Let's Fight to Win Against the War on Workers and the Poor

Let's Fight to Win Against the War on Workers and the Poor

No more token picket lines or candle light vigils: working people have the power to stop the bosses business as usual agenda.

Facing a $37.5 million budget deficit, Oakland CA, a major shipping hub and one of the busiest ports in the U.S., is unloading this crisis on to the backs of city employees, working class communities and the poor,

Unions will be voting next week on whether to accept a 3 percent pay cut in order to "ease the pain", according to reports in the local papers. Workers cringe when we hear terms like "ease the pain" and "let's be realistic". In actuality, pain is increased as we are forced to adopt the employers' realism; their program for deficit reduction. Their gain and workers' pain. We most commonly hear this advice not from the employers directly but from their allies within organized labor, the various staffers, business agents and leaders at the higher levels of the movement.

The city of Oakland crisis is no exception. Ignacio De La Fuente and Jane Brunner, who negotiated the deal according to the San Francisco Chronicle, both have their roots in organized labor. De La Fuente was Molders a Union Business Agent and recently resigned member of the Alameda Central Labor Council Executive Board and Brunner was formerly an IBEW Business Agent and labor council delegate.

Part of the economic terrorism directed at city workers is a proposed plan to install global tracking devices on their trucks (a device that this writer has on his work vehicle). This way "we'll know where they are", says De La Fuente, the architect behind the plan. But the former Molders Union BA wants to go even further and take before and after pictures of their work: "..the cameras will show us what they are doing" says De La Fuente, "....in times like these we have to be more aggressive, we can't just keep adding more bodies. We have to maximize what we have and make sure everyone is doing their job."

This aggressive, frontal attack on workers will do wonders for De La Fuente's political career and Jane Brunner is not far behind. "The unions really have come up to the table. They say they want to save services and jobs.", says Brunner. She's talking of the Union officials of course who meekly take the employers offer of job cuts or wage cuts back to their members for ratification. Faced with no alternative most workers take the latter.

Larry Hendel, who represents members of SEIU 790 has supported De La Fuente for years. When this writer was an active delegate of the Alameda Central Labor Council, I was the only delegate to oppose De La Fuente's endorsement for City Council during his first campaign. At that time this was sacrilege as he was the darling of the liberals in the council including Hendel.

The present situation where labor officials or former labor officials in city government are leading the attacks on workers is the logical outcome of the labor movement and officials like Larry Hendel supporting Democrats in the political arena and the Team Concept on the job. Despite betrayal after betrayal and a continuos decline in workers' living standards and community services, the heads of organized labor make no attempt to asses their policies but continue down the same disastrous road. It is no wonder union members hate their leaders.

In response to the tracking and filming of workers on the job, Hendel replies that "people are really ticked about this" Perhaps if the union members had tracking devices on Larry' Hendel's car and could watch what he does all day he might get ticked enough to actually fight the employers and reassess his historical support of people like De La Fuente and his friends in the Democratic Party.

Not wanting to offend the employers and Mr. De La Fuente who he has had a cozy relationship with for years, Brother Hendel re-assures the employers that, "we're willing to talk about anything". Well, why is that brother Hendel? Why are we willing to talk about anything? The employers are not willing to talk about anything. The interest on debt is not on the table. The millions that flow in to the pockets of the investors, developers and speculators that feed at the public trough is not on the table. The employers are not going to put these issues on the table and Hendel assures them that the he won't either. When he says he is willing to talk about anything he means he is willing to talk about anything the employers want to raise that will shift the burden of the crisis from them to working people and the poor.

For officials like Hendel, there is nothing more disconcerting than the idea that workers and the community should be organized in to a general offensive against the employers. Hendel is not alone in this. The entire leadership of the AFL-CIO accepts the employers' view of the world. They see no alternative to the market so what is the point of opposing market forces. The fact that most labor officials spend more time with people like De La Fuente and other politicians other than their members, or that they receive obscene salaries as their members' wages are cut is really a secondary issue. It is a symptom rather than a cause of the problem.

Faced with a united opposition of the employers and the union leadership, many workers feel there is simply nothing that can be done. The obstacle appears too great. It is one thing to fight the employers but breaking the strangle hold that the union officials have on the apparatus is a formidable task. When we are faced with concessionary contracts and want to fight back it can be pretty demoralizing to read reports in local papers of Union leaders handing over our hard won gains to help employers' out. A co-worker of mine who read the reports in the San Francisco Chronicle and the meek responses from Union leaders (normally they avoid public comment on these issues at all if they can) sighed and said, "you know our bosses are reading this stuff, it must really give them confidence". This was relevant to this brother as our contract is up and our employer is forcing a concessionary contract on us.

This same mood exists among the working class in general. With the labor leaders refusing to mobilize the tremendous potential power of labor and linking this with youth and the communities in a generalized offensive against the employers and the savage effects of global capitalism, people feel there is nothing that can be done. Great opportunities like the ILWU contract talks of last year and other major union struggles remain isolated and ineffective in the main, accomplishing at best, a slower retreat or damage control as the labor leaders refer to it.

Some of us who work and/or live in the City of Oakland are considering getting together to discuss the elections next year and what alternatives might be available to workers and the poor of Oakland. While we recognize that nothing is won by simply electing people to, office, we do recognize that a person in office that is elected as a candidate that openly opposes the two big business parties and that openly opposes the big landlords, speculators and investors that control our lives, would be in a unique position to help mobilize and organize a movement of workers and the communities that could bring the power of people on to the streets and stop the system from functioning as business as usual.

A movement like this can link with surrounding communities, the nation and even abroad.

Opposition to global capitalism and the effects it has on working people's lives from Oakland to Nairobi must be a given if any such movement is to be effective and avoid the disastrous path that union representatives or former union representatives like Hendel, De La Fuente or Brunner have taken the labor movement up to now.

If you are interested in meeting with us to discuss some of the issues raised here , contact Labor's Militant Voice at: aactivist [at] igc.org or call us at: 510-595-4676

Richard Mellor