SEPTA workers have an uphill battle building public support for there fight to win a good contract. Over the past nine months I have talked about this fight with thousands of people in Philadelphia and my pleas for support have been meet with replies of “we have to pay for health care, they should too” and “SEPTA has terrible customer service, the workers are over paid and don’t deserve our support.” Surprisingly, these sentiment have most often been heard from “progressives” and from many working – class Philadelphians. These responses, however, are uninformed, oversimplified and lack a broader strategic prospective of what progressives should be fighting for. Click "Read More" to read the rest.
SEPTA management is not asking for reasonable health care compromises. A closer look at what SEPTA has asked for it is clear that they aim at giving workers a bad deal and hope to break the union. SEPTA claims that these drastic cuts stem from lingering financial difficulties. It is true that our growing transit system needs a sustainable and dedicated funding source. However, what SEPTA and most of the press has failed to mention is the fact that SEPTA has become a holding tank and handout job for the politically connected. This lumbering bureaucracy has nearly one manager for every worker! If something needs to be cut, we should look closely at slimming down General Manager Faye Moore’s burgeoning staff first.
SEPTA workers have made sacrifices. In fact, the first health care compromises came in 1989 when SEPTA workers began returning the Cost of Living Agreement to defray the rising costs of health care. SEPTA workers pay for all of their prescription, dental and vision and 30% of their medical for the first two years and for every doctor visit (co-pay) and prescriptions after the first two years. In contrast, SEPTA management (remember, there is nearly one manager for every worker), get 100% health care coverage from day one. SEPTA workers have forgone any raises for two years. These savings have played a big role in keeping the system solvent. Management raises, however…. you can guess what the answer is. Additionally, SEPTA workers have given up any sick pay for the most common, short term sicknesses. This concession was made to help meet rising health care costs for the workers. Any illness that keeps a workers off the job for three days or less are paid for by the workers themselves up to six days per year. Management gets full sick pay from day one. This health care giveback alone has saved SEPTA millions of dollars per year. SEPTA has not only proposed 20% premium increase but also 20% cuts to the benefit. They are asking for a 40% give back and cuts from both ends of the workers health care. SEPTA workers have made big and reasonable sacrifices for there good health care but this is not just about these benefits. SEPTA management wants much more.
The list of demands that SEPTA has put on the table belie more than dollar and cent practicality. SEPTA is asking workers to give up maternity leave, some vacation time, earned and sick days and all weekly overtime. Perhaps the most revealing demands have to do with the welfare and the strength of the union itself. TWU has proven over the passed few decades that it is a strong union with a high level of solidarity among its workers. The last strike in 1998 last for forty days with virtually no scabbing and strike breaking. SEPTA wants to put an end to decades of effective trade unionism by one of our cities most diverse unions. SEPTA is demanding that unions give back the ability to collect Authority Dues to represent workers and that unions concede SEPTA authority to subcontract work. SEPTA wants to strip the unions from having any say in lay-offs. What reason would any member have to stay in the union with a pay cut, a huge chunk missing from their health care and no job protection? SEPTA management wants to break this union.
Beyond the plain questions of fairness there is the question of what progressives will sacrifice if this fight is one that we sit out. TWU Local 234 is a union that is closely connected with our communities. Most of the SEPTA drivers are African American and live with the neighborhoods of Philadelphia. These workers are pumping untold millions of dollars to diverse neighborhoods outside of Center City. This fact, accounts for the callous disregard for their situation from many liberals. These working people are people whom most of Philadelphia’s liberal, white establishment rarely encounter. TWU Local 234 is engaged in the community and in local left politics despite the isolated myopia of much of Philly’s web-based politicos.
TWU mobilizes its members for community events, activities and politics in the communities that the members are based. In the course of building community support with TWU Local 234, the members of Jobs with Justice have been asked to go everywhere but downtown by union leadership. TWU members mobilized for Seth Williams in north and west Philadelphia, realms that are often all but invisible from the blogosphere. If this union loses ground and strength in this contract fight, the Philadelphia progressive movement will suffer a hit to one of its most organized, grassroots and neighborhood based allies. The need for the advocacy for a good contract on the part of the Philadelphia “left” goes beyond these short-term reasons, however.
