Greyhound drivers vote up concessions contract concessions contı

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By MACKLER Confronted with the likelihood of a long strike and the possible loss of their union, Greyhound Bus Drivers, represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union, approved a three-year contract in February with new owner Fred Currey of Dallas, Texas. The drivers were demobilized in their struggle by a union misleadership whose central concern was preserving the dues-paying base of the bargaining unit and avoiding confrontation with the bosses.

The concessionary contract netted Currey an estimated $135 million over the three-year contract. It included wage and benefit cuts ranging from 20 percent to 30 percent, depending on seniority, along with increased hours and reduced vacation.

The drivers' union has seen its ranks depleted from 14,000 members to 6000 members in recent years. In some cities like Chicago, Greyhound terminal workers earning $10-$12 an hour have been fired en masse and replaced with new employees paid $4.50 an hour.

After they rejected two earlier contract offers from the previous owner, John Teets, the Greyhound drivers voted to accept the last offer by a 70-percent margin, an indication of their view that the necessary ingredients for an effective fightback were not present. Austin, Minn., is the most heroic example of this fightback mood. To defend their picket line, the strikers had to confront the cops and the National Guard-who were called in to break the strike by Democratic Party Governor Rudy Perpich.

On April 4, 1500 people attended a rally at St. Vincent's Catholic Church calling for an end to U.S. suppport for apartheid in South Africa and an end to U.S. support to the contras in Central America. The date marked the 20th anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous anti-Vietnam War speech at Riverside Church in New York. with the support of the entire AFL-CIO leadership—actually physically intervened on behalf of the bosses against the militant rank-and-file unionists.

The UFCW officials removed Local P-9's officers from the union, put the union local into receivership, and signed a conces -sionary contract with the company while hundreds of members had lost their jobs and were still ready to fight.

Still, despite the obstacle of the labor bureaucracy, working people are beginning to learn that their needs and interests are diametrically opposed to the needs and interests of their employers. We are "partners" with the capitalists as much as an ox is a "partner" with the cart it pulls.

Slowly working people are understanding that the capitalists-and their political representatives, the Democrats and Republicans—aren't looking out for the interests of working people-but are, in fact, responsible for the war and austerity policies aimed against them.

The idea that the labor movement should

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