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Workers Must Mobilize

To The Editor:

In the editorial "Pension Deal's Implication" in the June 12 issue of The Chief, the author argues that "DC 37 may have a tough decision to make, but for many of its municipal colleagues, what stands to be lost through layoffs may pale before the greater long-term harm represented by Tier 5."

By pointing out the inequities that Tier 5 will no doubt engender in the pension system, the author demonstrates the fact that it is a bad solution on so many levels. In fact, this will leave the door open for management to come back for another pound of flesh by forcing the new hires to pay for a crisis that they did not create. But layoffs and the demand for early retirement are no solution either.

Mark Rosenthal and Fitz Reid in their June 12 letter to the editor both called for early retirement for city workers as a way of preventing layoffs. Not only would this be nothing more than a stopgap measure, but without hiring replacement workers, everyone left would be forced to speed up and work out of title, creating a work situation that not only promotes inefficiencies but would be hazardous to the health of the workers that remain.

As it is, workers over the past 30 years have had their wages reduced through one fiscal crisis after another. Real wages have dropped and the cost of living continues to rise. This is because every union has failed its members. Rather than organizing a concerted fight against management's attacks, unions have attempted to work out economic solutions by making deals that resolve nothing but give the appearance of a solution.

For instance, DC 37 has fought for the right of its members to live outside of the city, since housing is cheaper in the outlying suburbs. The real problem is that we do not earn enough money to live where we work, and while we should have the right to live anywhere, we should not have to leave in order to find decent housing. The solution then is not to fight for bills that would allow members to move away from their jobs, traveling much longer distances to get to work, but to fight for higher wages and to lead a fight for affordable housing.

The economic crisis can be seen everywhere. Hospitals are closing down or the staff is severely reduced, forcing workers to do more with less while putting sick people in jeopardy. Schools, too, are being hard-hit by a lack of funds. Tuition increases have gone into effect at the City University, imposed by many of the same people who went to the City University for free. Subway fares are going up and lines are being cut while the threat of layoffs still hovers over the heads of the transit workers.

And while city workers are being made the scapegoats for the economic crisis gripping the country, bailouts in the billions of dollars have gone to major corporations and banks with no restrictions on how they use the money or how much they are allowed to pay themselves in bonuses, but every institution which supports working people in this city and across the country is scrambling for funds just to continue another day. Look at the bailout for the banks vs. the bailout for the auto companies. Workers who work at dangerous jobs were forced to take pay cuts, while bosses on Wall Street continue to live on million-dollar bonuses.

That bailout money is ours. At the very least, the government should be promoting a public works program to put people back to work. Many of the pundits have argued that the recession will be over by the end of this year, or at the very least by the end of next year, and so a little pain will ultimately translate into a healthy economy. Every other indicator (continued foreclosures, skyrocketing unemployment, cuts in services, etc.) suggests the opposite. The capitalist system is in crisis, but workers have been attacked for so long and union leaders have sold out for so long that whenever fiscal problems arise it is assumed that workers should take the hit again.

The union "leaders," while understanding that the union itself is in jeopardy (without workers there are no dues), live so far beyond the workers that they represent that challenging management would necessitate a challenge to their own positions. That is why Roger Toussaint went from a militant-sounding leader to a bureaucrat who runs his union in the most dictatorial fashion. That is also why the leadership of DC 37 continues to allow workers to make a minimal wage and allows management to assault workers through the threat of layoffs, through a diminution of our pensions, and through the worsening of our conditions. Harassment and speed-up are on the rise in many of the city's agencies. The municipal unions are so capitulatory; there is not even a provision in the contract for grieving harassment. Workers, therefore, have become afraid to speak up against injustices, since there are so many others looking for work. The bosses and the union bureaucrats know this reality, encouraging workers to hold their tongues.

If any progress is to be made for workers—that is, for the majority of the people who populate this city, we need to put in place a new leadership that will not be afraid of standing up to management. Our leaders must cohere the workers into a unified fighting force that will organize workers to stop work, if need be, in order to win our just demands. We need to stop taking it on the chin. The bosses are rolling in billions of our tax dollars while we are faced with unemployment and, in many cases, eviction for nonpayment of rent. The 1930s in the U.S. might seem like history, but those who do not understand its implication will be doomed to relive it.

So while I agree with the editorial that Tier 5 is a danger to incoming workers and thus to the solidarity of the membership, we must reject the idea, no matter how cautiously it is presented, that layoffs may be a better solution to what is a systemic crisis. We must start planning actions that will help mobilize the entire working class, which will be the only means by which to prevent future attacks, and will provide the beginnings of a strategy that will help turn around this situation so that workers can begin to make real changes in our standard of living and reverse the trend that was put into motion by the fiscal crisis in the mid-1970s.
CAROL LANG
Local 384, District Council 37