Tuesday, December 20, 2005
MTA on Strike
Early this morning, 33,700 some-odd MTA workers went on strike. There is now no subway or public bus service in New York City. I want to wish these workers good luck, and I hope the MTA comes to the bargaining table soon. The governmet's attack on the right to strike is reprehensible and needs to be fought, but I'm hoping we aren't about to see another PATCO. I kind of doubt it. Pataki may be a lame duck, but acting to break the union would decisively destroy both his and Bloomberg's political careers. And these workers are not alone.
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Looks like we are getting another P-9 the international is pulling support away from the local democratically elected leadership.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/002217.php
http://wcbstv.com/business/local_story_354094519.html
http://www.twu.org/
Except that we are talking about an extraordinarily large local here - and thirty times the number of workers who struck Hormel, and I don't really see the TWU pulling something like what the UFCW did - more likely that Toussaint would just dissafiliate, particularly since they aren't getting access to any international strike fund or any aid from the international. Much more worrisome is how far the city and state are willing to go to avoid negotiating.
ReplyDeleteIt is more likely the international will put the local in trusteeship than the local would disaffiliate. The law favors the international. The International is positioning itself to do just that. This is part of the reason why the MTA, the city and state are able to avoid negotiating. The international gets a reason to get rid of a problematic democratic union which is a threat to the international's leadership and MTA gets a non-militant union to be in partnership with. Breaking solidarity is exactly what the MTA wants and the international is playing into their hands. The scary thing is the international knows this and is doing it willingly.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right. I don't know enough about how trusteeships work and what options a local that doesn't want to be put in trusteeship might have. But however demonizing the rhetoric of Bloomberg and Pataki is, the local does have a lot of support in the NYC labor movement, and comprises over a third of the International's membership.
ReplyDeleteAgreed that what the International is doing seems, at least to this outside observer, pretty reprehensible. Except in the case of hate strikes or similar actions aimed at securing the welfare of a small exclusionary, elite group of workers against that of a larger and less secure group of less privileged workers, it's indefensible for an International Union, whose officers are paid with member dues, to attempt to break a strike approved by membership vote. O'Brien is making a laughingstock out of the TWU.