Adrianne Shropshire

Lessons from the Transit Strike

Last week the evolving story of the transit workers strike of 2005 took a surprising turn for the worst when union members rejected the contract recommended to them by their leadership by a razor thin margin of 7 votes. Roger Toussaint, Ed Watt, and Darlyne Lawson still do not know their fate as it relates to contempt of court charges against them for leading their union in an "illegal" strike. And many of us began our post holiday reflection about the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by connecting the struggles of 40 years ago to our current conditions. The transit strike, regardless of the new developments, pulled hard at the string that ties us to our history of struggle for justice in this country. It made the often forgotten link between labor struggles and civil rights struggles. In 1961 King described that link in this way, "Our needs are identical with labor's needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community. That is why Negroes support labor's demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and the labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth".

While viewed with suspicion by every broadcast and print media outlet in New York City, Roger Toussaint's framing of his unions strike as a modern day civil rights action was and is completely accurate. It was civil disobedience of the highest order. It spoke to the moral imperatives facing our nation. It raised the question of how much we do or do not value the work of the working class and the degree to which many New Yorker's have accepted the notion that we are undeserving, have no right to demand better, and should quietly accept less. It was about more than a contract.

In the midst of the strike I worried that we were missing a strategic opportunity, as a movement, to advance a working class agenda. In the wake of the strike I can't help but wonder: as Local 100 was battling on the inside, holding down the picket lines, and spinning the story to the high ground, what would the rest of us have been doing if this were the height of the civil rights movement?

There were no coordinated mass actions beyond the ones organized by the union and none at all targeting the Mayor, the Governor, or the MTA to demonstrate broad public support for the fight. There were no mass meetings held in communities aimed at consolidating and holding public opinion. There were no direct actions targeting NYC tabloids for their descent to new lows in slandering the union leaders and membership. There was no coordinated media strategy aimed at shifting the debate to reinforce Toussaint's "more than a contract" message or the "dignity and respect" message or force the debate toward a hard look at the role of the Taylor law in suppressing the most basic right of workers. There were lots of people walking across the Brooklyn bridge but not with picket signs.

To be fair, there were acts of solidarity. Ministers planned press events, staff and members of organizations leafleted the public, organizations mobilized to the TWU rallies. But these uncoordinated acts could not measure up to the scale of the moment. In the end, this is not about pointing fingers or saying who should have done what and better. But it is a recognition of how far we are from where we need to be, the current limits of our organizing, and our ability to mobilize at scale.

Given the strategic importance of New York City to the global economy, how our movement (not just individual unions) responds to attacks on the working class takes on increasing significance. It remains to be seen whether or not TWU can pull a victory out of the current crisis. And from a larger movement perspective, we can probably conclude that the movement lost important strategic positioning - the issue of the "inevitably eroding pension" seems to have successfully been implanted in the public consciousness. The possibility of losing both tactical and strategic battles in one fell swoop does not bode well for our movement. The measure of our ability to learn will be in how well we prepare now for these fights.

Adrianne Shropshire: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 7:35 AM, Jan 26, 2006 in TWU 100
Permalink | Email to Friend