A program for labor fightback

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September 19, 1981, "Solidarity Day," in Washington, D.C. 12 Socialist Action May 1984 The $1.25 an hour wage reduction for basic steel workers is a case in point. There is also the growing introduction of the two-tier wage structure permitting drastic cuts in the pay scale of new hires. Added to this is a serious erosion in union security taking place through cross-crafting and the contracting out of union work to nonunion firms.

The real meaning of competition in a capitalist economy is the race to depress the wages, benefits, and working conditions of the workforce. Each business competes with the other to extract more concessions from the workers. The success of the big-business assault on our living and working standards is the driving force behind the economic "recovery?" But the new profit gains will not mean a let-up in the anti-union drive. Rather, the bosses will only be emboldened to deepen their campaign against our hard-won rights.

Lessons from Europe

We can learn from the German, French, and British workers as they confront their homegrown variety of plant closures and wage reductions. The British coal miners have launched an effective strike action against the Tory government's proposals to reduce one-third of the coal workforce by 1990. In defiance of injunctions limiting the size of picketing squads, the workers have closed the coal pits with the mobilized power of thousands of miners.

French and German steelworkers have responded to plant shutdowns by building large demonstrations and rallies. The German metal workers union is conducting a campaign for the 35hour workweek with no loss in pay to counter the bosses drive to "restructure" the steel industry through massive layoffs. When this employer offensive was begun several years ago, the steel bosses announced their plan to eliminate 200,000 steel jobs in the Common Market countries. But the existence of large workers' parties in these countries increases the leverage of the workers to advance their demands despite the sellout strategies that guide the leadership of these parties.

Unfortunately, the misleaders of the trade unions in the United States endorse big-business sponsored efforts to portray foreign workers as our enemy. Of course, that has not stopped U.S. business from raking in superprofits by exploiting cheap labor abroad.

Lower wages and working conditions for one group of workers is used to pressure all workers into accepting the sub-standard pattern. As long as workers in the United States remain divided—white against Black, men against women, and American against foreign workers—it will be easier to put the blame for the capitalist crisis on one or another group of working people.

The History The militant mass social movement of workers that gave birth to the CIO in the 1930s established industrial unions as a solid force on the American scene. The employers' plan to extend the notorious World War II no-strike pledge and wage freeze into the post-war era was decisively defeated by the 1946 strike since: workers against the employers profit drive came to an end. Negotiations by "labor statesmen" substituted for the action of the rank and file.

This set the stage for the introduction of a whole series of concessions in the name of preserving the "labor-business partnership?" The labor chiefs exchanged no-strike pledges for the dues check-off. This guaranteed the bureaucrats a fixed flow of dues money despite the unpopularity of their policies among the ranks. Arbitration by a so-called neutral third party was used to resolve differences on the interpretation of contracts without any input from the membership. Anti-labor laws such as the Taft-Hartley and Landrum-Griffin acts that imposed harsh restrictions on the right to strike and picket were accepted without any meaningful challenge from the bureaucrats. False hopes were encouraged that the Democratic Party would repeal these laws.

Socialist Action/Joe Ryan security in exchange for modest wagr increases as "the hockshop method of bargaining"

Profits enrich capitalists

In 1943 a resolution of the United Auto Workers stated: "Our industries can no longer be operated to serve private interests where they conflict with the public need". Yet this wisdom has been rejected by the labor officialdom, despite the growing concentration of wealth and monopolization of the U.S. economy. Turning away from the ranks, the labor bureaucrats seek to preserve at all costs their alliance with the Democratic Party.

This class-collaborationist approach fosters the myth that profits for the boss mean more job security and wage increases for the workers. Most workers still believe this lie. But recent experiences with the Greyhound Corporation, Paralyzed by these class-collaborationist policies, the labor movement has failed to rally behind unions that have shown a readiness to fight. Nearly 12,000 PATCO workers were summarily fired while the labor misleaders scurried about in a futile search for support from politicians of the two parties. The Greyhound strike was broken under similar circumstances. Steelworkers were forced to accept a drastic cut in wages and working conditions after twice rejecting company proposals. Several months ago the Teamsters' membership, by an 88 percent majority, refused the bosses' demand to reopen the contract and negotiate concessions.

