The Australian wharfies battle may be over for now, but it is safe to predict that the transportation industry will continue to be a battle zone between First world labor and capital.
Since transportation systems cannot be exported to third world countries, and technological change makes possible brutal job rationalization, we will see more explosions soon. British rail workers just elected a member of Scargill's Socialist Labour Party to head up the engineers union.
European transportation employers look to the US model, they would love to shift more freight to rail, to take advantage of containerization, but multiple borders and lack of double stack capacity leave them far more dependent on trucks than their US counterparts. More confrontations with their truck drivers is likely.
The Teamster's election in the US, however it may come out, will see a rise in expectations from a restive membership, driven long hours and stagnating pay. Hoffa will carry the weight of his father's glory days, Hall the mantle of the UPS strike. The shortage of truck drivers adds an element of confidence either leader will have to contend with.
In rail, where I work, productivity continues to soar, with freight levels at record rates. Class 1 employment has dropped another 12,000 jobs since 1996, even as railroads take back more freight from the trucking industry, with share now around 40%. After years of record profits, the next round of negotiations with the mega carriers left in the field by the last round of mergers, will see, in my opinion greater pressure for wage increases than in any time since the 1970's. The two to three percent rises in the last twenty years have left rail workers with little to celebrate.
The Surface Transportation job statistics for Class One railroads reproduced below show one other interesting item. Elimination of professional and administrative jobs, ie. low level management, and a twenty percent increase in Executives, officials and staff assistants. More evidence of class polarization, if we needed it.
PART 1. Number of Employees
Number of
Employees % of Change
Mid-Month From
February February January
1998 1997 1998
Total - All employees 177,042 0.98% -0.69%
Executives, officials, and staff 11,324 20.16% 1.15%
assistants
Professional and administrative 20,418 -10.26% -0.32%
Maintenance of way and structures 37,898 3.08% -1.00%
Maintenance of equipment and 35,446 1.92% -0.57%
stores
Transportation (other than train 8,372 -6.80% -0.43%
and engine)
Transportation (train and engine) 63,584 1.53% -1.06%
Jon Flanders
(Jon is a diesel locomotive mechanic in the Albany Conrail yards)
Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)