whether it was 238 more than who didn’t find it was the worker’s fault or that it was 238 that did and maybe 212 that didn’t, wasn’t made clear. What was clear was that the workers were  “guilty”and that the public had, “little sympathywhile the economy is recovering.”, surely, that’s all the man or woman in the street needs to know. The newscasters did qualify it by saying that the poll was not “scientific.”,

The news report went on to make it clear that, “ A lot of people out of work would love a job like BART.”  This is the most important role for the unemployed, a force to keep those of us working quiet for fear of finding ourselves among their ranks.

This Bay Area transit strike is getting a massive amount of air-time as I have mentioned before.  This is a section of the working class that has considerable economic power in the Bay Area due to the particular spot they hold in our society’s production and distribution of things. This is something the bosses want to stop and the one percent’s media made certain that it was brought to the public’s attention that in other cities such as Boston NYC and L.A, strikes of transit workers are illegal. We can be sure that the 1% will have their politicians introduce legislation to prevent Bay Area transit form striking in the future. The 1% and their political representatives that run society have a long- term plan as opposed to the trade Union leadership whose strategy in response to the their offensive is to offer concession after concession in the hope that this horror scene goes away.

Terrified that their own members might go a little too far and threaten the relationship they have built with the bosses based on labor peace, the union leadership from the heads of the AFL-CIO on down are desperate to end all this and are appealing to the union busting governor of California Jerry Brown to intervene and end the strike by imposing a 60 day cooling off period. It’s hard to say what the response to this might be but it is quite possible the 1% might allow enough anti-Union sentiment to develop among the public before the state intervenes.

One of the anchors on tonight’s news introduced another important piece of information for the masses to absorb, the “rising power of unions.” Don’t laugh; this is what they said.  This is their mass media passing on some important information that the power of workers’ organizations is on the rise.  The problem is that no one who knows the slightest thing about the labor movement in the US and has an objective viewpoint holds that position; the rank and file of organized labor certainly don’t accept it nor do all the academic labor “experts.”.  

“The Unions have a lot of power” said a former transit board member tonight, but he adds, “Riders have a lot of votes.”, in an attempt to scare the BART workers in to submission.

This strike is a major inconvenience to other workers.  Those of us that are passionate supporters of the strikers understand this.  The bosses and their media will focus on this inconvenience portraying themselves as those concerned about the welfare of the public.  But it is not this inconvenience that matters to them. The problem for them is that business activity is inconvenienced.  That profit taking is inconvenienced, that “their”  income is affected. It’s pretty inconvenient when you don’t have enough money to buy food or get a doctor for your child but that’s acceptable.  You won’t see quite the same coverage for that issue on TV.

All wage earners should support the BART workers, it’s in our own self interest to do so.

But not everything is right about how this is playing out.  BART workers and AC Transit workers should be meeting together in joint mass membership meetings. In fact this should have been going on for months.  I spoke to many rank and file workers at the occupation of 14th and Broadway in Oakland today and a huge number of them really had no idea what all the issues were.  The AC transit should strike with BART as should the City of Oakland workers.  Together they can force the 1% and their political flunkies to back down and actually win gains.

But such an approach can only win if the communities these workers serve and the wider working class are brought in to the battle.  I won’t repeat what I have already said with regards to this as the reader can check it out here and here.   But if any group of workers wants the public on their side we have to offer the public something. We have to show the public we are fighting for their issues as well and want to join with the activists and the communities to win them.

The fact is that the 1% is serious about putting us on rations. The autoworkers have been tamed by the 1% with the cooperation of the UAW leadership.  The public sector is now vilified in the mass media and blamed for the crisis of capitalism after public funds dragged their rotten system from the edge of the abyss.  Their plan for us has no forward motion.  We have what we do due to the struggles and sacrifices of others.  We owe it to our youth not to passively give up what was won for us through past battles, in fact it is our duty to defend those social gains and expand on them.

It is our duty to defend our brothers and sisters who are on strike and to help improve the material conditions and social rights of all workers.

One aspect of that is to recognize that the mass media is not objective but a conscious propaganda machine of the 1%

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