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BART Workers Reject the Concessionary Contract Being Negotiated Now!

by John Brown
BART workers are the front line of the American Working class now under attack by the bosses, their politicians in the Democratic and Republican Parties.
The leadership of the unions are preparing the sell out and only the rank and file can stop the slide over the cliff by rejecting the concessionary contract and launching a united general strike by all transit workers, nurses, low wage workers and other workers out of contract.
BART WORKERS!
REJECT THE CONCESSIONARY CONTRACT
BEING NEGOTIATED NOW!
NO GIVE BACKS! NO TAKE AWAYS!
MAKE THE 1% PAY!

BART, AC TRANSIT, WAL-MART, FAST FOOD WORKERS AND OUT OF CONTRACT UNIONS: WE HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THE BOSSES ATTACKS WITH A BAY AREA WIDE INDEFINITE GENERAL STRIKE!

The Labor Tops (the Pie cards from the international, the State Fed and the Labor Councils) are joining management and the Democrats in twisting the arm of the rank and file and their most militant negotiators demanding a no gains/give back contract. Labor negotiator Josie Mooney has made concessions this week we must reject as DOA! BART and AC transit workers are taking the heat for all labor and can either turn the tide and defeat the bosses attacks, or a defeat will be compounded on hundreds of thousands of other workers looking for a decent contract.

Today all labor must be mobilized to stand shoulder to shoulder with AC Transit and BART workers fighting for their contract. If BART workers lose the losses will be the new bottom sought in all our contracts! So labor must direct its immense resources toward winning this contract. To do that we must create a grand united front of all Bay Area Labor and the community. To reach out to the community labor must show it is serious about organizing the low wage workers so they can win dignity and a ‘living wage’ that mass workers assemblies define. Labor must reach out to the most oppressed and exploited and win them to supporting and mobilizing all unions now out of contract, public, transit workers & low wage workers for the indefinite strike to win! To accomplish this the rank and file needs to reassert union democracy and sweep away the dead wood, be they from the international or the labor tops of the local councils who join with the bosses to stop strike actions and scare us with the threat of the anti-labor laws they will never fight!

• WE SAY $15.00 IS NOT ENOUGH! FREE QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR ALL! PENSIONS ARE A RIGHT NOT A PRIVILEGE!

• ESTABLISH LABOR/COMMUNITY WAGE AND PRICE COMMITTEES THAT DEFINE A LIVING WAGE AND FIGHT FOR AND ENFORCE A SLIDING SCALE OF PRICES AND PREVAILING WAGES TO ELIMINATE POVERTY & WANT!

• JOBS FOR ALL NOW! SHARE THE WORK! 30 HOURS WORK FOR 40 HOURS PAY!

Today, while low wage workers are making their demands heard in strikes and actions across the fast food industry, at Wal-Mart stores and warehouses, public workers and unions are put on the defensive. The bosses shrug off the 50 million who live in poverty, a misery enforced by minimum wage-slavery. The bosses even sustain “labor friendly” economists like U.C. Berkeley Professor Robert Reich (secretary of labor for Clinton) who ‘benevolently’ promote the poverty wage of $15.00 an hour as a sufficient minimum, while in Sacramento they phase in a new $10.00 minimum over 2.4 years. This they hope will prevent workers from building a general strike movement to turn on the offense.

This holding down of minimum wages by liberal politicians and economists is the hidden side of the 0.1%’s take away of the workers share. The $10.00 minimum is intended to defuse the ‘Fight for Fifteen’ movement (FF$15) and movements for a living wage, especially when they eye the prevailing wage as their goal. The bosses’ project is to drive down the prevailing wage relative to inflation by denying COLAS, in stark contrast to increases in productivity, CEO pay and stock profits.

To build a united strong movement that can win, labor must put resources to organizing the unorganized, fighting for jobs for all at a living wage, a wage which labor defines, to strengthen the alliance with the most oppressed. We will need action committees in all job sites to build a class-wide General Strike movement based in the unions and the oppressed and worker communities, exemplary political strikes like that initiated by the ILWU Local 10 on Oct 23, 2010 to ‘Jail Killer Cops’ must be held to win the communities’ just demands. LABOR MUST FIGHT FOR JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT, ALAN BLUEFORD, KENNETH HARDING JR., RAHEIM BROWN JR., MARIO ROMERO, JAMES RIVERA, END RACIAL PROFILING AND STOP AND FRISK! ‘An Injury to one is an Injury to all!'

The alliance, formed by the Democratic Party, including the liberal economists (Reich, Paul Krugman…) and the entrenched leadership of the two major labor federations, acts as an efficient tool of enforcement designed to stop workers self-organization, class struggle actions and political independence. Workers’ democratic action committees and assemblies need to be convened to organize and beat back the attacks of the 0.1%. The Democrats only support worker mobilizations to the extent they can be turned into party electoral projects. As witnessed in Wisconsin, the mass movement toward a General Strike was stuffed into an ill-fated recall campaign, disarming labor and leading to defeats for public workers.

Labor’s alliance to the Democratic Party ties labor’s hands. Labor has refused to fight the anti-labor anti-strike laws like Taft-Hartley which outlaw solidarity and general/political strikes. In contrast, a fighting workers’ Labor party will build mass democratic workers assemblies that empower strikers and mobilize the working class and oppressed communities for their victory! In order for labor to win, we must reclaim class struggle tactics and stake out political independence!

Management scoffs at labors demands! So today the Communist Workers Group (CWG) advocates united strike action of the AC Transit, the BART and the other unions (public and private) currently out of contract. The CWG calls on all labor to join in and make the transit contract class-wide fight! In order to win, to organize the unorganized and protect the most oppressed and exploited, labor must reclaim the right to strike which can only be won by victorious strike action.


SAVE OUR UNIONS! REJECT CONCESSIONAY CONTRACTS!
ORGANIZE THE UNORGANIZED!
LAUNCH THE UNITED AND INDEFINITE GENERAL STRIKE NOW!
TO WIN LABOR MUST BREAK WITH THE DEMOCRATS!
FORM A FIGHTING WORKERS’ \ LABOR PARTY!



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