US Railroad workers and French Strike

[Louis N Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To the Marxism list:

  This is my reponse to discussion on the UTU contract to a fellow worker
named Paul on the raillabor email group on Compuserve. It reflects the way
discussions about labor struggles can be internationalized through the
internet. The bourgeois press might not want to cover Staley, Liverpool,
etc., but that does not prevent the working-class from having a
discussion "on-line".

Jon Flanders
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 Paul,

  You have hit the nail on the head here. The French railworkers have picked
up the flag for labor around the world.

  It seems to me that there are a number of interesting things coming out of
the French labor conflict. Primary of course is the French workers refusal to
be cowed into giving up their hard won gains by pie in the sky promises about
the rewards of European confederation or threats about the dire consequences
of ignoring global competition. They just said enough!, we aren't giving up
any more without a fight. We don't give a damn about capitalism's deficits,
budgets, currency problems etc.

  I think fear that this sentiment will spread to workers in other countries,
including the US, lies behind the NY Times running this article. From the
perspective of the ruling class and their major corporations, growth of such
sentiment would be a real problem.

 After all, they have had a pretty good run in the last decade or so. Profits
are up, the stock market has gone thru the roof, inflation is low and wages
are way down.

  But at the same time they recognize that the massive restructuring they have
carried out has had the side effect of eliminating huge sections of their
political base in the middle-management, white collar sectors. Perot got a big
boost from this group in the last election.

  Now mass discontent reveals itself in the industrial arena, powered by the
most fundamental group in the working class, the rail workers. From the point
of view of the president of the World Bank, this is not good.

  In his email response to me, John H wondered how this were different here. I
have thought about this too.

  We have a very repressive, and draconian set of laws  in the RLA, which in
one case have been used to militarize the entire industry, to defeat a strike.
In France, I am not aware of any strikers losing their jobs. In fact, I read
somewhere about negotiations with the government for pay for time lost during
the conflict!

  Public support for the strikers in France registered in the 60 to 70
percentile according to polls taken during the period. What would happen here?
Why was support so high there?

  I don't claim to know all the reasons, but one thought comes to mind. In
France, there are two parties that have historically been  associated with
the working class in the public mind. They are the Socialist Party and the
Communist Party, who have at various times achieved a  majority of the vote.
The remarkable social safety net in France, from child care to pension rights,
most likely is credited to the working class parties. Very few people in  the
country have not benefited in some way from this "social solidarity."

   The "business unionism" and Democratic politics practiced by labor leaders
in the US has not won nearly as much and what has been won is not credited to
the working class, even if it should be.

  For example, we know that unions, when they get a better contract with
higher wages and good benefits, push up the floor for everyone. IBM kept
unions out for decades by matching what was won by labor. Was it an accident
that IBM's downsizing and layoffs coincided with labor's defeats and retreats
in the last few years?

  Did however, the downsized IBMer make a connection between his or her
plight, and that of the furloughed railworker? So here in the US, the
corporations get away with the "global competition" arguement as if no human
being ever dirtied hands with the decisions that ruined the lives of millions
of workers.

   I guess it boils down to a much lower level of what I would call "class
consciousness" here. Workers have internalized the corporate propaganda, since
there never has been a mass, popular alternative put forward, at least since
the time of Debs.

   I hope now that minds are beginning to change. The "Let them eat cake!"
protest by rail unions aimed at Conrail's CEO Dave LeVan, points to some class
based thinking beginning to go on among workers. I see little progress until
that political understanding predominates in labor.

   I guess I have gone on a bit here. What do you think?

 Best, Jon Flanders




  E-mail from: Jonathan E. Flanders, 28-Jan-1996






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