The contract was voted in by the members, with 93% of votes cast. See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444375104577592001090133694.html
That said, I think this is a very well-written piece, with important facts that never made the main-stream media, and a well-expressed, coherent point of view.
Now, without further ado, here is an article by Ben Fredericks, who describes himself as "a food service worker, CUNY student, and socialist" :) -Ed.]
Con Edison Bosses Lock-out workers: a Capitalist Attack on the Entire Labor Movement
Urgent need for all-out labor mobilization to stop the scabs and “knock-out the lock-out”!
On July 1st, Con Edison, New York’s monopoly utility provider, took aim at its 8,500 person unionized workforce. The day after the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) contract expired, and in the middle of a heat wave, Con Ed locked out the workers. So far negotiations have gone nowhere as the company has given one concessionary “offer” after another, all of which would attack newly hired workers’ pensions and or healthcare, and could ultimately divide the union into two tiers of workers. The workers are 100% correct to reject these attacks. They are now into their third week without pay and need the immediate support of all New York Labor and allies.
Building Solidarity
Over 50 people packed into an SEIU conference room on July 13th to attend a meeting called by the Central Labor Council to build a ‘Solidarity Coalition with Con Ed Workers’. The meeting attracted workers from over a dozen unions including the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and Communication Workers of America (CWA), both of which are working without contracts, as well as non-union workers, community organizations and socialists. Many important ideas were raised about how to help the Con Ed workers, and how to conduct effective labor struggles generally. A sister from the CWA mentioned the importance that ‘mobile pickets’ had during the Verizon strike last year. People spoke about organizing a tour of locked out workers, bringing them face-to-face with the membership of other union locals to build solidarity. The connection was made that the Con Ed lockout is racist since the non-white Con Ed workers have less overall seniority and would be the ones hit hardest by a two-tier contract. It was also noted that Con Ed has specifically decreased power to poor and minority neighborhoods during the heat wave. Importantly, many people in the meeting seemed to agree on the need to build militant picket lines, broaden union support and stop the scabs from working.
Class conscious workers, youth and all allies should join the solidarity coalition and invite Con Ed workers to speak in their union hall, school, community center, or even the local church, synagogue, mosque or temple. Thousands more people must be drawn into the struggle to prevent UWUA workers from being isolated.
Picket Lines mean “don’t cross!"
A small example of Labor’s power was demonstrated at the Con Ed substation in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where management was trying to replace an electrical transformer and the UWUA had been calling for emergency picketing to stop the installment. On July 16th Con Ed tried to get a large metal street-pole removed (to make room for the transformer) by using workers from UWUA local 3, a small local based out of Staten Island that is not locked out. When angry workers confronted the local 3 members and made them aware that they were crossing local 1-2’s picket line, the local 3 workers made a quick call to their union, got back in their trucks a drove off! Con Ed managers looked troubled while Local 1-2 members applauded loudly and chanted “local 3! Local 3!” to show their appreciation and respect. It is essential that no unionists touch any Con Ed work, period.
While the above example was a small vicotory for local 1-2, the basic principle of union workers respecting picket lines will not be enough to win this struggle. The street-pole was eventually taken down by managers and contractors, and the transformer, guarded by police escort, was moved into the sub-station using non-union workers from New Jersey.
Build the independent power of the New York working class
Con Edison has been planning for this struggle for months. In addition to the 5,000 managers who are working 12 hour shifts 6 days a week, retired personnel has been rehired, and an unknown number of “private contractors” (scabs) have been brought in from states like Virginia, Florida and Tennessee where unions are weak. Despite some disruptions, and the perhaps considerable expense of paying less efficient scabs and managers to do the workers' jobs, Con Ed is still functioning. The idea that workers can just “wait it out” is at best optimistic. There is also the idea that by calling on the city government to intervene, workers can somehow get a good deal. What should be clear is that the responsiveness of city government, as well as the Con Ed bosses, is proportional to how much power the UWUA actually wields.
Scabs out! Whatever it takes to shut down Con Ed!
With over 750,000 union members in the city, New York is still a union town. State-wide there are 1,900,000 organized workers. These numbers point towards the potential for a mass labor fight-back. If 1 out of 10 union workers in NYC pledged to support local 1-2, that would be a massive force of 75,000 people! Even a fraction of that number could surrounded Con Ed headquarters, major call centers and sub-stations. If workers shut down enough key facilities Con Ed would have no choice but to give in to the union. Even the threat of a real shut-down might well scare the city government and Con Ed into caving in -- but who really knows? Unless workers give the bosses and their government a reason to be scared it’s unlikely they will back down.
Unions across the country and around the globe are under attack. Just two years ago the entire 44,000 workforce of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) was fired and the electrical industry privatized. The ominous example of the anti-union attack in Wisconsin is making its way towards NYC. The city’s arrogant billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, would no doubt love to push the anti-union envelope as far as possible. The best, and perhaps only, way to safeguard jobs, union standards -- even the unions themselves -- is to mobilize the kind of power that could make a reality of UWUA’s slogan: “if we go out, the lights go out.”
