BAYONETS CANNOT WEAVE CLOTH!
Bambouche
1,484 Posts
With regard to the TWU Strike. I'll gladly walk 4 hours to work if it means my fellow middle class members, specifically the unionized transit workers, get a better arrangement. The alternative is that we all work for corporations like Wal-Mart, who refuse their workers to unionize (well, except in China).
I got up early this morning and reviewed some of my favorite union-related literature.
It is the unions that helps workers have a voice against profit mongers. The unions assisted with suffrage, combatting the exploitation of underage workers, fought for minimum wage, fought for an 8-hour work day, immigrant rights, workplace safety. The list goes on.
It is no coincidence, then, that the union is despised by CEOs and profiteers. It is no coincidence that unionizing is banned in many workplaces. And it is no coincidence that media conglomerates report "OUTRAGE" at this transit workers strike. The public perception of unions is crucial. More importantly, if the public perception of a union is dampered, then so is the solidarity of the working class. If you can't organize, you don't have a voice.
When I watched Channel 7 interview people this morning who'd been waiting in line over 2 hours at the Jamaica LIRR station, an older woman when asked what she thought said, "I need to get to work, but these people need a fair wage. We're both middle class." A younger gentleman, when asked the same question, said, "This is ridiculous, I need to get to work. This ain't right."
I re-read a pamphlet from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) this morning. One Big Union. At one time, The IWW, at a moments notice, could have an entire town on strike. The working class could fold it's arms and shut down a city if need be. From the IWW pamphlet (circa 1924):
THE MISSION OF THE WORKING CLASS[/b]
A labor organization to correctly represent the working class must have two things in view.
First: It must combine the wage-workers in such a way that it can most successfully fight the battles and protect the interests of the workers of to-day in their struggle for fewer hours of toil, more wages and better conditions.
Secondly: It must offer a final solution of the labor problem--an emancipation from strikes, injunctions, bull-pens and scabbing of workers against other workers.
I doubt the ability of many outside union representation could assemble, grieve, organize, and negotiate. It's exemplified everywhere. Even here. It's not extortion. It's a will to survive in conditions that are fair.
(New York Garbage Workers Strike, 1911. Essex & Hester)
("Uprising of the 20,000"[/b] - Garment Workers Strike, New York City, February 1910)
(Railway Strike, New York City, 1916. 86th Street & 6th Avenue)
(New York City Barbers Stike, May Day 1913. Union Square)
(Street Railway Strikers. Bayonne, New Jersey, 1915)
The IWW "One Big Union" pamphlet again:
A union man once and in one industry; a union man always and in all industries. Universal transfers, universal emblem.
All workers of one industry in one union; all unions of workers in one big labor alliance the world over.
Eugene Debs, who was later jailed for his involvement with the IWW (and also almost became this nation's president), wrote:
The attempt of each trade to maintain its own independence separately and apart from others results in increasing jurisdictional entanglements, fruitful of dissension, strife and ultimate disruption.
There's an overwhelming sense of individualism today. The New York Times headlines today are all about what this strike is doing to you. Every newscaster is talking about what this means for your christmas shopping. "Let's cut to Dave in the chopper and hear what he has to say about your commute." No one is talking about the collective middle, and lower, class, and what we need to do to maintain. That would be a far more interesting discussion.
One of the IWW members, Jack White (no relation to this douchebag), was arrested during a free speech rally and sentenced to six months in jail. He was given only bread and water during his incarceration. During his hearing he was asked if he had anything to say for himself, and he did:
The prosecuting attorney, in his plea to the jury, accused me of saying on a public platform at a public meeting, "To hell with the courts, we know what justice is." He told a great truth when he lied, for if he had searched the innermost recesses of my mind he could have found that thought, never expressed by me before, but which I express now, "To hell with your courts, I know what justice is," for I have sat in your court room day after day and have seen members of my class pass before this, the so-called bar of justice. I have seen you, Judge Sloane, and others of your kind, send them to prison because they dared to infringe upon the sacred rights of property.
You have become bend and deaf to the rights of man to pursue life and happiness, and you have crushed those rights so that the sacred right of property, shall be preserved. Then you tell me to respect the law. I do not. I did violate the law, as I will violate every one of your laws and still come before you and say "To hell with the courts."
The prosecutor lied, but I will accept his lie as a truth and say again so that you, Judge Sloane, may not be mistaken as to my attitude, "To hell with your courts, I know what justice is.
