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Westchester Bus Strike Ends in Mediocre Deal
by Marty Goodman/ May 2005 issue of Socialist Action
On April 19 union negotiators representing 568 workers on strike for
seven weeks at the Bee-Line Bus Company in affluent Westchester County,
N.Y.,
finally reached a four-year tentative agreement. The financially
strapped workers voted overwhelmingly the next day to accept the tentative
deal and to go back to work.
For the workers—who began their strike on March 3 and held strong for
seven grueling weeks—key union activists say the deal is a mediocre one at
best. Even so, the contract is likely to be ratified by a mail-in ballot.
Bee-Line workers, mostly drivers but also mechanics and cleaners,
are members of Transport Workers Union Local 100, which also represents
over 36,000 subway and bus workers in New York City (NYC).
A key union demand was to lower the age of retirement from age 62 to
57 with no reduction in benefits after 20 years on the job, a right enjoyed
by other private bus company workers. At Bee-Line, even a 30-year veteran
driver seeking to retire at age 57, after working in a job that wrecks body
and soul, would nevertheless face a whopping 24 percent reduction in retiree
benefits.
A second contract goal was to maintain a company-funded health
benefits plan to offset the skyrocketing costs of medical care.
The strike affected 55,000 mostly working-class riders, whose hardships
during the strike were cynically manipulated by the capitalist press. But
judging by those who passed strike picket lines honking their horns
or giving a thumbs-up, the strike had wide support.
Going into negotiations, the union was asking for a three-year
contract and a 30 percent wage hike that, like other demands, was withdrawn
at the negotiating table.
The tentative deal includes a phased-in reduced retirement age of 59
years without penalty, (the penalty at age 57 was reduced from 24% to 13%);
a
modest 12.75% wage hike over four years; and changing the
company-funded health care formula for one with less certainty for workers
but greater “flexibility” (read:
profits) for bosses.
Typical of the profit-driven health-care crisis, the agreement
includes increased worker out-of-pocket expenses for most doctor’s
visits—up from $5 to over $15 by the contract’s end.
To put the wage package in perspective, the NYC region has the
highest inflation rate in the nation at 4.1 percent since 2004, as well as
a higher increase in the cost of living. Those increases will surpass the contract
wage increases if trends continue.
Bill Mooney, an activist bus driver who was a principle negotiator
in the last contract, told Socialist Action that the union was unprepared
for the strike, unlike management. Says Mooney, Local 100 President Roger
Toussaint, “gave us two black eyes, a bloody nose and a bloody lip. That’s
what this
contract is.” Mooney added, “The result wasn’t worth the seven weeks
that we were out.”
Bosses and top
Democrat unite
Bee-Line workers hate management’s plantation mentality. There are no
paid sick days. Sick workers must choose between their health (and the
safety of
riders) and their paychecks.
Most drivers’ workweeks are 50 to 60 hours long. That includes an
unpaid two to four hour split shift, or break between bus trips. Bosses use
this criminal
system to avoid hiring more bus drivers to cover both the morning
and afternoon rush hours.
Despite worker hatred of these policies, unpaid sick days and the
split shift will remain unchanged in the tentative deal.
Westchester County, one of the 10 richest counties in the U.S.,
subsidizes the criminal Bee-Line bosses.
Andy Spano, the Westchester County executive and a Democrat, said
strikers were “unreasonable” and made too much money.
The average Bee-Line worker has a base salary of about $49,000.
Spano charged that there were workers that received more than $60,000 a
year but neglected to say that it was earned driving extra hours, often
working a sixth day.
At the beginning of April the local press exposed county government
agreements to pay Bee-Line owners big bucks even during a strike, which
included an annual $1.62 million “service fee” to operate in Westchester
(usually such fees go the other way!) and $25 million a year for “net
operating expenses.” The revelation produced no outcry over making too much
money by Democrat and phony friend of labor Andy Spano!
A fighting strategy
needed
Beyond scattered strike
fund-raising efforts in Local 100 to which workers donated generously, the leadership
organized no local-wide solidarity rallies
and even refused to organize transportation to picket lines. Transit
service remained business-as-usual in New York City, which is closely
linked economically to Westchester County.
During the strike Bee-Line threatened to provide “replacement
workers” for strikers and trained scab drivers. A combined total of 41 TWU
members were
arrested for “disorderly conduct” in non-confrontational attempts to
block trainee buses leaving a depot. However, a big Local-wide membership
presence on the picket lines could have reduced the strike-breaking
threat and increased union leverage at negotiations.
Similarly, strike solidarity by AFL-CIO unions provided a token
presence at pickets, which was used by bureaucrats as a smoke screen for
capitulation to
Bee-Line, Westchester’s ruling rich, and the Democratic Party. In
late March, in a show of weakness, Toussaint requested a federal mediator.
During the final negotiations, key elected Bee-Line union
negotiators were purged from talks to eliminate officers closest to the
ranks. The action recalls
Toussaint’s purge of the negotiating committee in 2002 during NYC
subway and bus worker contract talks. The 2002 contract resulted in a
first-year zero wage increase and a bad precedent for municipal
unions. The strike does not bode
well for the contract battle next December between NYC subway and bus
workers and the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
The strike came on the heels of the MTA’s vote last December to
accelerate massive downsizing by automation. The MTA policy was scarcely
resisted by
the union, which was instead mobilizing for pro-war Democrat John
Kerry. The defeat demoralized a wide layer of workers.
Despite the courage of the Bee-Line workers (only one scab returned
to work), President Toussaint admitted to the April 20 membership meeting
that the union was not prepared for the strike. That astonishing admission
will likely not be quickly forgotten.
Nor will the refusal of the Toussaint leadership, since its
inception in 2001, to link the struggle of all private bus line workers in
Westchester and NYC into a united struggle; especially during the MTA piecemeal
takeover of most of the private bus companies over the last year, which
left some 1500 workers in limbo.
Until labor is willing to use its power, workers will be on the
losing end.
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