----- Original Message ----- From: Chuck0 <chuck at dojo.tao.ca> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Monday, August 21, 2000 11:29 PM Subject: Re: Verizon: union win
> Nathan Newman wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, 21 Aug 2000, Chuck0 wrote:
> >
> > > Doug Henwood wrote:
> > > >
> > > > TheStandard.com - August 21, 2000
> > > >
> > > > TOP GROKS
> > > > ~~~~~~~~~
> > > > Zap! Union Win at Verizon Jolts the New Economy
> > >
> > > Yawwwwnnn. Wake me up when the Verizon workers kick out management and
> > > start running the business as a worker-owned collective.
> >
> > Yawnn...wake me up when self-indulgent anarchists accomplish anything
> > other than pissing on other workers struggles and movements.
>
> Oh great, the list's biggest Gore supporter is going to lecture me on
labor
> solidarity.
>
> How in the hell am I a self-indulgent anarchist pissing on their struggle?
> I've been very pleased to see them on strike. I walk past their picket
line
> every day on my way to work. I laughed when one of their more vocal
picketers
> was heard during a meeting that took place 12 stories above.
>
> My criticism was about the fact that winning a contract, while something
> rewarding to Verizon workers, is small potatoes compared to what they
could
> be asking for. And let me go a little further on the limb. What's the
point
> of winning better conditions for what are basically shitty jobs? In the
short
> term, yes, better conditions are worth striking for, but in the end, who
> wants to spend their lives working in a customer service center?
>
> > These are the attitudes that make some parts of the Left look so
> > irrelevant. 86,000 workers sacrifice pay for over two weeks, mostly in
> > order to help expand the benefits of union protection to non-union
> > workers, and this kind of crap gets spewed.
>
> What, the reformist policies of the CWA business union are beyond
criticism?
> Shit, I was thinking about bringing the strikers on my block some bagels,
but
> they seemed rather well cared for.
>
> > It always amazes me that folks can blow up the importance of relatively
> > small demos involving the "usual suspects" of core activists, while
> > ignoring core radicalization of folks that happens through union
> > struggles. Heck, the recent Verizon strike probably tops Seattle and DC
> > on physical destruction and sabotague by rank-and-file activists - where
> > one union member is now in the hospital because he accidently
electrocuted
> > himself slashing a cable.
>
> Hello? When did I put down the radicalization of these workers? I've been
> following the Verizon sabotage campaign and have been joking about it with
my
> buddies.
>
> > What folks are not seeing is the real shift in strike goals in recent
> > years. Where the 1980s saw unions sacrificing long-term survival of the
> > union (through two-tier wage structures and agreements for
subcontracting
> > in exchange for security for present members), recent strikes across
> > different industries have had union members making organizing and
> > expansion of union membership the prime goal. "Bargaining to Organize"
> > has become the key strategy in negotiations and this is a seismic shift
> > for the union movement, since instead of organizing being a peripheral
> > activity, it becomes part of the day-do-day education of all members and
> > something they all take responsibility for achieving.
>
> Yep, its about time. There's also a lot of rank-and-file rebellion against
> union management too.
>
> > Notably, one of the big results of last year's Boeing strike in Seattle
> > has been the subsequent unionization of technical workers in the
company's
> > Wichita division. These agreements by CWA are taking these same
> > strategies to the national level across the industry.
> >
> > It is hard to overstate the importance of this agreement, both as a
model
> > of organizing and its model for workers specifically in the technology
> > industries.
> >
> > Don't celebrate Dems winning elections, but if you are any kind of
> > socialist, do celebrate this basic victory for worker power.
>
> Sure, it's a start. The other nice things about it are that it is
happening
> in the high tech industry and it's really cool to see a picket line on the
> streets.
>
> << Chuck0 >>
>
> This was the year *everything* changed.
> -- Commander Ivanova, 2261
>
> Mid-Atlantic Infoshop -> http://www.infoshop.org/
> Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/
> Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/
>
> Homepage -> http://flag.blackened.net/chuck0/home/
>
> "A society is a healthy society only to the degree
> that it exhibits anarchistic traits."
> - Jens Bjørneboe
>
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