Hardball tactics triumph again
New York City's MTA union president Roger Toussaint is being declared the victor after the transit workers secured a new 37-month contract late Tuesday night. The tentative deal secures the workers' pension program in its entirety, and boasts benefits ranging from above-inflation wage increases to the establishment of paid maternity leave and the recognition of the Martin Luther King paid holiday. The thousands of dollars reimbursed through previously-paid pension contributions (up to $14,000 individually) will easily offset the $1,000 fine each worker will have to pay for going out on strike.Last week, Toussaint was abandoned by the parent Transport Workers Union for initiating the strike. He was branded "thuggish" by the city's mayor, and viciously attacked by the city's tabloid newspapers, the Post and the Daily News. But the move drew public attention to the union's cause, to intimidation and malicious treatment on the job; and it encouraged state mediators to suggest that the Transit Authority take pension changes off the negotiation table.
Hardball tactics will have to be the order of the day as long as Corporate America continues such a focused attack upon employee pension programs and the like. Was it only last year that every politician in the country was promising to get tough on Enron-type corporate crooks? In the time since, no legal reforms of any kind have been enacted, and the 401(k) system prevalent in the private sector remains much less a retirement savings account than an advertising campaign for the mutual fund business, with little or no regulation to protect against widespread fraud. Employers are contributing less and less to 401(k)s with each passing year, and today, roughly 40 percent of private sector employees have no pension program at all (Source: Center for American Progress.) Most public employees still work under the fixed pension, so the stakes in New York City were high for all in this negotiation.
The members of TWU Local 100 say they were more interested in gaining respect than monetary gains during the bargaining process-- from the governor, the mayor, the Transit head, and especially from supervisors. The Village Voice reports this week that there were 16,000 disciplinary action notices issued to workers in 2005, one for every two members. MTA employees work under harsh time regulations by nature, but that makes them especially susceptible to abuse from superiors, and formal reports of worker violations this year included wearing ties crooked, leaving a newspaper in a bus window, and taking bathroom breaks at unauthorized times. The media largely cast the transit workers throughout this month as prosperous and privileged, by contrast to today's overall workforce, but one worker described a "punitive mentality" on the job, adding that "the atmosphere (there) is like poison."
Petty supervisor grievances and unmeasured discipline are par for the course in many of today's work environments. Superiors find directions around work contracts with such tactics as calling out "incomplete" doctor's notes or claiming multiple violations on a single offense.
An all-out battle is being waged to destroy the middle-class in America, but victories such as those claimed by Toussaint and the NYC transit workers can help stem the destructive tide.
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It's only a matter of time until the lid of George Bush's "War for Oil" is blown off for good. Maureen Dowd's column on Wednesday noted that it's now been two years since Times reporter Jeff Gerth filed a Freedom of Information Act with the Pentagon to view the 500-page document prepared by Halliburton about what to do with Iraq's oil industry. Rumsfeld and Cheney can probably continue to stonewall for a considerable length of time, but eventually this report is going to come out into the light, and then we'll find out why the war profiteers didn't want us to see it.
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Happy New Year to the fearless gang over at "The Nation." In 2004, the left-wing magazine begged Ralph Nader not to run for President, claiming that he was putting his own career legacy of public advocacy in jeopardy. Then, in 2005-- just last month actually-- they formally announced that they would no longer "support any candidate for national office who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq a major issue of his or her campaign."
What exciting policy change will 2006 bring for "The Nation?" Keep an eye on your local newsstand and find out.
posted by CM @ 5:09 PM
3 Comments:
Nice to see support for strikers in the blogospehre. Check out
http://differentdrummer.typepad.com/
for some context from a sociologist and member of a very weak faculty union.
CM wrote, "…no legal reforms of any kind have been enacted…" in response to the Enron-type corporate crooks. I thought that's what the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was all about?
So what I hear CM saying is that hardball tactics are good for the unions to use (e.g. strikes). But when management or those affected by the strike like the media and the public use them (e.g. stories criticizing unions and legal action against unions) they are evil actions designed to destroy unions.
I've worked in union factories but not as a member of the union. In my experience, some union members like nothing more than to file petty grievances against nonunion workers, especially when union members will get paid money for not doing any work (a common theme in my experience) if the grievance is upheld. Not a great way to earn my respect. Unions are just as responsible for poisonous workplace atmospheres as management.
401(k) plans are far better than pensions. Big corporations go bankrupt all the time and the pension money usually disappears in the process. Not the case with a 401(k) because the money is in the employee's name. TA
As far as Sarbanes-Oxley goes, the SEC is supposed to protect investors as well, but often, of course, it doesn't. As I read the bill on-line (Google), I find little to get excited about in terms of public access to the process, and what aspect is more important? All disciplinary hearings are completely closed from the public with the consent of a single party, and even sanction reports are withheld until after appeal. What's not to trust there?
Naturally, the board is made up of appointees by the federal commission that has already failed us. Hasn't this gang ever heard of the concept of "a jury of your peers?" If that system is good enough for crooks on the street, it's good enough for crooks in the boardroom.
Either way, the bill was passed in 2002, so it can't account for the campaign rhetoric in 2004.
TA is right that the work atmosphere can-- and is-- often poisoned by either side in a labor dispute, but you'll recall that I argued that hardball tactics are necessary because management's hardball tactics have already been fully implemented. I fully understand the two-way street that is a company's success. I root for the success of the company I work for, while toiling under a collective contract, because I presume that the company's profit will also mean my profit. Of course, I also have a conscience towards the public and my local community, and I expect the same of my employer.
I regret, TA, that you likewise work in the employ of others, yet are not eligible for union benefits and protections. I presume that this is because your employment status rises above a certain internal management level. We have the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 to thank for that injustice. (Call your Congressman.) Be grateful that all of us can still enjoy at least some of the hard-fought rewards of the workers movement. Which reminds me, how was your three day weekend?
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