BROOKLYN, NY, April 9 — Radiology department technologists at a major medical center here turned the tables on the bosses, forcing them to back down from their speed-up plan.
Three days ago a manager told five technologists that starting immediately our lunch-hour would be cut in half, from 60 to 30 minutes. Our 7-hour work-day incorporates two 15-minute rest periods which would now be eliminated. We have a 60-minute unpaid lunch-hour. So they intended us to work a 7½-hour day with no additional compensation, clearly violating our union contract with S.E.I.U. Local 1199.
Ten workers in radiology are regular CHALLENGE readers and are overwhelmingly black and Latino. They respond favorably to our strong anti-racist stands. Our department union delegate is a PLP member. After several discussions, we deemed the bosses’ plan unacceptable and collectively decided to fight this attack.
This morning the union organizer — who has a long history of corruption — entered the main work area with two managers and met with the technologists. The organizer said we would not lose our two rest periods but would have only 30 minutes for lunch.
The PLP delegate, who had been excluded from the meeting where this deal was cooked up, loudly stated that this was an attempt to add 2½ hours to our work-week without pay and we would never accept that. Worker after worker rose to challenge the bosses and denounce this deal.
The managers were in disarray and four workers pulled the organizer aside to let him know he was on the wrong side and he better get his facts and act straight. We immediately instituted a slowdown which brought the ultrasound and x-ray work to a crawl. An hour later we heard that the bosses had temporarily backed off their plan. Two hours later it was dead in the water.
This attack may have been a trial balloon to gauge whether they could impose longer hours on the other 1199 technologists in the lab, in obstetrics and in cardiology. It’s been 20 years since this kind of unity and militancy has occurred in our department. It resulted from dedicated organizing work by key CHALLENGE readers and other workers who have responded to our calls for action. We’re attempting to use the momentum from this struggle to organize hospital workers to join the April 28th May Day march in Brooklyn.
We realize this victory will be short-lived since the bosses still have the upper hand in this institution and in society. Nonetheless, it can spark the beginnings of a rising communist movement at the hospital.
Much work remains to be done. New PLP members must be recruited and step up to the plate. CHALLENGE sales must be expanded several fold from the current 24. Visiting workers at home will be crucial to further advance.
We must win workers to see the Progressive Labor Party as their party and as the leadership necessary to smash the bosses’ dictatorship over every aspect of our lives. Only egalitarian communism will provide health care and sustenance to all workers, another reason to fight for communist revolution.