Revolutionary Transit Worker No. 44 -- Supplement

Supported by the League for the Revolutionary Party

January 9, 2009

No To Arbitration!
TWU: Mobilize for Contract Fight,
Against Fare Hikes And Service Cuts!

Ten days before expiration, Toussaint and his MTA “partners” sent our contract to arbitration. Toussaint didn't bother asking for permission from the Executive Board, let alone the membership. Many Transit workers recognize that arbitration works against us, whether or not they think we can fight it. Revolutionary Transit Worker believes that we can and must reject arbitration, though it won’t be easy.

Toussaint's explanation for going to arbitration is,”While we were able to narrow the issues considerably, we have not been able to finalize a settlement.... Obviously, the worsening of the economy has not helped.” Another explanation for this new sell-out could be that Toussaint wants to eliminate any risk of a fight-back or of the members voting down another contract. Extended negotiations during this deep and worsening economic crisis could aggravate TWU Local 100 members into demanding that the union take militant action, and/or rising up on their own. With arbitration, Toussaint and the MTA can both claim that contract resolution is out of their hands.

TWU Local 100 has the social weight to fight for a first class contract and lead a fight-back of the whole regional working class. The reigning union bureaucrats, however, will use any means, including arbitration, to keep us passive, divided and demoralized. They don’t have to succeed. TWU members have a chance to start rallying with other area workers as well as for our own demands.

Workers and oppressed people here and internationally face increasing attacks on their living standards: cutbacks, givebacks, layoffs, wage cuts, plant closures, etc. Even the fairly well-organized New York City workers face transit service cuts and fare hikes. State workers face threats of a wage freeze and a new pension tier which costs more for less. The MTA makes credible threats to lay off many employees.

There will be a public hearing on transit fare hikes and service cuts on Wednesday evening, January 14. (See directions on registering, etc. on this webpage below) These cuts hit the poorest workers hardest. Many of them are Black, Latino or immigrant. That makes the cuts racist and chauvinist. Workers and others who want to fight the MTA’s attacks on the working class should demonstrate and then go in to speak from the floor.

Supporters of Revolutionary Transit Worker/League for the Revolutionary Party will emphasize the MTA’s class war against workers: their cutbacks rob the workers to pay the MTA’s debt to banks -- many of which get billions in federal giveaways of the workers’ tax money. We will explain that arbitrators are officials of the capitalist government. When they impose contracts on the workers, it’s in the bosses’ interest, even if the decisions look “even-handed,” like our current lousy contract. We will explain that workers must rely on our own power against the capitalists and their government. Transit strikes show the power of the working class and point to the needed response to attacks on all workers -- the general strike, which raises the possibility of socialist revolution.

TWU Local 100 “Mass Meeting”

On Dec. 13 Toussaint held a local-wide meeting. Most workers came to hear about the contract. They were sorely disappointed. Toussaint bragged about how the local helped “labor’s friends,” the Democrats, gain control of all levels of NY State government. Invited speaker Malcolm Smith, NY State Senate Democratic leader, told us we would now be “understood” in Albany. Our union leaders never asked him (a boss of ours, as the MTA is a New York State Authority) to get us a first class contract instead of just “understanding.” Of course, his boss, Governor Patterson, is enthusiastically cutting back on workers, as another speaker, TWU International President Little, uneasily acknowledged.

The union leaders don’t discuss these delicate issues because they share the Democrats’ pro-capitalist concern for the MTA’s “bottom line.” The MTA is paying tens of billions of tax-free dollars to banks and corporations which hold MTA bonds, while workers sacrifice. (For more on the need to organize against any pro-capitalist leadership, including the Democrats, see the full issue of RTW 44.)

Toussaint and Local 100 Secretary-Treasurer Ed Watt said nothing against the MTA, which sucks the blood of all workers. Toussaint & Co have made nice for years with their MTA “partners.” But they screamed and raged against workers who did not pay all their dues. Watt sits on the MTA Board, saying almost nothing while they announce plans to lay us off. But he loudly denounces workers who are not paid up in full. This avowed “partner” of the MTA bosses had the gall to call (unnamed) advocates of conditional dues amnesty plans “collaborators!”

That slander was aimed at RTW. We have always stood for full dues payment, but we recognize that scolding and bullying those who are behind is not a solution. Building the fight for a good contract requires finding ways to unite the local. So we proposed a conditional payment plan, in which all who commit to pay a significant portion of their back dues regain good standing, instead of making many members pay close to a thousand dollars before they can participate in the union.

The highlight of the meeting, at least for Toussaint and Co., was a long, drawn-out award ceremony. Dozens of workers and union officers got medals for spectacular dues payment. Then Toussaint ranted long against people who don’t pay all their dues. The audience grew restive, and some started chanting, “Contract, Contract!” This upset the thin-skinned Toussaint so much that he threatened to have the chanters thrown out. But he cut his rant short and reported sketchily on the contract. He said with no elaboration that negotiations were going well, and that major issues were resolved. He said 4% a year was the “ballpark” wage demand and they were trying to modify the 1.5% healthcare payment.

The article on the Javits Center meeting in the December issue of Local 100 Express, however, has no such details. The entire “Highlight” on the contract reads, “A report by President Toussaint on the challenge of winning a contract in the midst of the gravest economic downturn since the Great Depression.” Now he and the MTA throw our contract to an arbitrator, figuring to deprive us of any leverage over the bosses – and absolve Toussaint & Co of any responsibility for a sellout.

A Socialist Answer

RTW has always said that the only way to stop the attacks on our living standards for good is the socialist revolution: the workers and oppressed rising up together to take the direction of society into their hands in their interests. Struggles for a good contract and in defense of our living standards can show workers our collective power and provide opportunities for socialists to show in practice the necessity for the working-class overthrow of capitalism -- socialist revolution, the only road to a communist society of prosperity, peace and equality for all. Through common struggle, the most class-conscious workers and others will come to join in building the revolutionary party of the working class which can lead the revolution.

RTW seeks unity in action with all who seek to fight the bosses. We’ve joined protests with the Local 100 opposition group Take Back Our Union (TBOU) and will again. But TBOU is a loose grouping of, mostly, out-of-office union bureaucrats with little in common except opposition to Toussaint. TBOU refuses even to mention the word strike. Toussaint & Co betrayed the 2005 strike and have so divided and demoralized many of us that striking seems like a sick joke. But conscious, collective action, including withholding labor, is the only basis for the union to fight the bosses increasing attacks. Transit workers striking for their own demands and against fare hikes and service cuts could inspire the whole working class, which seethes at the bailout of Wall St. while workers and poor lose jobs.

Avoiding the word “strike” is to lie to transit workers about what it will take to “take back” this union, much less to address the oppression and exploitation of this society. TBOU is trying to oust Toussaint -- and get many of its members back into union office -- without ever putting forward a program of class struggle in contrast to his class collaboration.

As always, supporters of RTW stand ready to fight the bosses side by side with those we criticize, to test our different approaches in struggle. We hope to hear from other workers how they think we can take the fight forward against the bosses: not just our bosses, but all of them.

Organize for MTA Public Hearing

January 14, 6pm

Hilton Trianon Ballroom

1335 Ave of Americas, between 53 & 54 St.

Call to pre-register to speak– (212) 878-7483.

Also in this Supplement: RTW Program For a Contract Fight

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