In America, Selfishness and Lack of Solidarity Know No Bounds
Gandalf Grey
In America, Selfishness and Lack of Solidarity Know No Bounds
By Dave Lindorff
Created Nov 9 2009 - 11:37am
As the strike by transit workers in Philadelphia enters its fifth day, it is
clear why unions have such a tough time in the United States, where fewer
than one in eight workers is covered by a union contract.
Although the average pay of transit workers is just $50,000 a year (that
represents take-home pay of less than $35000 take-home after taxes or about
$3000 a month to live on for a typical family of four), the suburbanites who
feel put out because they have to brave huge traffic jams to get to and from
work in the city are grousing that the transit workers are greedy for
holding out for a slightly-less-than 4% per year pay increase over the three
years of their contract.
I just got into a debate at the local YMCA gym with an older guy who
probably makes over $100,000 a year and whose children are already grown,
who was incensed that the "greedy bus and subway drivers" were asking for a
raise at this time "with the economy in such a mess."
But I also noticed, as I drove my son into school this week in the traffic
crush, that these same suburbanites are, for the most part, continuing to
drive to work one to a car. What a lack of creativity!
My wife, who frequently travels to Rome to do research, has on several
occasions landed in that city during one of its frequent transit strikes.
She reports that the people of this ancient city take these job actions in
stride, getting out their bicycles, taking leisurely walks to school, or
simply going on holiday for the duration. People don't get mad at the
workers. In Italy, it's understood that when one group of workers fights for
better pay or working conditions, everyone benefits in the end.
This fellow I was arguing with about the Philly transit strike, said, "It's
not like this is the 1920s or '30s, when unions were really needed because
people were being exploited."
"Oh really?" I said. "You don't think the workers at Wal-Mart or in your
local supermarket are being exploited?" The truth is that working conditions
for American workers have been getting progressively worse in recent years,
while pay has actually been falling in real dollars, because union
representation has been falling for several decades from a high of over 35%
back in the early 1950s. Those unions, like the transit workers union in
Philadelphia, which are still fighting the good fight, are really all that
stands between ordinary American workers and a truly nightmarish return to a
Dickensian era.
Does anyone believe that the type of manager that we have seen pillaging the
economy on Wall Street, or stealing jobs and already earned pay from workers
at Republic Window & Door in Chicago, is an exception to the rule? Hell no.
American managers are congenitally ruthless exploiters of human beings
constrained only by unions or their fear of unions, and by the protective
legislation, such as minimum wage laws, occupational safety and health laws,
etc., which Congress has grudgingly passed because of the pressure from
unions and their workers.
We should all be cheering the workers of the Transport Workers Union Local
234 in Philadelphia for their grit and determination in standing up to the
management of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. Their
fight is our fight. They like us are struggling to pay rent or mortgage
bills, to buy food for their families, and to pay their medical bills.
Workers all around the Philadelphia area should be organizing car-pools,
getting their bikes out of the garage, and collectively telling their own
bosses to cut them some slack if they're late to work or have to stay home
for the day because of the strike.
We should also all be writing letters condemning the bias of the local media
in Philadelphia, which have as a group focused entirely on the hardship to
commuters caused by the strike, and not at all on the issues confronted by
the transit workers themselves.
Furthermore, it is not the fault of the SEPTA workers in Philadelphia that
bus and subway fares are too high. Nor is it their responsibility to accept
low wages to subsidize lower fares. It is the responsibility of the state of
Pennsylvania to keep those fares affordable. Mass transit cannot and should
not be self-financing. It is a social good. It helps protect the environment
by reducing air pollution from cars, reduces wear and tear on roadways, and
helps reduce the nation's dependence upon oil imports.
Instead of complaining about the union for calling a strike, we should all
be cheering them on. America needs more labor militancy, not less.
--
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Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike,
that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in
this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud
of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing
of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to
which we are committed today at home and around the world.
"
-John F. Kennedy, 1961
Raymond
For an end to militarism and war
It is now more than six years since the beginning of the Iraq war.
This act of aggression has resulted in the deaths of over a million
Iraqis and destroyed an entire society, while leading to the deaths of
over 4,000 US soldiers. In prosecuting the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq, the American financial and corporate elite is seeking to assert
military control over regions rich in oil and other natural
resources.
As the economic crisis intensifies, the contradiction between the
long-term decline of American capitalism and the unquenchable appetite
of the ruling class will intensify the drive toward military conquest,
increasingly pitting American imperialism against its rivals in Europe
and Asia. The world confronts the disaster of a new world war, this
one fought by nuclear-armed powers.
We should demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all US
troops and private mercenaries from Iraq and Afghanistan and an end to
US military aggression throughout the world. The US war machine must
be dismantled, and the vast sums expended upon it used to pay
reparations to the societies devastated by American bombs and to help
meet pressing social needs at home.
---- “The World Economic Crisis, the Failure of Capitalism, and the
Case for Socialism.”
Werner
>
> In America, Selfishness and Lack of Solidarity Know No Bounds
>
> By Dave Lindorff
>
> Created Nov 9 2009 - 11:37am
>
> As the strike by transit workers in Philadelphia enters its fifth day, it is
> clear why unions have such a tough time in the United States, where fewer
> than one in eight workers is covered by a union contract.
>
>
> We should all be cheering the workers of the Transport Workers Union Local
> 234 in Philadelphia for their grit and determination in standing up to the
> management of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. Their
> fight is our fight. They like us are struggling to pay rent or mortgage
> bills, to buy food for their families, and to pay their medical bills.
>
That makes them no different from other families who have to pay more
for transportation so that transport workers get more.
...
>
> Furthermore, it is not the fault of the SEPTA workers in Philadelphia that
> bus and subway fares are too high. Nor is it their responsibility to accept
> low wages to subsidize lower fares. It is the responsibility of the state of
> Pennsylvania to keep those fares affordable. ...
Speaking of selfishness, shouldn't transit workers respect The Public
Interest and ask for less not more?