Verizon store picketed in San Francisco

The video above is from a picket line I attended Wednesday at the Verizon store at 4th and Market in San Francisco. I wasn’t going to use any of it as I have to admit that I get a bit cynical after attending ineffective picket lines organized by the official Union bodies for the last 30 years or so. I am also not experienced at interviewing people with a camera stuck in their face. So I don’t feel very confident about this. However, I watched these short clips and thought they were interesting. They certainly were for me.

I arrived at the picket early as it was only from noon to one. Then a few Communication Workers of America (CWA) folks turned up, I think some of them were staffers and some were local leaders like the Asian guy at the end of the clip. One of the staffers started telling the few of us that were there about the situation and that the picket would be happening every Wednesday at this time.

I caught the guy’s attention and asked him what the demands were. He immediately started to tell me what the employers were demanding. “No”, I said, “I’ve been following that, I am interested in knowing what the Union is demanding. What is the Union fighting for?”

He looked a little confused at first but said that the he didn’t know. Then he said that Verizon wasn’t bargaining in good faith, that they weren’t talking at all. “The Union isn’t even getting to the table,” he said. I then suggested that if we want people to support us for these “middle class” jobs, how can we do that if we have no idea what the Union is fighting for? “Shouldn’t we have our demands right out there for all to see?” I said.

His response to that was, “We have to get the concessions off the table first.” He was very honest about sharing his views and it wasn’t the time to pursue it further but it didn’t seem to register that we have seen repeated strikes and disputes that were unable to get concessions “off the table” and that in order to do so we need to have demands we can organize around that can draw other sections of the working class, non Union as well as Union, and we can’t do that if no one knows what the Union is fighting for, including those on strike. It doesn’t seem to register that you can’t build the support necessary to win on the basis of helping someone with a better job and more pay and benefits than you keep them. Of course, the other side is, as in Wisconsin, the Union leadership from the top down had no problem with concessions staying on the table except dues check off and bargaining rights which directly affects them as in their capacity as negotiators and the Democratic Party as recipients of hundreds of millions of dollars of members' hard earned dues money for their election campaigns.

The support at this picket was overwhelmingly staffers, a few officials, young people from non-profits and other leftists. There is nothing wrong with this of course but we need more if this strike is to not go down to defeat as practically all the others have. I thought the guy at the end of the clip was interesting. He was a leader of a local from San Jose I think and came across as a very genuine working class guy. I asked him what I did because it seems so obvious to me that we cannot continue to do what has failed us for so long. He clearly didn’t object to the idea of shutting down the entire company; that’s just basic common sense.

The real problem lies in the strategy or what is the “line” handed down from the top layers and strategists of the organized Labor movement. For instance, the continued use of this term, “middle class jobs” didn’t just pop out of thin air, it was thought up and introduced as part of the appeal to the rest of the US public about why we should support Unions in these disputes. Each person I spoke to said the goal is to get the concessions of the table. The problem is that the Union hierarchy to a tee all agree to concessions, all support the Team Concept. It is clear that there is an incredible anger that exists beneath the surface of US society that has no organized means of expressing itself. If we want our picket lines and disputes to be supported in a serious way by the millions of non- union low waged, unemployed, and youth, then we have to have demands out there that appeal to them. The Brother at the end said exactly that but we have to have something for them then. We can’t mobilize people around a program of concessions, or damage control or with moral appeals to help me keep my job with benefits.

I spoke to one of the few rank and file Union workers there and raised some of my concerns about past strategy and how we might change course including in this strike. In other words, I was somewhat critical of what I see so far as the same methods being used that have failed us time and time again. I could see he was a little uncomfortable with this and he affirmed that he was there to support the Verizon workers, as we all have to stick together. This is a great quality we have as workers, the need for unity, especially in times of struggle, but we should not simply be cheerleaders, especially when we are witnessing the same policies over and over again that have led to failure despite extreme heroism and sacrifice on the part of rank and file, dues paying Union members.

It is difficult to raise criticism as it appears to threaten unity and the Union hierarchy will not like it, it will bring you in to conflict at some point with those at the helm of the movement who will try to undermine any influence you have in their particular Locals or bodies. But we are obligated to assess our past and learn from our failures, which are the failures of the leadership primarily. Many of the middle class lefts are visible at these events and can even play prominent roles at them as long as they are careful not to say anything critical of the leadership’s policies or bring attention to their role in the movement in any way. The use of revolutionary terminology like proletariat, imperialism and other language and Che Guevara tee shirts designed to prove their revolutionary integrity to the world is tolerated, but don’t ever openly campaign among the rank and file or try to build a base among the rank and file around a program that threatens the present relationship they have built with the employers around the Team Concept and compromise.

It will be interesting to see where the Verizon strike leads us, whether it will be played out as usual where the employers come in heavy, the Union officials cry foul and the workers end up with a slightly less destructive contract or whether it will lead to a change in the direction organized Labor is headed. I haven’t yet seen any major changes in tactics and strategy than have been used in the past which is not a good omen; hopefully that will change.

The picket is every Wednesday from noon to one.