Revolutionary Transit Worker No. 43 -- Supplement
Supported by the League for the Revolutionary Party
August 27, 2008
Defeat the Bosses’ RDO Attack!
This August rumors spread through Track Division that management intended to eliminate all weekend regular days off (RDOs) in Track Maintenance day shift. The purpose would be to get most of the work done on weekends, when GO’s abound. Management figures to work us every weekend on the track from early morning to late afternoon without interfering with rush hour or having to pay us overtime. Never mind that workers won’t get to see their families! Field Supervisors and managers later verified these rumors. The elimination of day shift in Track Maintenance is a major attack on transit workers’ work conditions, seniority and Pick rights. It follows by more than 12 years the elimination of weekend RDOs in Track Capital Construction (CD). It’s far from the only such attack. Trackworkers in T2 Night Maintenance may face. Management plans the same for Power Distribution (PD) workers and is also demanding that the coming Signal Division Pick feature 80% of jobs on night shift, a huge change.
Fightback in Track Division
In the face of these attacks, Trackworkers, Specialist and Equipment Maintainers reacted with outrage and demands for their leaders to organize a fight-back. In contrast, Local 100 President Roger Toussaint and his lackey, Maintenance of Way Vice-President Charles Ayala, remained silent.
The anti-Toussaint majority of the elected Track Division Executive Committee, however, felt the rage of the ranks (and are personally subject to the RDO changes themselves). Most of the Division’s union officer majority, including Chair Carlos Albert and Recording Secretary Jack Blazejewicz are associates of former Division Chair John Samuelsen. They had been relatively inactive since Toussaint bureaucratically removed them from their union duties and appointed his flunkies in their place. But they are now taking necessary action to fight the bosses. Good! RTW has been talking about the need to fight these types of attacks for years. The rank’s desire to fight back and the obvious need to do so has forced the Track Division Committee majority to unite in struggle against the bosses. As RTW’s supporter on the committee, I’ll make every effort keep this unity against the bosses going.
The Committee has taken some important steps forward. Building the August 27 union Track Division meeting to plan a fight-back was one. Urging workers from other Divisions, especially Signal and PD to attend was another (we all have the right to attend each others’ Division meetings.) The Track Committee has placed MoW bigwigs on notice with a letter that stated that if they insist on trying to change our RDO’s, they “will be met with every ounce of resistance which Track Division can muster, both contractually and otherwise. TWU Local 100 Track Division has defended itself against these types of anti-worker, anti-family attacks before and we will not hesitate to do so again.” (Letter from Track Division Executive Committee to David Knights, Chief Officer, Track and Infrastructure, August 22, 2008).
Next Steps
The unity shown so far must continue and grow. But it must be unity in big, militant, workers’ mobilizations. Workers in the field must consistently show management that they cannot get productivity increases by messing up people’s lives. The ranks need leadership and organization. There are challenges to overcome – especially since Track, Power Distribution and Signal jobs are in scattered locations. Those who put themselves forward as leaders will have to keep raising up the ranks all about the system, and not blame the ranks themselves for any shortcomings.
There are further steps we need to take. RTW urges Local 100 members to pass and act on motions to:
1. Continue and Expand Job-Site Safety Inspections! Frequent, rigorous safety enforcement by large numbers of workers will show the bosses that their productivity drive is inherently unsafe and will not increase production.
2. For an Emergency Joint MoW Meeting! All MoW workers face attacks on their work schedules and rights. Every effort must be made to unite the broadest possible number of workers in a coordinated fight against management’s imposition of Shift and RDO changes. That should include an Emergency Joint MoW Meeting so that Track, Power Distribution and Signal workers and discuss and vote on the way forward. The more that workers from many Divisions fight back together, the quicker and harder we shove the bosses back.
3. Organize a Protest at MTA Headquarters! Meetings and actions shutting down unsafe work are essential to beating back the bosses’ attacks on RDOs. But we’ve got to mobilize in force so that not just MoW workers, but other Local 100 members can join the struggle too. A strong protest at MTA Headquarters would do just that and could be key to defeating the bosses’ attack. By not just calling for an end to the attacks on RDOs, but by also demanding a No Givebacks Contract with Above Inflation Wage Raises and No Fare Hikes or Service Cuts, such a protest could make the bosses fear that if they don’t back down now, they’ll face a more determined contract struggle by Local 100. We should invite other Divisions to endorse and build the rally and invite all members to participate. And we should call for the Executive Board and President to endorse, build and attend the rally.
The last demand is important. We need to put the full force of the union behind this fight. The bosses are attacking several Divisions at once. When the contract round picks up, they’ll look to hit us all together. The union’s resources are in the hands of President Toussaint, the bosses’ avowed “partner.” In other words, the person who’s supposed to be our leader has all but openly joined the other side. The fight against the bosses is a fight against our own top leader. But he controls the union’s resources, which we need. We’ll have to pressure him while we must, and throw him out when we can. Our unorganized pressure forced him to call the strike against his will in 2005. We’ll be able to push him further with greater organization this time around.
Union officers allied with Toussaint are at best, useless. MoW VP Ayala finally responded to requests for help from the Track Committee as follows: “... please forward me any documents or minutes of all discussions/meetings you or the Track Committee has had regarding RDO changes/recent picks in the Track Department. ...” Rather than showing solidarity, VP Ayala apparently is trying to trace leaks. Demand that he join the fight against RDO changes!
The developing struggle will test RTW and other alternate leaderships. We’ll see whether the bulk of the Track Committee majority, their co-thinkers in Signal and Power Distribution and their de facto leader John Samuelsen, continue to travel the road of united, militant action – or take their favored detour of passively preparing for future union elections in the hope that the disgruntled ranks will vote them into Local-wide office.
Also in this Supplement: Resolve the Dues Crisis!
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