Labor Notes conference charts New Directions'

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4 SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1989 DETROIT-The 1989 Labor Notes Conference, held in Southfield, Mich., on May 19-21 (with an official registration of 1010), reflected both the developments inside the unions and the thinking of the most progressive elements of the labor movement The new situation is expressed, for example, in the prospects opening up for Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) inside the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and in the recent victory of the Team for Democracy in the Mailhandlers Union.

TDU, in the light of recent changes that make the Teamsters as a whole more open to change by the rank and file, poses itself the task of becoming "not a dissident movement but an opposition party" by the next convention in 1991.

The Mailhandlers Union is a division of the Laborers International Union of North America, a notorious gangster-run organization. The sweeping victory scored by the opposition slate in the recent elections marks a real membership revolt against a union leadership that combined criminality with criminal sell-outs.

Throughout the conference, the presence of representatives from unions in other countries helped to widen the perspective of American unionists. So when the Brazilian participant in the final panel on Sunday said that he wanted the workers present to take back one old idea— "We are an international class" —his remark was greeted by prolonged applause.

The conference was held under title of "New Directions for Labor," borrowing from the name given to the broad opposition movement inside the United Automobile Workers (UAW).

In recent weeks, under the impact of the growing realization that New Directions leader Jerry Tucker will not be re-elected Mailhandlers Pres. Glenn Berrien director in Region 5 and that Don Douglas will not win the directorship in Region 1-1B, there has been a certain demoralization, with all hopes placed in court suits and legal actions.

By the Saturday afternoon sessions, however, New Directions supporters felt new wind in their sails as they began to realize that setbacks in two regions were being offset by the ouster of three UAW-appointed leaders at the new Mazda plant in Flat Rock, Mich., and the winning of five out of seven convention delegate slots at the GM plant in Van Nuys, Calif.

By the evening, the discussion focussed on organizing a long-term opposition inside the UAW, with a paper, a staff, etc. If New Directions comes away from the union's June convention in Anaheim, Calif., with the feeling that it has waged a good fight— despite all the blows against it—there can be a profound change in the American union One truly new direction for labor would be to head toward a labor party. Here too, the conference revealed some changes. While the Friday night panel revolved around how much labor should support Jesse Jackson, with one workers and counterposing a "people's party" to a labor party, the balance began to shift during the conference.

The Saturday night speech of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (O.C.A.W.) Secretary-Treasurer Tony Mazzocchi made a contribution. Despite all the murkiness and indecisiveness of his propoBy LOS ANGELES-Public education has won a victory. Facing arrests, strikebreaker violence, and non-stop threats from the school administration, teachers stood their ground for improving the dismal state of education in this city.

On May 25, after an 11-day strike, members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) voted to approve a new contract that granted almost everything they had sought.

The teachers will have an 8-percent pay raise for each of the next three years. Unfortunately, they will lose the pay docked earlier this year when, after management provocations, they withheld grades.

They also won their demand for decision-making councils at each school. Half the members will come from the teachers' ranks and the other half will be made up of administrators, other staff, and parents. Now teachers may be able to develop more say over their work, becoming involved with budget decisions, textbook and curriculum selection, and other self-management issues.

For elementary teachers, a regular 40minute preparation period and the elimination of mandatory unpaid yard duty emerged as integral demands in the strike-and were won. This cut across the district's increasing trend toward unpaid extracurricular duties and insufficient preparation time.

School administrators tried to paint the teachers as greedy, implying that the teachers were only interested in money. The union's focus on educational issues, however, exposed the district as the faction uninterested in education.

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