Solidarity Works San Francisco: Boston School Bus Drivers West Coast Tour

How Solidarity Can Win

Come hear how a fighting rank and file led union caucus was able to win a contract victory, an entire union election slate, a legal victory against felony charges, and all the while taking public anti-imperialist and anti-racist stands in the struggle to:
- Support Palestine, consistently marching in the streets to stop Israeli assaults, free political prisoners, and put an end to apartheid and colonization.
- For free and democratic elections in Haiti; members, including President Andre Francois, are active in the Haitian liberation party Fanmi Lavalas of Boston
- Support the Black Lives Matter movement, bringing out their members and providing sound trucks for demonstrations
Four of the victorious, Boston School Bus Drivers, members of the winning Team Solidarity slate, will talk about their fighting strategies, as part of their west coast tour.

After more than two years of hard-fought struggle, last year the militant, fighting Team Solidarity of the Boston School Bus Drivers Union — ¬United ¬Steelworkers Local 8751 — won a historic victory against global giant Veolia/Transdev, one of the most notorious capitalist union busters, as well as ¬Boston Public School bosses and Mayor ¬Marty Walsh.

Solidarity is key to the Boston school bus drivers’ success. “Team Solidarity” has been building power among the working class through a 40+ year commitment to militant unionism, racial justice, disability justice, LGBT*Q rights, and anti-imperialist struggle including solidarity with Palestine.

USW 8751 is a rank and file union with roots in the antiracist struggles of the 1970s and the desegregation of Boston schools in 1974. Today the union is 98% people of color, mostly Haitian and Cape Verdean immigrants and African American, Latin@ and Asian.
A commitment to LGBT*Q rights: The very first contract of USW 8751 in 1977 had domestic partner benefits. The contract extended medical insurance, life insurance and all other benefits to partners of drivers in a “marital-like relationship”. This past year USW 8751 invited national trans* justice organizers to write the language around trans* inclusion and LGBT*Q rights which appears in the new contract.

USW 8751 consistently stands and puts bodies on the line with those who are struggling — against police terror, against gentrification, and in solidarity with other workers, students, indigenous communities, immigrants, disability activists, and all who are oppressed.
Endorsed by: Haiti Action Committee, Workers World Party