John Lacny
Mark Bennett writes:
> But can't the strikers and their representatives do better than
> this: "Transit workers are tired of being underappreciated and
> disrespected," TWU chief Roger Toussaint said.
He has done better: he's taken tens of thousands of workers to the streets to stand up for themselves and for the not-yet-hired, all in defiance of the law. I'm sure that communications strategy can always be improved, but I'm also not confident that the press is telling the whole story of what Toussaint is saying. In clarifying moments like this, the nature of the class struggle becomes brutally clear, and the hostility of the bourgeois media is palpable. Further, the issues are pretty clear, and Toussaint has stated them publicly: MTA, which has a billion-dollar surplus, is trying to erode the pension protections of transit workers, and to create a two-tier system that would hurt the new hires and damage the status of work on the MTA -- which has hitherto been a "good job" BECAUSE of the union, of course. Local 100 members are fighting to protect their standards, and they are totally in the right -- I don't see how that counts as whiny or meek; it's really quite the contrary.
If you're looking for colorful one-liners, it's true that Toussaint hasn't been as flamboyantly defiant as Mike Quill was in a similar situation ("The judge can drop dead in his black robes . . . "), but this is a different era, and given the media atmosphere it suits his members well for him to position himself as the reasonable one (which he is -- it's MTA, not TWU, that is refusing to negotiate until the workers return to work). But of course, he HAS been colorful, e.g., with his statement when asked about the illegality of the strike -- it was something to the effect that if Rosa Parks hadn't broken the law, most of the people who now drive the buses in New York would still have to be riding in the back.
And finally, no matter what my thoughts about the union's current strategy, it tends to be my instinct to shut up about it as long as it's not my ass on the line and at risk of going to jail for leading tens of thousands of workers into struggle. No investigation, no right to speak.
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That's why I'm investigating. I'm not criticizing anyone's actions; but for many people outside NYC this strike is being reported in sound bites and one-liners. Talk of "respect" just isn't going to get the point across to the distracted multitudes; and if this confrontation is as important as many are saying it is, the important issues must be communicated to as many people as possible. True, the media may well be selective in their quotes and reporting, and Toussaint and the workers can't do much about that.