Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Why and How did the BART Union Leaders Disable and Sabotage the BART Strike?

The following is a message from the "Labor, Black & Brown (LBB)" solidarity organization [link], [facebook.com/laborblackbrown] [laborblackbrown@yahoo.com].
Also read "FOR UNITY: This Could Be You", a warning from "Labor, Black & Brown" solidarity organizers [link], about how advocates for real worker's action are censored by labor-union management!
Solidarity with the BART workers! [link]

Why and How did the BART Union Leaders Disable and Sabotage the BART Strike?
Come participate in an open and uncensored discussion at:
The Hold Out 2313 San Pablo Avenue, Oakland Sunday, Dec. 15th 1 to 4pm

On July 1, 2013 The contracts of the three BART Unions expired at the same time.
With BART management using stalling tactics, the 3 Bart Unions, the Amalgamated Transit Union(ATU) 1555, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) 3993 and SEIU 1021, WENT ON STRIKE, July 1, 2013.
The contracts of sister unions ATU 292 and AFSCME 444 & 2019, representing workers of Alameda County Transit, and EBMUB (the water company) workers respectively, also expired July 1. The Oakland City Workers and East Bay Regional Park Workers contracts also expired on July 1. They are represented by SEIU 1021 and IFPTE Local 21.
But they struck separately and partially. Grass roots outreach to the Black and Brown communities was restricted and constricted by the union bureaucracy. Yes, the labor bureaucracy sabotaged its own outreach commitment.
We will discuss what caused the defeat of the BART strike and how the union bureaucrats sabotaged the strike and sold it out. Labor Black & Brown was involved in this battle. We saw the potential of a BART strike extending with solidarity strikes by the ILWU and other key unions. The Bay Area’s workers’ communities, especially the Brown and Black communities that are facing down the common enemy, could have been joined in massive picket lines. This was sabotaged by the local and Central Labor Council union “leaders”, who displayed the true meaning of “labor bureaucrat”.
  Revolutionaries, radicals, and militant workers who want to fight to win should attend and discuss what revolutionary strategy and tactics are needed to overcome this epidemic of political incompetence, and boundless confusion that arrests our development. The two culprits of this epidemic are reformism and centrism.
The reformist labor bureaucrats and the fake-left centrists of the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee collaborated with the bureaucrats betrayal.
They dread, and are truly afraid of massive workers upsurge against the capitalists’ attacks!

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