<div>Doug:</div> <div> </div> <div>Thanks for posting my piece on the strike. Some comments. </div> <div> </div> <div>I don't think the unions are brain-dead on public support. You're generalizing from the construction trades, where the rat is the greatestand only innovation since the mass picket. An electroencephalogram would show some level of increased brain activity when it comes to making common cause with the public. That's especially true for the teachers, who've moved in the last 10 years to actively and successfully courting parent and community groups on school funding and curriculum issues and other common concerns. And it's also true for the TWU, which six years ago and even under its old leadership hired Corporate Campaign to bring its issues to the public, in anticipation of a strike the former leadership eventually walked away from. This time--and its still too early for those of us not immediately in the TWU 100 extended family to say for sure--it looks like the union spent its time solidifying its own ranks, thinking that a solid walkout meant the MTA thickheads would blink, and relying on PR- guru-to- the-stars Ken Sunshine to get the word out that what's good for transit workers is good for the public, too. Faced with a solid walkout, the MTA didn't blink, and it looks like the union had no plan <a href="http://B.in">B.in</a> a situation where one public workers union-- no matter how strategically placed-- could no longer bring a state authority to its knees. </div> <div> </div> <div>Re: solidarity: The local never had the expectation that other unions would do more than offer verbal support, turn out numbers on picket lines and rallies, bring coffee to freezing pickets or raise money for a strike fund. Solidarity job actions were never in the cards--why that is true is an issue worth puzzling over--and by the third Central Labor Council rally I was getting tired , too, of the daisy chain of tough-talking labor leaders who joined Jesse Jackson and the Rev Al in pledging a rhetorical support they were in no real position to flesh out. But it's also a mistake to minimize what the Central Labor Council and the Municipal Labor Committee were prepared to do, and did. Like poker, sometimes you just have to bluff. </div> <div> </div> <div>As I write, talks are going on and the Times is estimating a contract could be in hand after Xmas. If that happens, and if it contains no givebacks, Roger Toussaint will be a hero. , and the Taylor law weakened. It'll be worth nine days of pay in penalties. Stay tuned. </div> <div> </div> <div>Mike</div> <div> </div> <div><br><br> </div> <div><span class="gmail_quote">On 12/22/05, <b class="gmail_sendername">Doug Henwood</b> <<a href="mailto:dhenwood@panix.com">dhenwood@panix.com</a>> wrote:</span> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:<br><br>>In any case, I just have just one question - why is not this and similar <br>>editiorial broadcasted all over NYC and the nation in labor friendly<br>>*POPULAR* press.  I understand that expecting the WSJ or Murdoch rags do it<br>>is unreasonable, but why is not there an equivalent of  "The Guardian" in <br>>NYC?  If publications targeting much small audiences - like The Nation,<br>>Mother Jones, Dollars and Sense, and yes, LBO, can survive, why not a<br>>labor-friendly daily targeting broader audiences?<br><br> There are a lot of financial and logistical obstacles to this sort of<br>thing, but it's also the case that unions in NYC are braindead about<br>building public support. As I recall Mark Maier's book City Unions,<br>the NYC government has long made it a point to prevent any kind of <br>union alliance with the public over the quality and quantity of<br>public services, but 40 years after the fact, I don't understand why<br>the unions should continue to play along. I suppose it's because the<br>leadership likes its role as a very junior partner of the ruling <br>elite and doesn't want to rock the boat. But it's stupid politics<br>over the long term.<br><br>The TWU has done nothing to present its case to either the riding<br>public or the broad working class. I was surprised to read in a <br>Reuters story moments ago that:<br><br>>A WNBC/Marist poll published late on Wednesday showed 55 percent of<br>>New Yorkers opposed the transit workers' decision to strike, while<br>>38 percent supported it.<br> <br>Surprised in the sense that the gap was only 17 points. Imagine if<br>the union had spent the last six months building support.<br><br>Doug<br>___________________________________<br><a href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk"> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</a><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>________________________________________<br>`And these words shall then become<br>Like oppression's thundered doom <br>Ringing through each heart and brain,<br>Heard again -- again -- again--<br>`Rise like Lions after slumber<br>In unvanquishable number--<br>Shake your chains to earth like dew<br>Which in sleep had fallen on you--<br> Ye are many -- they are few.'<br>--------Shelley, "The Mask of Anarchy:<br>Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester" [1819]<br><br>