AFL-CIO Tops Terrify Biden and Congress. Say They Stand by Railroad Workers

 

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

GED/HEO

12-2-22

 

The US Congress, dominated by millionaires and lawyers has headed off a strike of railway workers imposing on them a contract that they previously rejected in September. This move, to defend the profits of the investors in the private companies that own this means of transportation, (Warren Buffet among them)  has been spearheaded by powerful Democrats, Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden, the most pro-union president in history according to himself along with many of the top officials of organized labor. It is a major assault on workers’ right to strike.

 

The measure to impose the contract rejected in September, passed the House Wednesday and the Senate Thursday December 1^st.  

 

There is the usual “we stand with Rail workers” from the AFL-CIO, the national body representing about 14 million workers to which most US unions are affiliated. This meaningless phrase is dragged out during any labor dispute and it should be taken literally, stand they will, motionless until the dispute is over and the workers involved suffer another setback.

 

President Biden praised the contract on November 28^th saying that it was “….approved by labor and management negotiators in September. On the day that it was announced, labor leaders, business leaders, and elected officials all hailed it as a fair resolution of the dispute between the hard-working men and women of the rail freight unions and the companies in that industry.”

 

The important phrase here is labor leaders, business leaders, and elected officials, which means that workers, and in this case the members of the rail unions involved, had no representatives at the table that were serious about defending and expanding their rights, wages and benefits.

 

Biden went on to say that his economic advisors, (themselves representatives of Wall Street investors and the banks) claim “….as many as 765,000 Americans – many union workers themselves – could be put out of work in the first two weeks alone.”

 

If you read Biden’s statement, it’s all about defending workers, “…we cannot let our strongly held conviction for better outcomes for workers deny workers the benefits of the bargain they reached…” he wrote. How touching.

This is an insult to workers, expecting us to believe that that he’s acting for our benefit. Nancy Pelosi pushed the same garbage. These representatives of big business and their mass media always claim actions they take that actually hurt us, are for our benefit in the long run; it has a sinister similarity to domestic violence. Aggressive demands for a wage increase that would actually pay the rent will cost jobs we are told. This is not some law cast in stone. The response from the working class and our organizations is key.  It is never mentioned that it will actually affect profits, that is why they oppose wage increases and that is why these politicians of big business are united in passing legislation that is denying workers the right to strike.

 

The response from the labor officialdom is pathetic but standard faire also. For them, profits are sacrosanct so they too will always ensure that their members do not threaten them and also do not threaten the relationship they have built with the bosses’ based on labor peace. They act to get their Democratic friends off the hook obscuring the reality that these decisions are political decisions, instead claiming stupidity, flawed politicians taking the wrong path rather than a conscious decision based on class interests.

 

Matt Parker of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said: “The overly simplistic approach that the administration has taken to this whole issue shows how out of touch they are with the plight of railroad workers.” US Guardian 11-30-22  Is that it? All they need is to be educated, maybe stay in a workers’ home for a week.

 

I read a report that Willie Adams, President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) that represents the dock workers on the US West Coast that said that, “There’s no excuse for taking away workers’ collective bargaining rights. Congress failed America’s workers today."

 

These statements are pretty  pathetic. The US Congress does not represent the workers of the US. I have lived in this country for 50 years and was active in the trade union movement for 30 of them. Throughout that time, US workers have been driven backwards under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Congress has not failed, just the opposite, they've done their job and the railroad barons and the capitalist class as a whole is delighted. The entire capitalist class put a lot of pressure on their politicians to not be swayed and do what they are paid to do.

 

These battles, that labor officials call betrayals, but are class conflicts, are too numerous to mention. But it is no wonder working class consciousness has been driven back in the US as the ideology and propaganda of capital is not countered in a serious way and the Democratic Party is a main player in keeping workers at bay acting as the good cop in the good cop bad cop game. 

