Striking maintenance workers

[Louis N Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis:

Evidence is mounting that John Sweeny, the new head of the AFL-
CIO, represents business as usual.

Local 32B-32J of the Service Employees International Union is on strike in
NY now. These are the building maintenance workers, whose national
union "reformer" John Sweeny emerged from. The NY Times
stated that this was an important strike because it was Sweeny's union
that was being attacked and he would regard it as an threat to his
standing in the labor movement.

But so far, the strike is depressingly similar to strikes over the last 20
years. Gus Bevona, the president of the local, just held his *first* press
conference ever and said that "union solidarity remains strong and that
his local would not capitulate to management's demands to pay new
workers 40% less than current employees." The union ranks had judged
correctly that if the bosses were successful, they would push out older
workers and hire new workers at cut rates.

I heard some of the strikers last night on Doug Henwood's radio show
in NY. They said that they are receiving $7 per day (!) in strike pay. This
will soon force many to become desperate. Supposedly, Bevona is
trying to line up other unions to chip in, but I wouldn't hold out much
hope since other unions, who work side by side with local 32, are
crossing picket lines.

The building owners have been pleading poverty, but seem more
willing to take it out on the workers rather than the retail
establishments in the business districts. In an article in the same
edition of the Times titled "A Bull Market for Cynicism on Wall Street",
Clyde Haberman reports that some retailers, like jeweler Marvin
Rafeld, are getting help from building management to keep their rents
down. Rafeld's "kind thoughts" toward the building agent has not
been shared by striking maintenance workers. Haberman reports:

"To say the least, kind thoughts about the agent are not shared by
maintenance workers from Local 32B-32J, who have been on strike at
14 Wall and 1,000 other office buildings for the last week. Those on
the picket lines along Wall Street especially resent how the financial
markets that they help keep functioning cheer every time a big
company announces huge layoffs.

It happened again last week when AT&T announced it would
eliminate 40,000 jobs; the Dow Jones industrial average shot up 60
points that day. This reaction hardly fills the maintenance workers
with confidence in management assurances that their own jobs are
secure in the long run.

'They must think we're stupid because we clean their buildings,' said a
striker on Wall Street who says that she belonged to the Solidarity
labor movement in Poland before emigrating in the mid-80's. [One of
the strikers interviewed by Doug Henwood was Polish, I believe.]

Bargainers for the building managers call it crucial for the industry's
survival to have the starting pay for new maintenance workers cut by
40 percent. No one now employed will be thrown out of work, they
promise.

To which the unionists reply is a succinct, Yeah, right. 'Eventually,
they'll get rid of me,' said John Spriggs, a picket outside the Bank of
New York building at Wall and Broadway. 'They'll find someone else
who'll do it cheaper.'

You could see the depth of the cynicism along Wall Street by
following a few pickets who had taken time out last Sunday to attend
services at nearby Trinity Church. It was a day after the feast of the
Epiphany, and in church they heard the story of the three kings retold.
A striker named Dave left saying that a modern version would have
been downsized, with the infant Jesus being visited by two kings."



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