With Governor Cuomo pushing them, the MTA is demanding contract givebacks that will have a devastating effect on our jobs, wages and working conditions.
Despite the seriousness of these attacks, however, the Utano leadership of our union waited almost six months after our contract expired before they bothered to hold a contract rally. Worse still, Utano is making it clear that instead of our October 30 rally being the start of a fightback, he’s planning for it to be his first and last act of fake struggle before he begs for a deal that he thinks he can force the members to accept.
The Wall Street Journal (October 21) reported that Utano gave them an interview in which he made his plans clear: “Local 100 leader Tony Utano says he might turn to Gov. Andrew Cuomo … if [the] evening show of force … outside the MTA’s headquarters on Oct. 30 doesn’t push the authority to resolve the standoff.”
Turn to Cuomo? The last time Utano did that, Cuomo 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.
If we let Utano end our contract struggle before it’s begun and allow him to try to make a deal with Cuomo, we know what to expect. In his decades as a union official Utano has supported the 2% medical payment, the 5 year wage progression, the surrender of our no-layoff clause, the Tier 6 pension rip-off and the outsourcing Local 100 members’ work to private contractors in Stations and CED. So we can be sure he’ll try to stick us with another sellout this time and then tell us that it was the best deal possible.
Thankfully, Local 100’s members don’t have to follow Utano’s strategy of defeat. We can use the October 30 rally to start a real fightback that mobilizes our power to save our jobs, wages and working conditions.
BUILDING THE FIGHTBACK AFTER OCTOBER 30
1. Motions in Divisions
Step One in thwarting moves by Utano & Co. to make a sellout deal is getting this motion in support of the Executive Board calling a General Membership Meeting and a strike against givebacks passed in a majority of the union’s Divisions in the coming month. If you support the motion, talk about it with other members and get them to attend their next Division meeting in the largest possible numbers to get the motion passed. It will stop Utano & Co. from agreeing to any givebacks and give the members the power to decide on the way forward in a General Membership Meeting.
The motion makes it clear that members will support a strike until the MTA withdraws its demands for givebacks and until Local 100 is granted amnesty from any Taylor Law penalties. Of course, many members are understandably wary of striking under Utano & Co. But building a credible threat to strike is essential to us having any hope of forcing Cuomo and the MTA to back down. And if there is a strike, the same organizing and pressure by members that forced Utano & Co. to call it can also thwart moves to sell us out.
2. Organizing to Enforce Safety
There’s more. We all know that the Taylor Law forbids any “concerted action” in pursuit of contractual demands. 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. But especially in subways, we all know that the system is rife with conditions that violate State and Federal health and safety laws, but which our union leaders fail to shut down.
Nothing shows management’s lack of respect for us more than the way they have us work in unsafe conditions. Our union officials’ tolerance for this invites further disrespect, such as with the MTA’s current demands for givebacks.
But with a boost in 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.
3. Winning Public Support
Governor Cuomo and the MTA are as popular as turds in a swimming pool. They deserve the public’s hatred – their hypocrisy is outrageous. While demanding pay cuts from us and fare hikes from the riding public, just months ago Cuomo got himself a 40% raise, while the mostly rich white powerbrokers on the MTA board enjoy an average income ten times that of the typical transit rider!
New York transit riders’ anger at poor service and rising fares coincides with the rising anger across the country at the ever-widening wealth gap between the super-rich and the working class, and they have a shared cause. The dirty secret of the New York transit system’s crisis is that state and city politicians deliberately underfund the MTA in order to force it to raise funds by selling bonds to Wall Street investors. The MTA has to make regular payments on profits to those investors, and they get to enjoy those profits tax free!
The MTA’s debt limit is now at a whopping $123 billion – that’s more debt than most of the world’s nations carry! Its annual profit payments to investors now account for 20% of the MTA’s annual budget – more than it spends on the healthcare and pensions of its workers. And those payments are expected to rise to $3.2 billion a year by 2021!
In other words, it’s the demands for profits by do-nothing Wall Street investors that lie behind Cuomo’s attacks on our wages and working conditions, and it’s what lies behind the MTA inflicting fare hikes, service cuts and general misery on the riding public. Imagine how popular Local 100 would be if it ended its leaders’ alliance with Cuomo and threw its resources into exposing this scandal and added opposition to fare hikes and service cuts to its contract demands!
4. Building an Alternative Leadership to Utano & Co.
Our proposals for motions in Divisions and a General Membership Meeting to thwart a sellout by Utano & Co. and force them to mobilize a real contract struggle can win important victories. But we’re under no illusions: our proposals aim at making the best of a bad situation and we’ll face the danger of being sold out for as long as we’re stuck with our current leadership.
That’s why, as we unite in the broadest possible struggle against Cuomo and the MTA’s demands for givebacks, we appeal to our fellow Local 100 members to get in touch with Local 100 Fightback so we can start working together to build a new leadership for our union based on the principles of union democracy, working-class struggle, and the aims of social justice.
E-mail: Local100Fightback@gmail.com
Website: www.Local100Fightback.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/Local100Fightback/
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