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"All of these maneuvers are designed by management and the union to create a contract that will approved by exactly fifty one percent of BART workers." - anonymous BART driver
For several months, Pete Wilson and BART management have used legal shell-games to stop any mass action by BART workers. They are trying to intimidate employees into accepting even worse working conditions than those they already face. Wilson and management have been loyally backed in this by the lies of corporate media flunkies like KRON Channel 4, the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner and so on.
The media lies, claiming that the dispute is only about wages. The main issue is the power of BART workers. Management is trying to drive a wedge between workers and union foremen by giving foremen supervisory tasks.
Working for BART is like living in a miniature police state. The Unions' perspective doesn't address the virtually totalitarian level of survielance by BART management. Workers can be disciplined for all manor of infractions. Drivers must announce each station. If the speaker isn't working on a given car of a train, the driver can be blamed for passengers not hearing the annoucement. BART management imposes an Orwellian twenty four hour no pay disciplinary leave WHAT IS MANAGEMENTS NAME FOR THIS once a worker violates a rule - "To give employees a chance to decide whether to obey all BART rules and regulations for the next eighteen months." BART workers phone calls are monitored and recorded.
Huge numbers of BART middle managers with little function have been hired. Their main purpose seems to act as potential strike breakers in the event of a walk-out. One of the chief unspoken functions of BART Police is to keep workers in line. Undercover cops ride BART in part to spy on train and station agents. BART Police are expected to operate trains and stations during a strike.
Management's police measures fuel the anger of BART workers, and these police measures are similar to those being applied to workers everywhere today.
- California is a testing ground for repressive measures, used in the workplace and in society as a whole, against the working class. if BART workers give in, more repression will follow
The news media have attacked BART workers by referring to your future strike action as an "inconvenience" to commuters.
Instead of freeway traffic hassles, hundreds of thousands of wage workers, many of them just as exploited and angry as you are, can take a wildcat vacation at their bosses' expense. This would bring extra pressure on BART management to settle the dispute on your terms.
Ask people who ride BART to call in sick in the event of a strike. Vast numbers of pissed off working people are likely to be on your side. Many will call in sick. This is a good way to break the isolation that the news media is attempting to impose on you.
The unions that supposedly represent your best interests in the conflict with management are already acting to undercut your position.
SEIU Local 790 and Amalgamated Transit Workers Union, Local 1555 issued a "BART rider bulletin" that gave phone numbers for obtaining "alternative transportation information". This undercuts the effectiveness of a possible BART strike. Stunts like this typify the way labor unions stab their members in the back. The unions' only goal is to get a chunk of your paycheck. The size of that paycheck is always negotiable to them. Timid actions by union functionaries hold you back and rob you of the leverage you need to win. Take direct, collective action outside of and against the control of the unions.
Working class people in the United States today face some of the worst working and living conditions found in any of the wealthier industrialized countries. Key to this fact is that for the past ten years relatively few workdays have been lost to strike actions. Bosses and their allies in the unions depend on employees being docile and willing to accept any attacks that management has to offer. A loyal and obedient working class is a defeated working class. It's time to turn this around.
The system that rules the world today needs our compliance in its plans for our exploitation and total impoverishment. This system depends on our atomization and passivity. A major strike by BART employees could reverse attacks by employers and the state on the living standards of all working class and poor people. Victory in a strike could set an important precedent for the near future.
Cooperating with the system, and with attempts by the unions to prevent solidarity actions, leads in one direction only - to lower wages, worse working conditions, and eventual unemployment. If you don't want to end up stuck in a $6 an hour shit-job doing temp work in the Financial District, or flipping burgers at Wendies for $5 an hour - TAKE ACTION NOW.
WHEN YOU ACT IN YOUR OWN INTEREST, YOU ACT IN THE INTERESTS OF OTHER WORKING CLASS AND POOR PEOPLE AS WELL
- Talk to employees of other transit companies, especially AC Transit in the East Bay and MUNI in San Francisco. MUNI employees are at the boiling point, and will soon be facing the same kind of standoff with management when their contract comes up for negotiation next year.
- Raise the prospect of joint action with other transit workers now. If BART workers go on strike, employees of other transit companies should stage actions in solidarity with BART workers, up to and including a full-scale wildcat walkout. MUNI workers have an immediate interest in supporting BART workers - MUNI workers are going to get the shaft in '95. If management sees that transit workers won't take it, they'll cave in - they'll have to. Without you, the economy of the entire Bay Area will grind to a halt. If you accept a defeat, other transit workers will come next.
- It's not in BART employees' interest to enforce the payment of fares. Let riders on for free. It's a great way to make allies. Look the other way when people jump the gate or piggyback in and out of the system. During a French rail workers' strike in 1987, strikers issued leaflets calling on passengers not to pay fares. During a recent job action by public transit workers in Seoul, South Korea, millions of passengers were allowed to ride for free. Let Dick White and Pete Wilson pick up the tab.
- Spread the idea among BART riders that when you go on strike, everyone who rides BART should call in sick to work, and keep calling in sick for the duration of the strike. There are literally tens of thousands of wage workers in the Bay Area who hate their jobs and would be happy to go along with a suggestion of this sort.
Police State
1) BART Police exist to keep workers in line as much as to catch "criminals"
2) Under-cover cops riding BART keep spy on train and station agents.
3) 24 -hour no pay disciplinary leave once a worker violeates a rule, to give worker time to think about obeying rules for next 18 months.
4) BART workers phone calls are recorded
5) Huge number of middle managers with little function whose main purpose is to act as strike breakers in the event of a walk-out.
6) BART Police can operate trians and stations, can act as strike breakers.
7) Workers can be disciplined for all manor of infractions. They must announce each station. If the speaker isn't working on the train, the driver gets blamed for not making the announcement.
Union Issues
1) Management trying to drive a wedge between workers and union foreperson by giving forepersons supervisory tasks. In the event of any conflict or despute, management can claim union foreperson are supervisors.
2) BART gives station no control over where they are assigned. One worker may live in Concord and be assigned to Daly City. Another might live in Richmond and be assigned to Union City, etc.
3) Management want to make workers pay $25 deductible for any medical attention.
Management Issue
1) Middle managemnt very large - see above.
2) Use of discretionary funding to avoid public oversight and controversy.
3) BART general management have been trying to bust union since 1979.
Police Issue
BART workers are under attack.
BART workers have plenty of reasons to be angry.
Police State
1) BART Police exist to keep workers in line as much as to catch "criminals"
2) Under-cover cops riding BART keep spy on train and station agents.
3) 24 -hour no pay disciplinary leave once a worker violeates a rule, to give worker time to think about obeying rules for next 18 months.
4) BART workers phone calls are recorded
5) Huge number of middle managers with little function whose main purpose is to act as strike breakers in the event of a walk-out.
6) BART Police can operate trians and stations, can act as strike breakers.
7) Workers can be disciplined for all manor of infractions. They must announce each station. If the speaker isn't working on the train, the driver gets blamed for not making the announcement.
Union Issues
1) Management trying to drive a wedge between workers and union foreperson by giving forepersons supervisory tasks. In the event of any conflict or despute, management can claim union foreperson are supervisors.
2) BART gives station no control over where they are assigned. One worker may live in Concord and be assigned to Daly City. Another might live in Richmond and be assigned to Union City, etc.
3) Management want to make workers pay $25 deductible for any medical attention.
Management Issue
1) Middle managemnt very large - see above.
2) Use of discretionary funding to avoid public oversight and controversy.
3) BART general management have been trying to bust union since 1979.
Police Issue
BART workers are under attack.
BART workers have plenty of reasons to be angry.