US labor- NYC transit union strike

Nathan Newman nathan.newman at yale.edu
Mon Dec 13 14:47:13 PST 1999



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Doug Henwood
> Rudy Giuliani, [is] threatening to bankrupt the
> transitworkers union if they should dare strike later this week.
> Under NY law, the strike is illegal, so Rudy's on firm ground But
> still, the most fundamental labor right of all, the right to strike,
> is denied right here in the capital of capital. How about a labor
> rights march right here, down Broadway and across Wall Street?

Always a good argument; it might even get attention post-Seattle, unlike the 50,000 unionist march this past year in NYC that was largely ignored by the media.

On another hand, though, public employees strikes do have a problematic class nature, since increasing transit worker wages often lead to increasing fares on a mostly working class ridership - ie. decreasing income for other workers. This makes public employees strikes a tougher issue to defend on pure class terms, although many are very justified on specific worker grievances.

-- Nathan Newman



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