A comment on the Con Ed struggle

[This piece is a little dated now - the Con Ed workers are back on the job, having voted in a contract with the main concession the company wanted, a "second tier" of pensions which are defined contribution instead of a defined benefit. The second tier will include only newly-hired workers, instead of workers hired after 2006 (as the company originally proposed).

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 1^st, 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 13^th 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.

An Occupier's Job Credo?

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BOOK: Goodwyn - The Populist Moment

A ways back, I read a pretty decent blog post arguing that OWS should look to the successes and failures of the late-19th century populist movement for inspiration and direction. The author referenced a book by Lawrence Goodwyn, which turns out to be very good. So, here it is:

Goodwyn Populist Moment(1976) OCR

Kim Moody: "The Rank-and-File Strategy"

This is quite an impressive booklet by Kim Moody. I'm not 100% in agreement with all of the interpretations contained within, but I think this represents the best modern effort to bring together the appropriate factors for reconciling trade union activity with class-wide organization. (For those scared of the "socialist" moniker, the existence of a class of wage-earners is the only "socialist" proposition which must be accepted in order to find value in the argument contained in the booklet).

Moody-rank and File Strategy(2000)-OCR

1 million participate in NYC May Day

Yes, you heard me right - one million people.

Before looking at the broader event, let me take a minute to comment on the size of the Unity Rally & March down Broadway. I have heard credible estimates of 30 to 100 thousand.

 The crowd stretched solidly from Union Square to below Canal

(click on picture for larger version)

That said, it was very difficult to assess exactly how many people participate. Conservatively there were 5-10 thousand in the park. This was over-capacity for the area the police had "penned off".

Exiting the park proved to be another gautlet. The police would only let 100 or so people out at a time - even people at the front of the march were not allowed to march out of the Square, so they essentially had to "re-assemble" after passing a police control point.

Naively, I had thought that when I heard that "14th Street will be blocked off" I imagined the march being directed out of the park, into the street, and down Broadway. Instead, the police blocked off 14th Street FOR THEMSELVES. They drove in a fleet of scooters, 6-8 SUV's, and a single line of cops on the curbs and crossings!

After milling back and forth, trying to get out one of the exits in the South of the square, the tail end of the march was not even allowed to leave by the South. Instead, a phalanx of cops and vehicles inserted themselves between the march and the remaining protesters. At least 2 large contingents had to march out of Union Square to the North, circle around to the West, and re-join the march. (I saw 500 or more marches join the tail end of the march at 9th street, and heard reports of other feeders). But, inevitably, some potential marchers got left behind.

This - together with certain areas of construction on Broadway which acted as pinch-points - meant that the march appeared "thin" or "small" in certain places. The funniest example of this happened as I was standing on the front steps of a bar where me a few other marchers had gone for a drink after the march. A small contingent - which had refused to stop at the "official" end of the permitted march and was one of the many milling all over the Wall Street Area - walked by, chanting. Wealthy-looking Mexican having a smoke on the steps turned to another well-heeled gent and says: "So this is what they've been making all the fuss about?!" :)

Zuccotti itself was shut off to the march. It seems there was some way to get around the police line, and some did, but I think this messed up the idea of having a general assembly after the march. [Please someone contradict me if I'm wrong - I was in a bar getting drunk! :P ]

So, anyway, the march officially probably stands at "over 30,000". Frankly, I think anything over 20,000 has to be counted a great success.

But this is only part of the larger May Day activities.

First of all, the 99 pickets were a HUGE success. We had at least 4 protests with well over 100 people - those on the "Immigrant Worker Justice Walking Tour", and dozens more with 25-100. The protest at the Strand Bookstore - located at 12th St and B'way - had a MASSIVE protest out front at 3pm, uniting the UAW (which represents the workers at the Strand), OWS Labor activists, and Occupiers. It was un-permitted, so we had to keep moving on the sidewalk, but the crowd was impressive:

(click on picture for larger version)

Outer Boroughs also had actions. Some sent contingents to the Unity March (Occupy Staten Island), while others stayed in their boroughs.

But 2 anecdotes carry a special weight for me:

1) An activist friend of mine, who works at a "Jiffy Lube" auto shop, told me that the workers staged a walk-out in the morning of May 1st. Apparently, it was in protest of sub-standard wages for part-timers, but full-timers walked out in solidarity.

2) Walking through the "urban mall" on lower Broadway was particularly inspiring. As a retail area, it was virtually shut down. This meant that many of the workers on duty stood in the doorways and cheered for the marchers, "joining in" as it walked past. A cook in an upper-floor kitchen held a piece of paper that said "99%" out the window.

A supporter hanging a sign out a kitchen window (click for larger version)

Although many of these people were not organized into the main events of the day, they nonetheless participated. Even those who just took small acts of protest, or even used the day as an opportunity to initiate real conversations among co-workers, friends, and family, have to be counted as participating.

This is why I maintain that it is probable that 10 (or more) times the number who marched must be counted as participating in May Day.

1 million. Even in a big city like New York, that's pretty impressive!

The poster the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn't want you to see

Like many of the progressive initiatives of the Obama Administration, the requirement that employers post NLRA rights in the workplace has not evoked much passion on the left.

Not so on the right. Starting with the Boeing Case, the modest moves towards enforcing the labor law on the books taken by the NLRB under Obama's appointees has created a furor. The requirement employers to post labor law has prompted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to sue the NLRB, a move supported by the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Restaurant Association, and just about every other employer group.

The requirement to post NLRA rules, which had already been pushed back to April 30th to allow time for the case to be heard, would have had approximately 6 million businesses post a simple notice of rights to workers to organize free from threats or coercion - similar to minimum wage posters, equal opportunity posters, and others already required by the DoL.

However, a recent ruling has further delayed the posting, on the theory that the NLRB doesn't have the authority to require employers to post rules unless it is specifically mandated by the Congress.

The poster the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn't want you to see:

"The cookwagon must go through!"

From "What means a Strike in Steel?"* by William Z. Foster:

The perspective of a huge national strike confronts the workers' leaders with the necessity of bearing closely in mind another basic principle of strategy, that of mobilizing a full sufficiency of forces to achieve their objective. A good strategist never sends a boy to do a man's job. This strategic principle may be illustrated by an old-time circus story: A boss canvasman was explaining to a visitor How vitally important it was that the cook-wagon should arrive early on the circus lot in order that the men could breakfast, or else they would not put up the big top.
Said he: "No cook-wagon; no breakfast, and no breakfast, no work," and he explained therefore, that they always used the precaution of having eight of the strongest horses to pull the cook-wagon over the muddy roads.

"But," inquired the visitor, "suppose the roads are so poor that your eight horses can't pull the cook-wagon what then?"

"Oh, then," said the circus boss, "we put on more horses, and if they can't do the job we get out old Babe the elephant, to push it from behind."

"Still," persisted the visitor, "suppose the roads are so terribly bad that even all these horses and old Babe together can't haul the cook-wagon through the mire how about that?"

"Oh hell," declared the boss with finality, "we just put on more horses and more horses. The damned cookwagon simply has to go through."

It is in this spirit of unconquerableness that the workers' leaders must face the eventuality of a national steel strike. They must be prepared to throw more and more forces into the struggle until finally they budge the "immovable" steel trust. The steel campaign must come through and that is all there is to it. Nothing will be handed to the workers gratuitously, either by the bosses directly or by the government. All they will get is what they are willing and able to fight for.

*"What means a Strike in Steel?" is referenced as being "our bible" by organizer Stella Nowicki in Staughton & Alice Lynd's oral history book Rank & File.