 

To say we have a crisis of leadership in the trade unions is an understatement and, an equally important problem, perhaps greater, is that we have no political party of our own. This huge political vacuum is one of the reasons a degenerate like Trump can rise to the top and this failure of leadership is also a major reason most workers no nothing of our own history.

 

Unfortunately, many genuine reform groups refuse to face reality and attribute actions like the Biden Administration has spearheaded here as the activity of flawed individuals. Hugh Sawyer, who is the treasurer of Railroad Workers United, a reform group within the industry tells the US Guardian that, “The Democrats and Republicans are both pawns of big business and the corporations.”, which is true,  but also claims that “Joe Biden blew it…….. He had the opportunity to prove his labor-friendly pedigree to millions of workers by simply asking Congress for legislation to end the threat of a national strike on terms more favorable to workers.”

 

Biden has no labor friendly pedigree. He did not blow it. His party is a capitalist party and represents the interests of capitalists and that class as a whole. He is just doing his job. From what I gather, some DSA members in Congress voted for the legislation. It wouldn’t surprise me as the leadership of DSA clearly believes that the Democratic Party is a vehicle through which significant change for working people is possible. Decades of experience shows otherwise. It is not a workers’ party.

 

I understand and sympathize why millions of workers, having no other political alternative, would vote for someone like Biden and more importantly, the Democratic Party; one of the world’s most powerful capitalist parties. Many honest people feel very strongly about the right to vote and exercising it, and they are right to defend it. The right to vote was won from the US ruling class after years of struggle. Millions of Americans were denied it by law well in to the 20^thcentury and also through intimidation and violence that is continuing today. 

 

Others, as many friends have told me, “hold their noses” and go vote for the lesser evil.  But defending this party, describing it as a defender of the working class, or letting Biden and many others today and before him off the hook by accepting his lame excuses, is another  thing. It's inexcusable as far as I am concerned.

 

However, there are also millions of people that have abandoned the electoral process altogether, certainly at the national level, drawing the conclusion that on the issues that matter most, wages, health care, housing, security among them, nothing will change; that we can’t win. In 2016 close to 100 million opted out. Neither of the two Wall Street parties appeal to this section of society as they have nothing to offer.

 

The bosses are very confident that there will be no significant opposition to this blatant assault on US workers, not just the railroad workers but all of us. Why would they not be confident? The labor hierarchy has assisted them in their offensive against working people union and non-union.  Compare the silence from organized labor’s leadership barring a few whimpers to the statements and aggressive strategy of the young people involved in organizing non union workplaces like Amazon and Starbucks. These are an example of the leaders of the future and it’s a reflection of the bankruptcy of the present leadership of the AFL-CIO that leaders of the recent struggles at Amazon and Starbucks were not invited to the AFL-CIO’s convention in June, despite organizing new members being on the agenda.

 

As I have stated before, the ILWU is in contract negotiations that are primarily in secret and have involved the Biden Administration. They have up to now pledged to not disrupt the economy as well from what I can gather.

 

We Don’t Need Permission From the U.S. Congress to Strike

 

The ability to withdraw our labor, to strike, is the most powerful weapon we have and it is what has gotten us where we are today. Strikes were illegal, unions were illegal. It was illegal to occupy factories, illegal for Black people to sit in the front of buses or eat at white only cafes. The legislation passed in the 1930’s and 1950’s simply codified what workers had taken in the streets, communities and workplaces of the US.

 

It is inconceivable that we will not be forced to violate the bosses’ anti-union antiworker laws again and that’s what the unions should do in this instance; announce it, organize and prepare for it using some of the money the labor movement normally gives to Democrats at election time. The mere threat of it from the union movement would bring more results than Congress can deliver under the present circumstances.  Given the record it’s not likely. But to avoid yet another opportunity to tap in to the anger in US society and use it productively is only delaying the inevitable.

 

We owe it to our kids to do more. The bosses’ will not stop