Landover, MD, August 23—The two-week strike of mainly Black Metro Access workers at Hubbard Road ended with major concessions from the Metro transit system’s contractor, the infamous global exploiter of transit workers, Transdev. Their boldness and determination forced Transdev to come up with a 37 percent wage increase over three years, up from the previous paltry starting wage of $17/hour. It is the shameful racist capitalist system that forces such essential paratransit workers, who ensure that disabled and ill people can make their appointments, to fight for a barely living wage.
Under capitalism, workers will never receive pay equal to the value of their work. Wages reflect this exploitation: workers will produce billions in profits for the bosses, and often don’t see a fraction of the value they produce. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members actively helped lead and support the strike, bringing the message of the need for communist revolution against these exploiters while building class-conscious solidarity across thousands of transit workers system-wide.
Workers felt their power, limited by reform
Though the strike ended the struggle continues. The next struggle for workers in the union is to struggle for improved health insurance, an increase over the 1 percent 401(k) contribution to pensions, and increased inflation protection in the second and third years of the contract. The strike could have been more powerful if the the workers at MV Call Center, the hub of the entire paratransit system, had hit the bricks with Hubbard Road. Its contract expired at the same time as Hubbard Road and these workers voted to strike, but the International ATU leaders blocked the strike. Had the MV Call Center decided to strike with Hubbard Road, a better contract would have been won for both groups of workers. All the more reason to build an uncompromising, class-struggle oriented, communist leadership of the entire union!
The Party played a major role in organizing the strike and fighting for a good contract. Throughout the campaign, the Party pushed for a better deal than was realized. As negotiations continued, we had to decide whether to support the agreement with its deficiencies or oppose the deal and push for more. The workers had been out on strike for two weeks, did not have the MV Call Center workers on strike with them, had received the strike benefits from the union, but were beginning to feel the pain of lost wages, and would most likely vote for the latest offer. PLP members told the workers we had their backs if they wanted to continue the fight. As expected, they voted 161 to 16 to accept the deal. The workers felt their power and won some gains, but more struggle lies ahead.
Workers need party for communism
As in any reform struggle, the main question for us is convincing more workers of the PLP vision of a communist egalitarian future and the need for a revolutionary party to lead the class struggle.
The fact that the reformist international ATU leaders undermined the power of the workers was an important lesson for our base. We ensured that over 150 CHALLENGES were in the hands of the workers during the strike, and the communist Metro club brought several more workers closer to our understanding of the need for a revolutionary party to advance the interests of the working class.