A worker in Connecticut who was going to be fired yesterday killed eight other employees of the firm he worked for. This was reported on the front page of the New York Times today. On the same page this paper ran an article headed: "More workers face pay cuts..." They deliberately made no connection between the two articles. But of course as workers lives become harder, (some estimates say there is 20 to 30 million unemployed, that 2 million of these have no income at all) as the bosses become more vicious and cruel, as the corporations profits soar, as the union leaders refuse to organize their members to fight, then more and more workers reach breaking point and things like this will tend to increasingly happen. Actions like this worker took are counterproductive and we oppose them however we have to understand why they happen. They happen because capitalism makes more and more workers lives unbearable and the union leaders will not lead a movement to end it.
Look at this in a bit more detail. Omar Thornton the man who did the shooting was bankrupt by age 24. When he killed himself yesterday on the verge of being fired he owned only $250 worth of clothing and $600 in a bank account. The New York Times reports: "He was hounded by debt collectors for years." Capitalism drove this man to take this action. But it was not only an economic question. Omar Thornton, an African American was racially insulted and harassed at his work. Racial epithets were written on the bathroom wall along with a noose. On one occasion he held up his phone to let his girl friend hear a supervisor and another workers talk about African Americans in a derogatory way.
Omar Thornton was a member of the Teamsters union. What did they do about this racial harassment? Teamster officials are quoted in the New York Times as saying that Omar thornton "never registered an official complaint." It is like listening to a slick lawyer. So did he register an unofficial complaint? But whether he registered a complaint to the union or not is not the issue. The Union should have taken up a battle against racism and given a way out for Omar Thornton instead they bleat that he did not register "an official complaint." Where was the union in fighting to save Omar thornton's job? Where was the union in fighting to increase wages and give a better live for Omar Thornton and all the Omar Thornton's out there? These union officials refusal to fight and organize their members is a major factor in why things like these happen.
Then there are the owners of the company. Like the union officials they too are running for cover and trying to escape blame. The New York Times says the company had an "intimate culture." Some intimate culture when nooses are being drawn on the bathroom walls. A spokesperson for the owners whined: "We did not just lose employees. We lost family members." The owners go on to say how they were so benevolent and family like. But again where were they when the nooses were being drawn. And of course they paid their workers as little as they could get away with and as a result made their lives as stressful and difficult as could be and created the environment in which Omar Thornton was formed.
The capitalist system drove Omar Thornton to this. His direct employers represent that system. They drove him to this. The union leaders refused to fight in the interests of Omar Thornton and all workers in the plant and so Omar Thornton was isolated and felt he had nowhere to go but to strike out in this negative manner. These are the actors in this tragedy to whom the blame has to be allocated.
But there is one other force that has to be mentioned. The union members in the plant themselves. They too had a duty to act against racism and they too had a duty to build an opposition caucus to the local union leadership and international union leadership and fight for better wages and benefits for all and to oppose any lay offs. They too had a duty to organize and fight. They too bear some of the blame. The owners claim that Omar Thornton stole some beer and this is why he was going to be fired. Who knows if this was true. but even if it was it is not a reason to be fired. the Wall Street criminals were paid off with working peoples taxes and kept in their jobs. They were not fired.
There has to be a fight back or things will only get worse. In a survey done by the National League of Cities 51% of those that responded said they had either cut or frozen salaries of city employees, 22% said they had revised union contracts to reduce some wages and benefits, and 19% said they had instituted furloughs." And in the private sector also pay cuts are being imposed similar to those of the 1980's. As an example General Motors is paying new workers $14 an hour half the rate it pays its long term workers. One group of workers who have struct against these cuts are the workers at Mott's apple juice and sauce plant in Rochester, NY. As one worker says:"they keep piling more and more work on us, but they want to pay us less and less. It is a slap in the face."
The way to avoid workplace killings and the general suffering and violence in society is to build a society where all have a decent and secure life. this is only possible by ending capitalism and establishing a democratic socialist society.
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