The union movement was built in defiance of unjust laws. No doubt the bosses would try and put a lid on any mass picket lines, work-place occupations, mobile pickets, militant solidarity actions, or anything else that has proven effective. Workers should keep in mind that the capitalist state – the cops and courts – will not hesitate to do the bidding of Con Ed by arresting workers, giving court injunctions against picketing, levying fines on the unions, or even using riot police on workers. And the pro-corporate, pro-capitalist media will no doubt try and portray any militant struggle in the worst possible light. Yet the history of the labor movement shows that if workers are sufficiently organized, have sufficient support from other unions and communities, and have a militant strategy of mass action, they do have the power to defy the bosses’ rules and win. As the saying goes, the only illegal strike is one that loses.
Important words of solidarity, little that is concrete
On July 17th, a rally of perhaps 3,000 people was held in Union Square in support of the Con Ed workers. Teaches, Teamsters, Verizon workers, Machinists, CUNY Professors, United Auto Workers and other unionists, including local 3 UWUA members, joined hundreds of Local 1-2 workers in a loud, hot rally. To date this was the largest mobilization of the struggle, and in that sense was a step forward. Union presidents and officials from many unions affirmed their commitment to stand with local 1-2 “to the bitter end”. The greed of Con Ed was condemned, while the Labor officials spoke of UWUA being part of “one big family”. Yet despite the many speeches and passionate exclamations, very little was said about how to win the struggle. None of the union officials emphasized building mass picket lines to keep out scabs. The word “strike” was not mentioned even once! On the whole the speeches resembled the vague rhetoric of mainstream politicians, and committed the respective unions to nothing in particular other than not scabbing.
The rank-and-file must take leadership!
Whatever steps the various union leaders are willing to take in support of local 1-2 should be encouraged. It is fair to ask, though: is the occasional rally of 3,000 people the most Con Ed workers can expect? The answer should be a definite “NO”. So far the top union bureaucracy – the high paid officials who act as labor brokers between the workers and the boss – have proven unable to effectively organize even the beginning steps of a strategy of mass action capable of winning. Militant workers who see the need for broadening and escalating this struggle should form local solidarity committees, try and get emergency union meetings called to discuss the Con Ed situation, and join the picket lines. Local 1-2's text-alert system for emergency pickets should be utilized as well.More specifically,the leadership of local 1-2 needs to be held accountable to the people they are representing. When TWU members went on strike for three days in 2005 workers chanted “no contract, no work!” – a sentiment TWU president Roger Toussaint echoed. But since the rank-and-file didn’t have direct control over the negotiations, the union president ended the strike without a contract and the TWU ranks were stuck with a demoralizing process of arbitration and a sub-par contract. Con Ed workers should demand to read the entirety of any proposed contract at mass meetings where they have power to make binding decisions. Workers in all unions need and deserve elected, accountable committees to collectively decide what is what.
Unions must fight for affordable, sustainable energy and job creation
This lockout has only highlighted once again the disregard that companies have for the general public as well as the workforce. It is absurd that millions of people go without work while infrastructure is crumbling. Manhattan has one of the highest concentrations of wealth in the world yet working class New Yorkers routinely go without air conditioning or even have their power cut completely because they can’t pay the exorbitant bills. Con Ed workers could win public support by calling for massive government subsidies for low-income energy consumers, as well as a mass public works program to create jobs for the unemployed. Such demands could help bridge the gap between the relatively well paid Con Ed workers and the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who lack basic necessities. The struggle for jobs, in particular, would undermine future attempts at scabbing, and would put an end to reactionary ideas that union workers don't care about the unemployed. Ultimately Job creation, sustainable and affordable energy points toward the need to remove the profit motive from the energy sector completely.
Cut the power on capitalist misery – toward a workers government where “those who labor, rule!”
Con Edison is a convicted felon (1989 Gramercy Park incident), a greedy company, and a general parasitic leach on society. But Con Ed is not the exception but the rule. Across the country corporations, banks and their electoral figure-heads of the Democratic and Republican parties rule with the wealth that we, workers, create. Working people across the board are suffering from the irrational and dictatorial rule of big business, epitomized by figures like billionaire “mayor Mike” and legitimized by all the pro-America and pro-capitalist ideologues, politicians and media pundits.
The barbarity of this system can be glimpsed by looking at the following:
- People who have spent their lives keeping electricity, water, transit, communication and all the essentials of the economy functioning are told “you don't deserve what you have, sacrifice or get out”
- Hundreds of billions of dollars continuously go toward bombing and occupying other countries while democratic rights are being chipped away in the U.S.
- Enough empty apartments exist to house every homeless person many times yet homelessness persists.
- America imprisons more people for non-violent crimes like drug posession than many other countries combined
- Poverty, lack of healthcare, underemployment and unemployment are rampant
- Workers are set against each other by competition, and racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and other prejudices are used to divide the working class
The material resources and technology exist to provide a quality and dignified existence for everyone, yet this potential is squandered every day by a system that doesn’t give damn about us. Workers and oppressed people will never find justice under this capitalsim. A truly democratic society that fulfilled the hope of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” would do away with the anarchy and oppression of the market and restructure society according to the needs and desires of the masses, not the millionaires. A workers government would do away with unemployment, wars abroad, the prison industry; it would fight all forms of prejudice including anti-immigrant and anti-muslim hysteria; and it would extend the solidarity and cooperation that workers have on the picket line to all realms of society.
Those who labor must rule! Victory to locked-out Con Ed workers!
No comments:
Post a Comment