NEW YORK, NY- After making our way through several blocks of barricaded and closed-off roads, Emily Woo of the Freedom Socialist Party and I made our way into Union Square in mid-town Manhattan to the blaring music of Bruce Springsteen. Someone asked me who was performing, and though The Boss wasn't there (only speakers), hundreds of unionists and their supporters were. It soon became clear that the fight against the Con-Ed lock-out is the latest in a long line of historic labor battles in New York.
It was clear Tuesday that the spirit of solidarity was in the air. Those who spoke represented various unions. Many speakers re-iterated the message that this was our collective fight, a fight that we as workers must take on together. As one pointed out, re-stating the classic Wobbly slogan, "An Injury to One is an Injury to All." In opening his address to the crowd, UWUA Local 1-2 stated, "Today we are all utility workers." A handful of socialist groups like the FSP also made it out to the square, with signs reading messages like "No More Wisconsins, Labor Must Break with the Democrats!"
To understand why this fight has captured the anger and the fighting spirit of all trade union activists and radical workers in New York, it is important to understand what led to this point. Con-Ed made $1 billion in profits last year alone. Their CEO, Kevin Burke, pocketed $17 million.Yet, for him, that's not enough. Con-Edison, New York's energy giant, demanded that the workers' pensions be replaced with a 401(k), the notoriously risky retirement plan that is beholden to the whims of the market. The workers would have none of it, and union negotiators backed their stance. In response, Con-Edison's 8,500-strong workforce was, and still is, locked out. In order to keep the city running, Con-Ed's 5,000 (yes, 5,000) managers were put to work alongside scab labor brought in from out of state. The lock-out is intended to strong-arm the workers into accepting the owner's demands. So far, Con-Ed workers have had none of it. We call on the lock-out to end immediately and for contract negotiations to result in the full re-reinstatement of workers' pensions.
Now, you might wonder why Con-Ed has 5,000 people to manage on 8,500 workers. This is obviously not logical if the goal is to run an efficient operation, although it is logical if the goal is to establish a labor hierarchy. A demand of Local 1-2 must be to put this managerial class to work. This, alongside cuts to CEO Kevin Burke's 17-million dollar salary will allow these workers to take home the pay check they deserve.
This fight may also be remembered as the one that began radicalizing the labor movement. I have to be cautious as I say this because, well, "cautious" has been the nicest way to define labor leaders in past 30 or so years. Labor unions will hold on to every last shred of faith in the socio-political establishment. It remains to be seen whether the latest prolonged crisis will finally shake that faith to its foundations and replace it with a newfound radicalism. Yet, if anything defined yesterday's rally, it was the recognition, or as Nick Pinto of The Village Voice put it, the "embrace [of] class war."
This embrace of class war is mirrored around the globe, from Quebec to Cairo. In this context, the Con-Ed struggle is not only the latest in a long line of New York labor fights, it is also the local focus of a world-wide uprising. And this local focus is much needed, as the American labor movement has been stalling for years on end. There's nobody around who still remembers the emergence of the American labor movement that abolished sweatshops, child labor and put in place the 40-hour workweek. The fights of the Wobblies and the radicalized working class in the first two decades of the 20th Century are available to us only as chapters in a handful of leftist history books. Few still alive today were participants in the great labor struggles of the 1920's and 30's such as the Auto-Lite and West Coast Longshore strikes of 1934. Yet it is this legacy that labor may be poised to continue today. All unionized workers must play a role in making their union emerge from this 80-year long thaw.
It was clear Tuesday that the spirit of solidarity was in the air. Those who spoke represented various unions. Many speakers re-iterated the message that this was our collective fight, a fight that we as workers must take on together. As one pointed out, re-stating the classic Wobbly slogan, "An Injury to One is an Injury to All." In opening his address to the crowd, UWUA Local 1-2 stated, "Today we are all utility workers." A handful of socialist groups like the FSP also made it out to the square, with signs reading messages like "No More Wisconsins, Labor Must Break with the Democrats!"
To understand why this fight has captured the anger and the fighting spirit of all trade union activists and radical workers in New York, it is important to understand what led to this point. Con-Ed made $1 billion in profits last year alone. Their CEO, Kevin Burke, pocketed $17 million.Yet, for him, that's not enough. Con-Edison, New York's energy giant, demanded that the workers' pensions be replaced with a 401(k), the notoriously risky retirement plan that is beholden to the whims of the market. The workers would have none of it, and union negotiators backed their stance. In response, Con-Edison's 8,500-strong workforce was, and still is, locked out. In order to keep the city running, Con-Ed's 5,000 (yes, 5,000) managers were put to work alongside scab labor brought in from out of state. The lock-out is intended to strong-arm the workers into accepting the owner's demands. So far, Con-Ed workers have had none of it. We call on the lock-out to end immediately and for contract negotiations to result in the full re-reinstatement of workers' pensions.
Now, you might wonder why Con-Ed has 5,000 people to manage on 8,500 workers. This is obviously not logical if the goal is to run an efficient operation, although it is logical if the goal is to establish a labor hierarchy. A demand of Local 1-2 must be to put this managerial class to work. This, alongside cuts to CEO Kevin Burke's 17-million dollar salary will allow these workers to take home the pay check they deserve.
This fight may also be remembered as the one that began radicalizing the labor movement. I have to be cautious as I say this because, well, "cautious" has been the nicest way to define labor leaders in past 30 or so years. Labor unions will hold on to every last shred of faith in the socio-political establishment. It remains to be seen whether the latest prolonged crisis will finally shake that faith to its foundations and replace it with a newfound radicalism. Yet, if anything defined yesterday's rally, it was the recognition, or as Nick Pinto of The Village Voice put it, the "embrace [of] class war."
This embrace of class war is mirrored around the globe, from Quebec to Cairo. In this context, the Con-Ed struggle is not only the latest in a long line of New York labor fights, it is also the local focus of a world-wide uprising. And this local focus is much needed, as the American labor movement has been stalling for years on end. There's nobody around who still remembers the emergence of the American labor movement that abolished sweatshops, child labor and put in place the 40-hour workweek. The fights of the Wobblies and the radicalized working class in the first two decades of the 20th Century are available to us only as chapters in a handful of leftist history books. Few still alive today were participants in the great labor struggles of the 1920's and 30's such as the Auto-Lite and West Coast Longshore strikes of 1934. Yet it is this legacy that labor may be poised to continue today. All unionized workers must play a role in making their union emerge from this 80-year long thaw.
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