The longest standing committee in Jobs with Justice is our Health Care Action Committee. This committee is dedicated to mobilizing for strategic wins that build a broad based constituency for universal health care (UHC). In our experience, one of the biggest flaw with the universal health care movement is that it is based on big ideas and lacks any strategy for winning. Jobs with Justice has mapped out two broad strategies for moving toward UHC: 1) make UHC struggle real and locally relevant 2) stop cost shifting. Jobs with Justice believes that in order to make the big, technical ideas of (UHC) relevant our actions must be paired with local struggles in which working people can win something and in which we build a long term constituency for comprehensive health care reform. If we cannot make UHC relevant to working people, UHC will never be a realistic goal. In practical terms, that means holding our ground on health care, especially for large employers. While we develop this constituency we have to make sure that the sector of society which has power and the means to make UHC a reality (corporations and large employers) are forced to feel the pinch of the healthcare crisis. As long as employers are able to patch over the problem of a crumbling health care system by shifting rising costs onto workers, we will move further and further from reform. By the same token, when we hold ground on health care and administrators and shareholders see it come out of profits, we push those with power in our society toward making a change for the better.
Philadelphia progressives should stand with these workers because it is just, important to strengthening progressive politics in Philadelphia, TWU Local 234 are huge economic force in many of Philadelphia’s most underserved communities and because it is strategically important for transit and health care reform. Nearly 50 years after the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a group of largely African-American workers have declared that they have given enough and are poised and ready to, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “substitute tired feet for tired souls, and walk the streets.” Progressives and workers should be ready to march in solidarity with them. This fight is also about building and supporting the grassroots, neighborhood based, diverse institutions important to the progressive community. Like in Montgomery in 1955 we should recall the sentiments of Martin Luther King Jr., “…In all our actions we must stick together. Unity is the great need of the hour, and if we are united we can get many of the things that we not only desire but which we justly deserve.”
Fabricio Rodriguez is the Director of Philadelphia Jobs with Justice a coalition of 53 labor unions, community groups, faith and student organizations. Jobs with Justice is dedicated to winning workers' right and social and economic justice by using the principles of solidarity, reciprocity, militancy and direct action.
come again?
...isolated myopia of much of Philly’s web-based politicos.
You're living in a bit of a fantasy land if you think that the blogosphere is in any way representative of Philadelphia's political power spectrum. We're young, we're opinionated, but we are almost entirely outside of the establishment structure. (I think that's true nationally as well -- see this.)
Anyway, plenty of progressives recognize the power and centrality of TWU 234. But you make good points (in a realm in which I certainly claim no independent knowledge) about who's making concessions and what their motives might be -- it's easy to think "I pay for my health care; why shouldn't they?" without seeing the whole context of history and current situation. Appreciate your input on that and the value of universal health care (amen!) generally.
acm
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
— Margaret Mead
Thank you, Fabricio
I think there are a few really important things in this generally terrific post that I want to point out:
1) There is clearly a plan to divide and conquer here. When you have a group of working class bus drivers, who serve mostly working-class people, it is simple to pit them against each other, as the Daily News has begun the process of doing. It is so easy to reflexivley say dont strike, without realizing that what you are doing is supporting SEPTA's real goal: breaking a progressive union.
2) The idea of passing-the-buck on healthcare is dead on. If we let worker after worker absorb the pain, we never get what will truly get us to national healthcare: a coalition between States and Agencies (like SEPTA), Unions (like TWU), and large companies, like the ones who build SEPTA's fleet (or like the soon to be bankrupt GM). If it is only working class people making the demand, and not the other two, nothing happens.
Thanks
For the detailed and informative post. It will be interesting to see if any of the readers of this site who characterized the TWU in a very different light will respond with your level of specificity.
On another note:
"These working people are people whom most of Philadelphia’s liberal, white establishment rarely encounter. TWU Local 234 is engaged in the community and in local left politics despite the isolated myopia of much of Philly’s web-based politicos."
ACM, I read that a bit differently than you did. My interpetation is not that Fabricio was saying that "web-based politicos" are part of the "established structure ...of Philadelphia's political power spectrum," but that on the whole, they are likely part of the "white establishment" that "rarely encounters" non-white, working people.
