WASHINGTON, D.C. March 10, 2011 — Over 150 bus drivers and other Metro workers picketed outside the bosses’ headquarters today to demand that management withdraw its appeal to federal court of the arbitration award and agree to the contract that provides a 3% annual pay raise while cutting back on benefits.
Workers have been without a contract for three years! Anger is boiling over at the bus garages. What part of “binding arbitration” do the bosses not understand? What they do understand is that they are backed by the power of the government and can probably get away with whatever the working class lets them.
Arbitration Is A Loser for Workers
Arbitration is a win-win situation for the bosses. Invariably, the arbitration will force workers to accept less than they demand, forcing them to take the losses. That’s why the bosses have the gall to try to renege on a contract that is already a give-back contract for the workers! That’s why smashing the bosses and their government through a revolution to establish workers’ power and communism is the only permanent way to solve our problems. And why flexing our collective muscles in this contract dispute through mass action is the only way to have any hope of stopping the bosses’ attack today.
The union leadership has a different plan, though. At today’s rally, after meekly moving workers away from the entrance to the building at the request of the Metro cops, they passed out postcards to send to various politicians in the jurisdictions served by Metro to encourage them to support the union. What nonsense! Only the threat of a strike — most likely illegal — will make them pay attention. The politicians are all in the bosses’ pocket.
PLP’ers have distributed well over 600 CHALLENGE’s to Metro workers over the last few months at special union meetings and at the garages, while Metro PLP’ers have fought hard in the garages and at union meetings for a more militant approach that would show an understanding of how capitalism works to systematically exploit workers. The ideas of anti-racist class consciousness are being debated and discussed by Metro workers more and more, which may help to win many angry workers away from cynicism.
Over the next 90 days, the court will issue a final decision, and then we shall see how robust the mass struggle can be at Metro in today’s climate. At the same time, several additional Metro workers have stepped forward to work with the PLP, so whatever happens in the coming three months, the communist presence at Metro will continue to grow.