Four Week Lockout Ends In Defeat For Teamsters

Richard Mellor
AFSCME Local 444 Retired
Oakland CA
8-2-07

San Leandro CA

After absorbing the severe financial stress of being locked out for a month, members of Teamsters Local 870 suffered further setbacks in the contract deal brought to them by Teamster officials. The employers, Waste Management Co, imported scabs from other parts of the U.S. during the lockout and brought in their other allies, a mediator and Oakland mayor, Ron Dellums. The liberal community and the heads of the labor movement in this area have revered Dellums, a former congressman and mentor of another popular liberal Democrat, Barbara Lee.

When asked by the press if the lockout “was a test of his leadership” Dellums replied, "I don't take it to have anything to do with me. It has to do with a company in a dispute with a labor union. It would be a gigantic mistake for me to personalize this. That's a journey I choose not to go on." (1)

With friends like these, it should come as no surprise that Waste Management got what they wanted. According to press reports, management got a five-year contract while workers got a 5% raise which with inflation will most likely be a wage reduction

The contract also makes it easier for the employer to fire workers for repeated safety violations, something the Union also opposed. Not knowing the details of this it is not easy to comment on it. But Unions, much more so than the employers, have fought for increased safety at work. The same goes for those of us that work in the community. Management’s cutbacks and drive for the bottom line have been safety hazards for workers and our communities whether in a hospital or in city streets; working people don’t cut funding to fire departments or public services, the employer’s have their politicians do it. We should be suspicious of management’s claims here.

A real plum for the boss is the Union’s acceptance of binding arbitration and a no strike clause for the five years of the contract. In return, waste Management won’t lock them out.

Waste Management are “pleased with the new arrangement” says the report in my local paper. (2) And so they should be. Chuck Mack, Local 70 spokesman also called the settlement a “good” one.

So the slide in to oblivion of the once powerful US labor movement continues. The Team Concept and damage control strategy that flows from it is still the main weapon of the strategists of organized labor.

The heads of organized labor from the top down have no program or strategy for fighting the offensive of capital. The employers are very confident as labor officials come to them cap in hand, ready to concede their members’ wages and benefits from the get go. In response to the friendly offer of concessions to save the team, the employers demand more. It would be humiliating but it is not the standard of living of most labor officials that is under siege.

“But the members voted for it!” employers and Union officials respond in chorus. Waste Management’s spokesperson, David Tucker is convinced the employees whose material interests he has just set back somewhat are happy, “I think the 363-3 ratification vote speaks loudly that we have reached a fair and balanced agreement” he says. (3)

The Teamsters Chuck Mack, recognizing that this is in actuality a setback is more cautious, “This whole thing was really a textbook example of how not to handle yourself if you are a large corporation.” “Our workers are satisfied” he tells the Times.

Naturally, workers voted overwhelmingly to go back to work, they have lost a month’s pay and see no chance of winning. They clearly see they are fighting a defensive struggle. Whatever Michael Moore’s faults, his movies make people think about US society in a critical way. His recent film Sicko, is his best and most polished film. One of the points made in his film, introduced through an interview with Tony Benn, the former British Labor party MP, is that the lack of social services and social safety nets in the US puts US workers at a terrible disadvantage.

Young workers seeking an education end up mired in debt and find themselves working three jobs to get enough to pay for school. One of those jobs might be the one that will provide some sort of health benefits. During the strike in the water district where I worked, the first threat that came our way was a reminder that our health care coverage would be discontinued in a month. What terror this implies for workers with sick family members or young children. Consequently, people keep their mouths shut on the job. What an advantage workers in France have. How much more confident they must feel to challenge the boss when their education is free or their health care is provided for regardless of what happens at work.

When there is no alternative on the table to concessions. When a medical co-pay of $15 is dropped to $10 after a month or two without pay and walking picket lines that aren’t orchestrated to stop scabs from crossing, life can get pretty demoralizing and concessions become an acceptable deal. Union officials then portray it as a victory. Starving to death a week beyond your master’s deadline is a victory of some sorts I suppose. “"I can accept what they've offered," said one locked out worker. "If it had gone on any longer, I would have been in trouble,", said another. After four weeks without pay and not the slightest hint from any quarter that gains could be made, any contract that keeps a roof over one’s head and the kids braces on their teeth is ‘acceptable” even if one has to work longer hours to do it.

Brother Mack reveals the thinking of the labor leadership that has led to years of catastrophic defeats for organized Labor. "In collective bargaining, compromises are the heart of the process," he tells the San Francisco Chronicle. (4) This view is held by the entire leadership of organized Labor. But there is no such thing as a win-win situation, it is exactly this strategy of compromise, of damage control, that is at the heart of the matter and is why labor’s share of the national pie has continued to decline.

The employers are intent on taking back all the gains of the last 100 years; they have made that very clear. But organized labor is not powerless and the working class in the US is still the most powerful force in society. The docks, auto, steel, transportation, and communication are all unionized industries. It is not the aggressiveness of the employers that is the main feature in the decline of living standards, it is the failure of the Union leadership to respond with equal aggression. The public sector alone has the potential to completely shut down economic life in the US.

It is this power that must be mobilized in our own defense. The Team Concept has to be abandoned. Anti-Union laws must be challenged. Demands such as a $15 minimum wage, shorter workweek and jobs and social services for our communities must be made to draw in the rest of our class in this struggle against the capitalist offensive. The days of cops ensuring scabs rights to walk calmly through picket lines must come to an end. Mass picketing, occupations, mass violation of ant-Union laws and injunctions, this is what built the Unions in the first place and what will defend our livelihoods today.

We are potentially far more powerful that we were prior to the great struggles of the 1930’s and the building of the CIO. It is one thing to compromise after a bitter struggle, when the forces are not in our favor for whatever reason; retreat at times a part of having a serious offense. But a policy of compromise is a disaster.


(1) SF Chronicle 7-26-07
(2) San Leandro Times 8-02-07
(3) ibid
(4) SF Chronicle 7-29-07