I think his characterization is accurate, and needs to be recognized if Philly's "progressives" are really going have significant influence in a largely African-American, working class city.
Fabricio is right!
If unionized government workers cannot protect their health care benefits, we are all screwed. I already hand over 15% of my paycheck to cover health care -- and the level of coverage has been reduced in the past year. The place I work has begun cutting other employee benefits as well, and nobody has the power to do a thing about it short of quitting. Union workers' level of benefits is the standard that non-union workers aspire to. If they get a raw deal, the rest of us will get even worse. SEPTA workers should be supported in their contract dispute. I take the bus to work and hope they don't have to strike, but if they do, I'll be supporting them 100%.
More on SEPTA
A Policy Review (http://www.policyreview.org/sept98/labs2.html )report by Wally Nunn, a SEPTA board member in 1998 (current?), is revealing in its discription of how top heavy SEPTA management was. Despite these cuts, most of the positions have been restored. We are back to square one. I am still digging up info on this Phoenix report, however, I am hearing that the ration of managers to workers may have been closer to 2:1! I should also point out that Mr. Nunn's stance is one that is very anti-union and he has an ideologically right-wing background with affiliations to the Policy Review and even was the Chairman for the Center for the Study of Popular Culture (David Horowitz). None/Nunn the less, Nunn's report highlights the managerial inefficiency at SEPTA which is costing riders at the fare box and threatens workers livelyhood.
Oh ya, one more thing
You can fax a comment to SEPTA GM Faye Moore and the PA Rep, Tomlinson who appointed her boss at http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/septaworkers. I am reworking the site right now, but it will work until the redux. We have already sent her more than 600 faxes and it has been one of the few actions that SEPTA has reacted to.
Playing the race card and siting sources.
"Most of the SEPTA drivers are African American and live with the neighborhoods of Philadelphia. These workers are pumping untold millions of dollars to diverse neighborhoods outside of Center City. This fact, accounts for the callous disregard for their situation from many liberals. These working people are people whom most of Philadelphia’s liberal, white establishment rarely encounter."
To put it simply, are you saying no one is supporting the union because they are mostly black?
Also, can you site sources for the health care package claims for management?
Race card etc.
Well, I am saying that some of the indifference to the plight of these workers is due to the fact that they are largely African American. If the fact that every thing in our nation is effected by latent and systemic racism, then you aren't paying attention (see Hurricane Katrina). However, I should point out that the race question was actually a small feature of the much bigger and more important point that I was trying to make. That point was that the socio-economic and racial background of these workers is such that their unionized wages are an important contributor to an often underserved Philadelphia community. The lose of wages or benefits to these workers send shock waves through community and families that depend on these workers. These jobs provide good living wages to workers without college educations. Though this type of jobs are becoming rarer and rarer, they diminishment should concern every one, because once they are gone, it will signal the last nail in the coffin of the American dream.
The stuff about the benefits of management are from previous job postings by SEPTA. I haven't found a web source on them yet, but I am sure that it is public info since they are state jobs.
Race Card etc. 2
question? the governor is planning to finish the Convention Center project. hundreds of millions of dollars. Since, the project is so huge and the city, and state can not really afford it. do you think the governor and the city would ask the contractors to pay their workers less to decrease the cost of the project?
i would like to see money invested in public transit than a convention center. sure, the city would benefit from an increase in revenue as a result of more and larger meetings held at the convention center when it is expanded. but, we should get our priorities together. homeless habitation first, healthcare for the transit workers second, the pot hoes fixed, and then the expansion of the convention center.
i also blame the unions. year after year the unions donate big money to candidates' campaigns. most likely the projected winner. rather than donate that money to organizations that can hold the candidates accountable. their strategy has not helped them.