I've told you this before, but it's worth remembering today. There was a strike of the American Woolen Companies four mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912. Workers, mostly poor immigrant Portuguese, Russian, Italian, German, Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, and Belgian -- who lived in crowded worker tenements -- wanted better wages. After being docked again, the Polish women workers went on strike. Soon they were joined by workers from the other mills. By day's end, 10,000 strikers powered down all the looms.
50,000 Lawrence residents were on strike. The population at the time was 86,000. The mayor called the militia...
The strike went on. Food was brought in by train for strikers. Tent cities were set up. This went on for weeks. A parade of strikers was attacked by police, which lead to rioting. That evening, Anna LoPizzo, a striker, was shot and killed by the police. But the cops denied it. The police arrested the organizer of the strike, Joseph Ettor, as well as poet Arturo Giovanitti. The charge? "Joseph Ettor and Arturo Giovanitti did incite, procure, and counsel or command the said person whose name is not known to commit the said murder..."
With Ettor in jail, 22 companies of militia and two calvary troops were in the city. Martial law was declared. Citizens were forbidden to talk on the streets. On Tuesday, January 30th, John Ramy, a Syrian striker, was bayonetted to death.
BAYONETS CANNOT WEAVE CLOTH[/b]
The town tried to starve the strikers. The parents, fearing for the health of their children on the strike lines, contemplated scabbing. A sympathetic newspaper put out a call, and within days people all over the country offered to care for the children of the Lawrence strikers. A hundred children left Lawrence on a train bound for New York City. When they arrived they were greeted at Grand Central Station by five thousand Italian union members singing "Internationale." More children left Lawrence. The mayor said no more children would be permitted to leave. Despite this, 40 children left for Philadelphia. When they arrived the station was filled with cops.
A member of the Women's Committee described what happened next:
The children were about to make their way to the train-when the police closed in on us with their clubs, beating right and left, with no thought of children, who were in the most desperate danger of being trampled to death. The mothers and children were thus hurled in a mass and bodily dragged to a military truck, and even then clubbed, irrespective of the cries of the panic-stricken women and children.
The next week the cops clubbed a pregnant woman and she gave birth to a dead child.
Fearing public perception, the American Woolen Company gave in. Offering a 5% raise to its workers.
"ONE BIG UNION"
All workers of one industry in one union; all unions of workers in one big labor alliance the world over.
I say you put down your rap records, your stupid break records, your free jazz and your Brazilian shit. Pick up a Woody Guthrie album.
Well, I used to be a pretty fair organized feller,
Till I turned a scab and then I turned off yeller,
Fought ev'ry union with teeth and toenail,
And I sprouted a six-inch stinger right in the middle of the tail,
And I growed horns...
And then I cut 'em off, I wanted to fool you.
I hated union ever'where,
'Cause God likes unions
And I hate God!
If you don't listen to Guthrie, please, at the least, stop bitching about what this does to your commute. Bring a bowl of soup to those Transit Workers on the picket line. Ask them what they think, what they made this year, how many kids they have. My guess is you'll see you have more in common with them than you do with their opponents.
Comments
Please also remember that these "Greedy" transit workers are taking a penalty of 2 days pay for every 1 day on strike.
You rule dude!
They ran a surplus last year...
wow respect.
Very cool....most big city transit runs at a deficit.
I am pretty certain the surplus was only for the last fiscal year, and it incorporated the increased fares for riders that went into effect during the spring. While I do not doubt the sincerity of the union's issues or concerns, using the current surplus to subscribe to the notion that they have plenty of money to agree to the union terms is likely not the case. I know there is some disagreement with how much 'surplus' MTA says it has, but my understanding is that the surplus in itself could not cover the costs associated with the unions goals/demands.
also if i recall, i think estimates of the strike range in the 200-400 million in lost revenue for the MTA (obviously can increse/decrease based on days prolonged). So, much of this surplus will likely be deminished by years end.
again, i am not faulting the union for striking, as issues in healthcare seemed very appropriate given the benefits appeared to be on the low end for many city workers, but as with any organization that requires so much capital investment, surpluses can go by the wayside just as fast as they appear (without even addressing employee benefits).
either way you align yourself to the strike, i am bothered with the Mayors seemingly lack of interest in this matter prior to the strike going into effect. I did not see much in the news about him attending to this situation until it was very near (i.e. only the last week).
and as always....bam gets a thumbs up for his knowledge dropped to the soulstrut masses.
Printing...
I can't co-sign this enough. Thank you for taking the time to research and share this E. This is why I love you.