An opposition group recently won the election and will become the new leadership of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100. Even though the election was held last June, the ballots were not counted until December! This was one of the many tactics used by the incumbent Toussaint leadership, which was seeking to install its handpicked successors.

Roger Toussaint himself took a position with the TWU International and therefore did not run for reelection. In the last election, he won with only 43% of the vote due to the fact that the opposition was divided among five other candidates.

Local 100 has more than 30,000 members and represents the workers who operate the subway and bus system in New York City. This is an important and powerful part of the New York City working class. Historically, the union was founded in the 1930s by militants who were in and around the Communist Party.

The fact that the opposition was able to defeat a leadership which controlled a formidable apparatus is certainly an achievement. The new president will be John Samuelson, and he promises to try to unify the union and mobilize the membership “to take on the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority).”

The victory of the opposition in the TWU is not an isolated event. In NYC, two Teamsters Locals, 814 and 804 have elected opposition slates. In SEIU, opposition to the collaboration-with-the-employer policies of Andy Stern led to the formation of the new National Union of Healthcare Workers in California.

The years ahead are going to be years of turmoil for the labor movement. From the end of the Second World War to the middle 1970s, unions could engage in collective bargaining and win wage increases, better benefits and working conditions. This allowed some union leaders to become “union leaders for life.” However, since the mid 1970s, the end of US capitalism’s post war boom means the capitalists are in crisis and they intend to make the workers pay for it.

Therefore, while it is a step forward to elect new leaders who want to mobilize the members to fight back, it is also important that these leaders have a strategy that will succeed. If they do not, they too will inevitably end up arguing that members must accept givebacks because “there is no alternative.” What is needed is a strategy that starts from the premise that the interests of the workers and the interests of the employers are incompatible.

Samuelson and the new TWU Local 100 leadership should consider the following. The attacks against the TWU are similar to the attacks against other public sector workers and also workers in the private sector. Any strategy must seek to unify the labor movement behind a program to oppose lay-offs, furloughs and other give-backs. Labor must point to the fact that since the government has money to bail out the finance industry and has given many tax cuts for big business and the rich over the years, they certainly have money to provide needed services.

Labor, if united and mobilized, can win the battle, as without the workers, public transportation, education and other important services would not be provided. In this battle, labor must also understand that although the Republicans are the open enemy of the labor movement, the Democrats are no better in practice. Presently in New York State, the governor is a Democrat and both houses of the legislature are controlled by the Democratic Party. It is they who are implementing the austerity budget. New York City has a Republican mayor, but a City Council overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats.

TWU Local 100 has the size and position to get the attention of the wider labor movement. They should put forward a program and a strategy to the other labor leaders in a public way, so the rank and file of the other unions can consider their proposals. This could unite the labor movement for victory in the inevitable struggles to come, and build a movement that could help to change the present dire situation facing workers today.

Source: U.S. Socialist Appeal