There are other examples of resistance in the auto, copper, oil, and aircraft industries. But none of these fights has received the kind of labor support necessary. No one union can stand alone.

The workers in Europe are displaying the kind of fighting militancy that can provide a starting point for an effective mass struggle to defeat the employers' assault. The power to stop the capitalist offensive resides in the mobilized strength of millions of working people.

If that power had been employed in the recent Greyhound strike the outcome could have been quite different. The millions of dollars being spent on capitalist election campaigns by labor should have been used to mount an extensive solidarity effort. Demonstrations by the labor movement could have rallied support from a broad layer of working people and stopped the buses from rolling.

New approach needed To dissolve the suicidal "partnership" between business and labor will require a new leadership, emerging from labor's ranks, with new policies. But a new leadership, to be effective, must go beyond the militancy of the 1930s and 1940s. The political reality is that those victories gained on the picketline by millions of workers during the 1930s and after the war were skillfully eroded over the years by not only the labor-hating Republicans but by the "friends of labor" in the Democratic Party.

Supporting Mondale, Hart, or Jackson will only repeat the mistakes of the past. We need to organize the power of working people in the streets, on the job, and in the halls of Congress. We need our own party—a labor party. A labor party controlled by the unions would have the power to protect gains won on the picketline. A labor party would be a vehicle for advancing an alternative program to the bosses' offensive. Instead of shoring up the capitalist Democratic Party we should build our own party.

A leadership adopting this approach will certainly be forged in the battles ahead. Experience in the class struggle will dictate a change in the current union policies. A class struggle program to transform our unions can serve to rally militant workers for a working class counteroffensive against the employers' anti-union drive. Some elements of this program are:

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Four hundred members of the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) Local 7-912 at the Toledo refinery of Sun Co., and 900 OCAW members at Sun's Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia were forced out on strike March 21. Sun, which markets Sunoco gasoline, is one of the top 10 oil companies.

Sun is trying to break the national wage settlement agreed upon by nearly all the unionized oil companies. Instead of granting modest raises, Sun wants to make lump sum payments. This would leave Sun workers 55 cents per hour behind the other majors in the next barmarch and rally on April 28 in front of the Toledo refinery. Preparation and publicity for the rally was bolstered by the AFL-CIO Joint Organizing and Coordinating Committee and by the Toledo Area Solidarity Committee-a group of trade union activists who came together originally to provide aid to the Greyhound bus strike.

OCAW Local 7-912 announced at the rally that they are initiating a national boycott of Sunoco products. Teams of strike supporters are setting up an informational leafletting campaign at Sunoco service stations. They urge that people send Sunoco credit cards back to the company. Contributions to the strike fund can be sent to OCAW local 7-912, 2910 Consaul, Toledo, OH 43605, Tel. (419) 698-1757.

By MARC RICH LOS ANGELES-About 400 hundred trade unionists joined a downtown demonstration here on April 23 in solidarity with Texaco refinery workers. The demonstration was sponsored by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. A second demonstration called by the Labor Alliance Against Concessions is planned for May 26 in Torrence, Calif. Strike supporters also plan to set up informational picket lines at Texaco gas stations in the area.

Texaco workers here and in Anacortes, Wash., were forced out on strike on Feb. 21. They are battling against the company's attacks on seniority rights, a the May 26 rally. Several of these unions were recently on strike. Participants include the ATU (Greyhound), UAW Local 148 (McDonnell Douglas), Lynwood Teachers Association, Airline Pilots Association, IAM (Continental Airlines), ILGWU (Davis Pleating), SEIU Local 535 (Kaiser Permanente), and OCAW Locals 1-128 and 1-547. SEIU Local 666 is providing office space, phone banks, and printing services to build the rally.

Donations to aid the Texaco strikers may be sent to: Texaco Unit Strike Fund, 2100 W. Willow St., Long Beach, CA 90810 or Texaco Unit Strike Fund, c/o OCAW Local 1-591, P.O. 483, Anacortes, WA 98221.

L BUILDING UNIONE

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Sunoco workers forge unity

Unions back Texaco strikers