Yes, they can ask them to pay them less
It's called taking the the cheaper contract. You get five bids and you take the cheapest. More often than not, the cost of labor is a determining factor.
actually
Price definitely misunderstood a couple of my points.
thanks, Ray.
my main point is that the city and state governmemts do not approach the problem with the S.E.P.T.A. workers contract negotiations as they do when they receive bids for construction jobs.
if the city and state governments were serious about saving tax payer money then they would negotiate down contract bids for construction projects such as the convention center. yes, the city has to take the lowest bid but, it could say the bids are not low enough and conduct another bidding process.
the city and the state enter contracts with corporations that pay their workers well. but, when it comes to city workers or the opportunity to increase S.E.P.T.A. subsidies they are reluctant. i think it has to do with race. i think it has to do with the bidding corporations campaign donations and lobbying efforts.
i do not support pay cuts for S.E.P.T.A. workers. the wealthy and corporations should be taxed responsibly. it makes me sick to see these 30 foot advertisements for brand new condominums 10 years free of property tax and then walk into a public school and see the disinvestment. it unquestionably a result of class war.
Simplistic view
Dashrinc, I think you may be taking a bit of a simplistic view in the comparison. It isn't like construction projects are not done with a cost analysis first (well, I hope to god they do it first ;) ).
They get a general idea of the cost of a project and if it is within budget (or they make room in the budget) they then go to bids.
The difference between the two scenarios is that the city can choose to NOT do the project if it is too expensive. With SEPTA they can't choose NOT to have public transportation.
Careful
Read this blog from Fabricio Rodriguez carefully:
First, Fabricio is a union representative. This is not to say that he is wrong but it is remiss for Young Philly Politics to suggest you bone up on this issue by looking at two sources: 1) An interview with a union member and 2) A piece written by a union representative. What does SEPTA say?
Second, Fabricio’s arguments are in lots of places either 1) not sourced or 2) tangentially relevant to the strike.
For the first, I am not sure where the ratio for Management to worker is made. In the 2006 Operating Budget (http://www.septa.org/inside/reports/OpBudgetFY06.pdf) SEPTA defines three workers. ‘A’ workers are considered Supervisory, administrative and management employees. ‘B’ workers are Unionized clerical and storeroom employees.
‘H’ workers are Hourly maintenance, transportation, cashiers, police officers and railroad employees.
There are 2000 ‘A’ workers and 7000 ‘B’ and ‘H’ workers. That ratio is less than 3:1.
[This is not to say that SEPTA is managed well. They are clearly a poorly organized bunch that have done very little right for many decades. Much can be blamed on low funding but not all of their failures. And of course the fact that their funding stream is so low is partly their ineptitude at managing politics and getting out their message. (You’d have a hard time finding SEPTA’s case in this strike issue. Maybe they don’t have one.)]
As far as the specific numbers on the benefits, that is really not the point unless you are an employee. The broader question is if it is more important to support unions blindly even if it will damage our Public Transportation. Should union members contribute to health care? [Management certainly should] Should they tighten their belt when the organization they work for is drastically in the red? In most cases when you work for a failing company you don’t get raises and don’t get all your benefits paid for.
Tangential Arguments for the Union
The race card is pretty dubious considering that a majority of Philadelphians are a member of a minority group. Either way I fail to see the point, this isn’t racially motivated.
The idea that TWU is a diverse union that supports the community is great, but hardly a reason to support the strike.
Lastly, Fabricio sets up a false dichotomy. The choice is not, support this strike or get rid of unions.
1) You can support unions and believe that what they ask for is unreasonable.
2) With that in mind, SEPTA is under funded, health care costs are rising, what is the strategy to deal with this discrepancy?
3) Were the raises that were supposedly turned down in some secret ‘quid pro quo’ deserved? Has ridership increased in these past three years? (What union allows their boss to bargain away their raises without that being in some binding contract)?
So in sum, lets be careful about where we are getting our information. It is not very encouraging for fair and open debate that most of the bloggers on this site have not questioned Fabricio’s numbers or looked outside the Union machine to take a stance on this issue. I have not made my mind up at all; I have been just trying to get some good information and only finding a lot of static and punditry. Although I can say that if there is a contribution to health, making it progressive and including management seems fair. Also that none of this matters without a dedicated funding stream.
Careful
First, comparing Philadelphia to South Africa is ridiculous.
Second, saying that there are racial issues in Philadelphia, which is undoubtedly true does not make that a central issue in this strike.
Third, to you hypothetical situation where college educated people look down on the 'working class' because of their race; isn't it possible that when the college educated hear that the 'working class' is expected to contribute to health care they say 'So what? I contribute to health care' and they don't inherently think of race?
