N.Y. transit workers reject contract offer

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have come together on a platform of union TWU midst of New York City's deepening eco- NO gaining a wider hearing among transit work- KORK by New Directions. On Feb. 12, over 1000 New York City transit workers during 11-day strike in 1980. 6 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 1992 NEW YORK-By a two to one margin members of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 rejected a recent contract proposàl with the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). Local 100, representing over 32,000 bus and subway workers, has been working without a contract since April 1, 1991.

The rejected contract called for cost-shifting on health care, lower wages for new hires, pension givebacks, and contained provisions giving the green light to speedup on the job through the establishment of "Worksmart Committees."

The mass "no" vote was a stunning rebuff of the policies of union head Sonny Hall, who had recommended that the memherchin ratify the contract. Spearheading the "no" vote was a coalition of rank and file activists called New Directions.

New Directions is one of a number of emerging rank-and-file formations (like Teamsters for a Democratic Union), who democracy and militant trade-unionism. In the indication that New Directions' message is ers.

Prior to the contract vote, evidence of the new fightback mood among transit workers was seen at two recent demonstrations called TWU members closed down the Manhattanbound Brooklyn Bridge at rush hour. Prior to marching, over 500 had picketed and rallied in front of MTA headquarters, chanting "Vote No!"

On March 2, approximately 2000 workers again marched at the MTA headquarters. Signs carried by transit workers included "No to the Contract. No to Service Cuts," and called for a mass rally at Madison Square Garden to prepare for a strike. Signs also called for the union's defense of Robert Ray, the subway operator jailed on murder charges last fall when his train derailed from a ...Caterpillar (continued from page I)

Forbes magazine reported that "analysts say Caterpillar planned for a strike during most of 1991 and built up comfortable dealer inventories in a soft market."

Caterpillar owns 32 plants, 15 of them overseas, including a joint ownership of Shin Caterpillar Mitsubishi in Japan. As UAW secretary-treasurer Bill Casstevens pointed out at the March 22 rally, Caterpillar brags about dramatic increases in productivity in the plants.

However, Caterpillar executives weren't so worried about the company's competitive edge when they awarded themselves raises ranging from 11.6 percent to 19.2 percent. Caterpillar president Don Fites received an 18.5 percent raise, bringing his "compensation" to a cool $503,483.

The Caterpillar work force has declined from 40,000 to 17,000 in the last 10 years, through downsizing and outsourcing (jobbing out specific work to other shops).

Caterpillar workers went through a bitter 206-day strike in 1982. Leading up to this strike, the company had prepared the way for its two-tier wage proposal by contracting out janitorial and other work in the plants, thus undermining solidarity among the workers.

During the current strike and lockout, Caterpillar refused any negotiations for months. It made sure locked-out workers got no unemployment benefits. Caterpillar also threatened to close the York, Pa. and Brazil plants if a settlement was not reached.

Union busting campaign Not content with throwing out industry-wide bargaining, Caterpillar proposed negotiating work-rules on a plant-by-plant basis—or as they called them, at each "profit-center."

Caterpillar hired $250-a-day goons, through an outfit called Vance, who brandished guns and threatened picketers. When the union went to court with complaints about these thugs, the court responded by limiting the number of picketers.

Then, in early February, Caterpillar officials proposed to end the lock-out, and reopen negotiations—only after workers returned to work. Union officials and members saw through this maneuver, and when the lock-out ended on Feb. 17, the UAW struck these plants and several more, bringing the total on strike to 10,800.

Strikers figured that Caterpillar, far from having a limitless inventory, was now coming under pressure to restart the lines, especially to produce 300 back-ordered tractors it contracted to deliver to Iran. Some speculate that now Caterpillar is preparing to send letters to strikers calling them back to work, and threatening to fire those who remain on the strike.

Strikers see Caterpillar's tactics as a union-busting campaignpure and simple. One UAW Local 974 (Peoria) member pointed out in the local paper that Caterpillar is using the depressed economic situation to beat down their wages and work-rules.

A Local 145 (Aurora, Ill.) member explained, "Caterpillar is mounting the biggest attack on our wages and benefits since the beginning of our union. ... Working cheap has never saved a single job. Caterpillar's future has bean determined far in advance by decisions made in Washington and corporate headquarters."

SAYS * KOW WIL I GET NU track containing inadequate safety devices.

Speaking at the March 2 rally was Tim Schermerhom, a transit worker whose election campaign for Local 100 president on the New Directions slate recently received 34 percent of the votes.

