turner wovoka: Union calls off New York school bus strike, telling workers to rely on Democrats

Monday, February 18, 2013

Union calls off New York school bus strike, telling workers to rely on Democrats

by Bill Van Auken, WSWS

The decision announced Friday night to end the month-old strike by New York City bus workers is an abject betrayal by the unions that will have far-reaching consequences, for bus workers and for the entire working class.

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, the union representing the nearly 9,000 drivers, matrons and mechanics who walked off the job on January 16 to defend a 33-year-old contract provision protecting their jobs and seniority rights, told its members to return to work Wednesday, February 20, when school resumes after a two-day mid-winter recess.

None of the issues that workers went on strike over have been resolved. Thousands face the loss of their jobs when the city awards new contracts to private bus companies. Those who are able to keep their jobs will face demands for drastic cuts in wages and benefits.

From its outset, the strike has given stark expression to the immense class divide in New York City and nationally, with workers making on average $35,000 a year confronting Mayor Michael Bloomberg, worth some $26 billion, who has sought to destroy their jobs and drive down their wages.

The determination of these workers, many of them immigrants drawn from every corner of the globe, has inspired the working class of New York City, the entire country and indeed internationally, who want to see a real fight against the financial aristocracy that Bloomberg personifies.

As its actions Friday underscored, however, the union purporting to represent the workers has been the chief obstacle to a struggle of the workers to defend their livelihoods.

The president of Local 1181 of the ATU, Michael Cordiello, and ATU International President Larry Hanley told workers they should go back to work on the basis of a letter signed by five candidates for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York. The five called for an end to the strike and promised that if elected they would ?revisit the school transportation system and contracts.?

This is a fraud. The Democrats no less than the Republicans are determined to force workers to pay for the economic crisis created by the ruling class. However, they prefer to do so using the services of the highly paid functionaries that control the unions. From the beginning, the ATU saw the strike as a means of maintaining its own position, with the workers merely used as pawns in the union?s relations with the political establishment and the corporations.

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