All Out for October 30!
Show Cuomo & the MTA We’re Up for a Fight
Show Utano & Co. We Won’t Accept a Sellout
With Governor Cuomo pushing them, the MTA is demanding that we accept unprecedented contract givebacks that would see our standard of living plummet. They want to:
• cut our take-home pay by hiking our health insurance payments, sticking us with below-inflation 2% wage “raises” and cutting our overtime payments;
• cut our sick time and vacation time; and
• kill jobs through layoffs and by replacing full-time union jobs with part-time positions and the non-union labor of private contractors.
And more than just our future is at stake. In New York City, transit is one of the few remaining sources of decent-paying jobs for working-class people, and racism makes that’s especially true for Blacks, Latinos and immigrants. Cuomo and the MTA’s attacks aim to kill the dream of a better life for all, and especially for people of color. We mustn’t let them.
WE WON’T BE LED LIKE LAMBS TO A SLAUGHTER!
Despite the seriousness of these attacks, our union’s leaders are not even planning for the October 30 rally to be the beginning of a fightback. Utano & Co. are planning for the rally to be the last thing they do before they try to make a sellout deal.
On October 30, President Utano and his minions expect us to act like sheep as they herd us into “their” rally. They expect us to listen cluelessly while they pretend to be putting up a fight. Then they hope to join management at the negotiating table to agree on the extent that our wages, jobs and working conditions will be slaughtered.
Utano made this clear in an interview with the Wall Street Journal (October 21) which reported: “Transport Workers Union Local 100 leader Tony Utano says he might turn to Gov. Andrew Cuomo … if [the] evening show of force by an expected 10,000 workers outside the MTA’s headquarters on Oct. 30 doesn’t push the authority to resolve the standoff.”
Utano’s idea that Cuomo might help us is a cruel joke. The last time Cuomo responded to Utano’s request for involvement in Local 100’s affairs, the governor vetoed the modest Tier 6 pension reform that the union had been pushing! The fact is that the man leading the attack on us, MTA Chair and CEO Patrick Foye, was chosen for the position by Cuomo and is taking his orders from him.
No one should be surprised by Utano’s hopeless strategy. He’s been a union official for decades and during that time he supported every giveback contract including the ones with the 2% medical payment, the 5 year wage progression, the surrender of the no-layoff clause, and many more. He supported the Tier 6 pension rip-off, body-cams on C/Rs, and outsourcing Local 100 members’ work to private contractors in Stations and CED.
Since our contract expired Utano & Co. have let six months go by without lifting a finger to prepare us to defend our wages, jobs and working conditions from the MTA’s attacks. During that time, they’ve offered the MTA a variety of concessions. The problem is that the MTA hasn’t budged on its demands for givebacks that the members will never accept. Utano & Co. fear that if they agree to a deal that’s too bad, a rebellion by the members would sweep them out of their highly-paid positions. So negotiations have reached a stalemate.
But Local 100’s members don’t have to follow Utano’s strategy of defeat. We can use the October 30 rally to build a fightback that can defeat Cuomo’s and the MTA’s attacks.
OCTOBER 30 IS OUR
CHANCE
For
as long as our officials can’t get a deal with the MTA that they think they can
force us to accept, we have a chance to defeat Utano & Co.’s plans to
sell us out and instead organize a struggle that can force Cuomo and the MTA to
back off from their attacks.
If
we show Utano & Co. that we are united against givebacks and are demanding
all-out effort to defend our wages, jobs and working conditions, we can make
them even more afraid of the consequences of selling out. And if we make Cuomo and the MTA fear that our anger
will break out into action on the job, it could force them to back off.
October
30 is our biggest chance to do this by members showing up in force with signs that
send both Cuomo and the MTA, as well as Utano & Co., two clear messages:
If
Cuomo and the MTA don’t back down,
we are
ready to STRIKE
and
We will
not accept:
• health insurance hikes
• below inflation wage “raises”
• cuts to our sick time, overtime or vacation time
• the use of part-time non-union jobs
instead of full-time union jobs• or layoffs
All
those demands for givebacks are reasons to STRIKE!
BUILDING
THE FIGHTBACK AFTER OCTOBER 30
Of course, our efforts to build a fightback against Cuomo
and the MTA’s attacks can’t stop with October 30. If we succeed in sending the
message that we’ll fight any givebacks, the confidence of members will be given
a big boost and it will lay the basis for further organizing and action.
1. Motions in Divisions
One
important way to take the fight forward will be to have motions passed in
Divisions that make clear that the members reject the MTA’s demands for
givebacks and will support a strike if the MTA does not drop them. Already,
Train Operators in one Division meeting have shown their unanimous support for
such a motion. And remember: according to our union’s Bylaws, if a majority
of the union’s Divisions adopt a position, it becomes the union’s official
policy and the leadership is bound to respect it!
2. Organizing to Enforce Safety
And
there’s more. We all know that the Taylor Law forbids any “concerted action” in
pursuit of contractual demands that interfere with normal work. But we do have
the right to shut down unsafe work so long as it is only done in the interests
of workers’ and riders’ safety. And we all know that the system is rife with
conditions that violate state and federal health and safety laws, but which our
union leaders do nothing to shut down.
With
a boost in confidence and fighting spirit after October 30, there will be the
chance for members to get organized to start shutting down unsafe work. That
way we’ll show Cuomo and the MTA that we’re putting a stop to their disrespect.
That sort of organizing and action will mean that Cuomo and the MTA take the
threat of us striking seriously.
Of course, many members are wary of striking under Utano
& Co. There is a real danger of us being sold out. But building a credible
threat to strike is essential if we are to force Cuomo and the MTA to back
down. And if there is a strike, the same organizing and pressure by members can
thwart moves to sell us out. In this, one important thing will be to learn from
our last strike and make sure that one of the demands of the strike is an amnesty
from all Taylor Law penalties.
IT’S WRONG THAT SOME OPPOSITIONISTS
ARE SAYING THEY WON’T GO ON OCTOBER 30
Because Utano & Co. are so obviously planning on
selling us out, some oppositionists are saying that they won’t go to the
October 30 rally. We are sure they have the best intentions and are saying this
because they don’t want to collaborate with Utano & Co.’s betrayals. But
they are very wrong.
October 30 will give members a chance to fight a sellout.
Boycotting it means abandoning the members to Utano & Co.’s plans instead
of helping the members challenge them. And a weak rally would be a show of
weakness that will encourage Cuomo and the MTA to attack us even harder.
Oppositionists mistakenly threatening to boycott October
30 would do well to learn from the history of workers’ struggles under sellout
union leaders. It’s a problem that’s as old as unions themselves that the most
farsighted and militant workers have already solved. Through their efforts a
simple formula evolved: never stop telling the truth and criticizing leaders
and would-be leaders when they are doing wrong, but always stand for the unity
of the members in action whenever the union leaders take a step forward against
the bosses.
That’s
one of the key principles of Local 100 Fightback as we work to build an
alternative leadership for our union. It’s consistent with the fact that we
stand for a democratic union in which the leaders are accountable to the
members. And that’s why Local 100 Fightback is organized democratically, with
its policies decided by its members meeting and voting.
Members
should take note of the fact that we are the only opposition to Utano & Co.
that is organized in this democratic way. Oppositions that are led from the top
down without the members deciding on policy will only ever reproduce the same
problems of unaccountable leaders that the members are looking to overcome.
All
this is reason for militant workers to get in contact with us so we can start
working together, starting with the October 30 rally.
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