And although Schermerhorn didn't win, New Directions did win a number of important executive board and division officer positions. In certain divisions, such as rapid transit—which includes train operators, conductors and tower personnel—workers overwhelmingly rejected He continued: "Any corporation that can grant its chairman the equivalent of $323.62 an hour when the wage of its workers is $21.71 [per hour], and then has the audacity to demand that the workers make the necessary sacrifices to keep our company competitive,' deserves only one firm united reply-drop dead." (Al Orr, Fox Valley Labor News.) "No contract, no work!"

The crowd at the March 22 rally heard national officials from the International Association of Machinists, the American Federation of Teachers, and from the state AFL-CIO. Letters of solidarity came from AFL-CIO head Lane Kirkland, new Teamsters president Ron Carey, and Caterpillar workers from France, Belgium, and England.

An official of the Service Employees International Union told the crowd, "Solidarity is important. Caterpillar will feel the earth shake, because solidarity is our earthmoving equipment. You here today are a symbol to the union movement all over the country."

UAW President Owen Bieber announced one-time payment to strikers of $2000 SAYS CONT Mas Beacoc Socialist incumbent Hall's candidates.

In a leaflet distributed at the March 2 demonstration, New Directions called for the formation of "contract action committees." "The only way we'll get a good contract is if we vote 'no' on the current one and take the planning for the next steps out of the hands of Hall and Co. and put it in the hands of the membership," the leaflet explained.

Supporters of New Directions, writing in the March issue of the rank-and-file newsletter Hell on Wheels, called for "preparing ourselves for action later in the year to win a good contract ... whether it be a strike, a slow-down or a sick-out.

Most of us realize that a strike will be necessary sooner or later, if we are to win a real improvement in our wages, working conditions and pensions.

"A leadership that is committed to the mandate of the membership would find a way around obstacles, rather than using them to try to intimidate the membership or as excuses for not fighting back against management," they argued.

"The whole purpose of the Taylor Law [which outlaws strikes by public employees] is to keep us from taking effective action on our own behalf. The Taylor Law can be beaten. If we're strong enough, the MTA can be forced to back down."

Rejecting the TWU bureaucracy's political strategy that has gone hand-in-hand with the giveback contracts, they argued that "we have gotten nothing from 'friends of labor' [Democratic Party] politicians. We can rely only on our own strength and the support we can win from other workers in the city and [from] subway and bus riders."

While contract negotiations between the MITA and local 100 have been re-opened, job actions by the union have not been ruled out. The TWU has been one of the most powerful unions in New York because of its willingness to challenge the courts, the state legislature, and the cops during strike action at key points in its history.

from the UAW international, and one million dollars in contributions was raised for the "Adopt-a-Striker" fund.

The crowd gave a hearty cheer to statements, like that of the Decatur, IIl., UAW local, to "stay out until we get a contract." Signs declared, "All labor is with Caterpillar workers," "We won't be bulldozed," and "No contract, no work." At one point, one contingent in the crowd interrupted the speakers to chant, "Stand up, can't take no more!"

The main aim of the rally was raising funds and a show of solidarity. But clearly some non-striking Caterpillar workers— those the UAW has yet to pull out-feel they would better serve that cause if the union called out all the company's workers. Many of the workers still on the job say they feel like scabs working during this fight.

This strike lays bare the lie in the common claim, by both the corporations and the union bureaucracy, that foreign workers are to blame for the attacks on labor.

One worker, from UAW Local 3000, received applause when he looked around the hall at all the "Buy American" signs and announced, "I work for a Japanese Company, Mazda, but I'm an American, just like you. I've worked in Los Angeles and a bunch of other places, and they're not that different. ... What we need is to shut down the country, show them who's boss for a change."

One disturbing note at the rally was the alacrity with which the local police, with the support of UAW officials, cleared out all those selling socialist papers, as well as supporters of Labor Party Advocates (LPA), and other labor organizations, from the street in front of the stadium.

This paralleled a denunciation several weeks earlier by the Caterpillar UAW Central Bargaining Council, of efforts to organize solidarity by those they perceived as supporters of the dissident New Directions caucus in the UAW.

A fighting union movement has nothing to fear from the broadest democratic debate over where to go next, how to build the strongest solidarity, and what strategy is needed to win.

The next round of negotiations between the UAW and Caterpillar are slated to get underway at the beginning of April.