To punish us for our 2005 strike, the capitalist government has taken Local 100’s dues check-off away. In the face of this attack and in spite of our justified disgust with the union leadership, all Local 100 members must pay dues. Our union is a precious defense against the bosses’ attacks, in spite of its sellout leadership. Paid-up members in good standing will be better able to get rid of sell-out bureaucrats like Toussaint and put in a leadership which fights the bosses.
RTW opposes dues check-off where the bosses automatically deduct our dues and send them to the union. Unions are supposed to defend the workers against the bosses: the bosses’ hands should be kept off the union’s money. And automatic collection gives the union leadership too much independence from the ranks. As we will explain, we want union officials to collect dues directly from the members so the ranks are better able to hold them to account.
But RTWalso opposes the Taylor Law elimination of dues check-off, which aims to cripple the union by taking away its funds. When Judge Jones, a Democrat, fined us, jailed Toussaint and took away check-off, RTW said to fight this attack – all Transit workers into the streets!
But Toussaint, of course, didn’t fight these attacks aside from making for-show objections in court. After the ranks had forced him to strike the previous year, he wanted to prove to the bosses that he was still their obedient servant. And so the bosses’ government took away dues check-off, indefinitely. To get it back, by law, the union must say that we were wrong to strike. Never! We were right to strike, and we’ll have to do it again some day – and next time strike to win.
Of course, the capitalist Democratic Party politicians may make a deal to restore check-off after a while (they did so 90 days after the 1980 strike). The politicians value the role of unions – in having union bureaucrats prevent struggles, sell-out workers and cough-up big cash donations to fund political campaigns.
Toussaint, however, says we should permanently abolish check- off and have the union directly collect dues. His hirelings in the union hall have established several ways for members to pay: mail a check or money order, bring a check to the hall, set up an internet account linking your bank account to the union treasury, etc. Conspicuously missing is in-person dues collection by union officers – the way that unions collected dues for over a hundred years prior to check-off.
Unions have always had problems with boss-loving leaders. But when the leaders had to show up in person to collect dues, the members had a little more chance to pressure them to fight the bosses. The leadership couldn’t take the ranks’ support for granted. The union bureaucrats got check-off precisely to make themselves less answerable to the ranks.
Toussaint’s new collection system heavily pressures members to pay automatically – again! – from our bank accounts. When members ask Local 100 hacks why there’s no in-person collection option, the hacks say that they can’t spare the union personnel who are supposedly defending the workers 24/7; it’s dangerous to carry a lot of money around; and how can you tell whom to trust? Not them, we guess.
They’re making excuses. Back in the day, union officer in- person dues collection had the same problems, but they did it. And surely there are enough drones hanging around the union hall to do the work: let them get up out of Toussaint’s lap and into the field where they can actually face the members!
That’s what should happen. But the ranks aren’t yet mobilized enough to force Toussaint and his hacks to collect dues in person. We should at least pay our dues in regular, deliberate ways: whether we pay by clicking an electronic funds transfer from our bank accounts each month, by mailing a check or money order or by marching into the union hall and handing the dues directly to union personnel. Let the union leaders know that we’re on top of them! They have to work at fighting the bosses. Send the message that those who don’t won’t be living much longer off our hard-earned dues! We support our union – it is not their union – and we definitely want to know: what have you done for us lately?