Verizon strike another tragic setback for Labor's rank and file

Good idea, there's 88% of us without Unions

It is hard to imagine the severe crisis of leadership that exists in organized Labor getting any worse than it is but I have to admit that I once thought there would have been a revolt from within before now. I underestimated the stifling weight of the bureaucracy and its ability, aided by an army of full-time staff, to cling to power.

With the events of this year, thousands in the streets of Madison Wisconsin fighting for the right to negotiate their livelihoods away in order to keep the Labor officialdom employed and the Democratic Party in power followed by yet another surreal situation with 45,000 Verizon workers on strike for “focused and narrowed” negotiations without an economic demand in sight, the stage has been set for further decline and a more brutal and violent confrontation with the employers when, with backs against the wall, workers see that they only way left is forward.

Like the Wisconsin events, in the Verizon strike the Labor hierarchy has made no public statements identifying the issues that they want to be “focused and narrowed” about except the demands for major concessions from the bosses.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, asking folks on picket lines what the demands of the Unions were generally brought blank looks followed by a repetition of the Union hierarchy’s statements about how much the boss wants to take away and that this struggle is about “middle class” jobs and the “American Dream “(that never existed for millions of Americans) and just plain fairness.

I went to the CWA website this morning and, as I expected, nothing much there since Sunday.  “CWA is Outraged”, says the headline (CWA means the few at the top) at public comments the bosses are making about the return to work.  The CWA statement reads:

“We are disappointed to see this quote from Marc Reed, Verizon’s Executive Vice President for Human Resources, that the company hoped “to convince the unions to begin bargaining with us in good faith.”  It is both inaccurate and insulting.

We agreed with management not to claim victory in changing the process, reinstituting the contract or shaping our goals.  We will live by that commitment.”

Well aren’t they just decent fellows playing by the Marquis of Queensberry rules.  They’re downright hurt that the boss would treat them with such contempt given that they assist them in implementing their efforts to drive down wages and working conditions that took decades of struggle and sacrifice to win.

In a period when US workers are having our livelihoods savaged and our organizations dismantled the officials are “outraged” at comments the bosses make in the press about deals they’ve made with them.  This is how detached one becomes from the real world when one's only connection to the class struggle is a life cradled in the lap of a decaying bureaucracy. 

The CWA statement continues: “But Reed's comment if not retracted means that we will be prepared to fight and fight hard whenever necessary if Verizon believes it can resume negotiations on that basis. We were encouraged by millions of Americans at our side in the fight for bargaining rights, middle class jobs and a decent standard of living. We thank them for their support.”

And how, pray, will they fight? The reason that the Union hierarchy makes no public statements about the Union’s demands is that they have no demands other than vague claims about “middle class"  jobs and “fairness” and statements like these. They cannot make a real public issue about their general position which is that they are fully on board with concession (not from them but their members) because it’s hard to convince people you’re actually fighting for them when you openly support the opponents goals. And it's hard to get people to join a fight that takes away what they have; not too inspiring.

This Verizon fiasco orchestrated by the Labor hierarchy is yet another nail in the coffin for the “official” trade Union movement and workers in general.  It will lead to further decline in the ranks and influence of organized Labor in this country and make it increasingly likely that any serious movement of our own that can drive back the capitalist offensive will likely arise outside of these traditional organizations.  Even so, I cannot see the Union movement not being convulsed by such developments and being transformed by them with splits, struggles and new leadership emerging to take the movement forward.  Entrenched as the officialdom appears to be appear to be, they were once compared to rotten apples hanging on a tree that fall quickly to the ground at the first major storm which is an accurate description.

Because of the role of the trade Union heads and the complete failure of what we call “the left” in the US to build any serious broad left current within the workers movement, obsessed as they are with recruitment and the building of their own small (and mostly insignificant little groupings), the coming battles will be more difficult, confused and with the increased likelihood of violence.  But a movement will occur and it will struggle to find its feet through the morass of competing ideologies and advice of the experts and academics from the middle classes.

After years of defeats and decline, the great traditions of the US working class have been obscured and/or driven deep in to the back of our minds.  The Labor leadership’s old methods that worked up to a point during the period of the post war boom have long since had their day.  The objective situation has changed, telling the members to just pay the dues and “leave it to us boys” has nothing to offer but defeat.

This has had its effects on the consciousness and confidence of the working class.  The tradition of political struggle and politics in general has been severely weakened.  Workers feel there is no way out, no way we can win and this is reinforced by the Labor hierarchy, their allies in the Democratic party and liberal/left academia that gives them intellectual credibility.

There is no doubt in my mind, that this year as in the past, there have been opportunities missed yet again.  That had there been through Wisconsin to Verizon, an attempt to mobilize workers and our communities around a program that connects to the existing consciousness, a program of concrete demands filled with class content, a serious movement and offensive of our own could have been built.

Time and time again, polls indicate there is a mood of anger out there and hatred of the rich that has followed the Great Recession. There are small but militant and angry, and somewhat confused struggles taking place everywhere,.  I mean confused with regards to how to win or where to go.  Not about what we want but how to get it. The struggles of the youth against cuts in education and of the black youth against police brutality and catastrophic conditions they they face would be drawn to the power of the organized working class if it reached out to them.  I read in today’s Wall Street Journal that home loan delinquencies are up again.  The worse things get, the more the Union tops capitulate in order to help capitalism out.

I was talking with a fellow blogger about the demand that all lobbying be band and that anyone caught lobbying be jailed.  This demand alone would be supported by almost all workers and sections of the middle class as no one hates politicians more than here in the US.  No strike can win without generalizing the struggle and we can’t generalize the struggle without having demands to organize around and fight for. Our movement must demand what we need including:

No Concessions, a mass public works program for jobs, infrastructure and education paid for by taxing the rich and the corporations

Stop all foreclosures---return homes to their owners

Free federally funded education at all levels and free health care for all

End the wars in Afghanistan Iraq and all predatory wars send US youth to kill and be killed in the interests of US corporations.

Open the books to public scrutiny of any corporation claiming bankruptcy

Take bankrupt companies in to public ownership

Ban all Lobbying of political figures.

No politician to earn more than the average Unionized wage in the US

Just a few suggestions.