The fact is this is not a racial issue any more than generally everything is a racial issue. It is a union issue, a labor issue, a transportation management issue, a health care issue but throwing race in the mix confuses the discussion and distracts from a constructive solution.
And to Dizzy, amost every issue in Philadelphia will effect more minorites than whites, there are more minorities. That doesnt make it a race issue.
But the point remains that we should be careful where we are getting our information. It may not be a good idea to get your infromation about a union issue from a union rep.
the Myopic Web Progressives Weave
Regardless of who is powerul, Fabricio is right to point out that self-proclaimed progressives in this city are mostly web-based (which I would take to include people who only attempt organizing via email as well as blogs).
I am not sure if Fabricio's indictment of this community in regard to SEPTA is based on things explictly said or more on their inaction regarding this issue.
Either way, he is right to point out the need for all Philadelphians to get involved in this particular campaign by putting pressure on both SEPTA management and our state legislators to solve the problems before a strike becomes necessary.
If workers do strike, than folks need to get on their bikes and write a check to the strike fund.
i agree
I think you're interpetating Fabricio's perspective correctly. I think one need only read the original responses to my post about this subject to see that many people don't really understand the issues but are willing to come to a foregone conculsion.
Clarity
So Fab, i hear you that the republican controlled board over at SEPTA has filled management postions with patronage jobs. But, are you saying that there are literally 2 mangers for every one worker or that there are 2 times as many managers as workers total?
Beyond that, as much as management sounds like an issue at SEPTA, is that really the only cause of contract strife? I mean doesn't the state's dwindling contribution to public transit funding play a role too?
I am concerned if this upcoming contract debate is framed only as worker vs. management issue that city and state policy leaders, as well as community leaders and citizens all get off the hook.
Everybody thinks "aw, it's just between them," when both city and state elected could also be pumping more money into transit funding or working harder to solve the health care crisis created by the insurance industry.
And i think community leaders and citizens, people like us, think, well the target here seems to be SEPTA management and I don't really have access to them, so i don't know what to do. Whereas, if the target was city and state leaders, we all know we have the right to call, email, fax, visit, protest them and say "yo, get on the ball here and do something about these systemic problems over at SEPTA."
i mean, even at the simplest level, wasn't there a call for the city to not renew its contract with SEPTA to use city-owned tranist lines during last winter? Couldn't the Mayor and Council call that bluff again and say, "you guys are out unless you provide healthcare?"
Priorities
While it is laudable to have priorities it is unfair to suggest that SEPTA workers should absorb a pay cut in order to fund those priorities. It is also incredibly unrealistic to believe that cutting the benefits of these workers is going to make more money for the homeless available. These are people after all, people with families, people that work hard and earn working class incomes. Why should they be singled out to solve a problem we are all responsbile for?
As for unions they were the principal political muscle behind the creation of unemployment insurance, social security, medicare, medicaid, bans on child labor, the minimum wage, and civil rights legislation. The great marches on Washington D.C. in support of civil rights were organized by A. Philip Randolph an African American labor leader. As Fabricio already mentioned in 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis in support of a strike by sanitation workers who were demanding better pay and recognition of their union. Unions at their best can be a great force for progressive reform.
Re: Careful
Duggernaut just a couple of reactions to what you wrote.
“Should union members contribute to health care? [Management certainly should] …”
The current health benefits represent a portion of the compensation package which was agreed upon by management and labor. Part of the bargaining process included the union accepting increases in health benefits in place of increases in hourly wages and other benefits. Vaguely moralizing that the union should contribute to health care misses the point. Management wants to pay less for labor and labor no surprise is opposed.
“The race card is pretty dubious considering that a majority of Philadelphians are a member of a minority group.” Talk about dubious arguments! The majority of people in South Africa are non-white so by extension racial inequality must not be a problem there.
The reality of course is that this issue is shaped by race and views about what kind of work is valuable and which is more important depends on the person. People particularly the college educated or those in the process of being so educated look down upon workers paid to collect garbage, clean bathrooms or drive a bus. When these kinds of people hear that a janitor has a contract where her employer covers all of her health insurance premium they immediately think that given what she does she is overpaid. And of course sometimes these kinds of views mix in a William Bennett sort of way with issues of race. If she wasn’t so lazy she would go to college or get a skill and work in a “better” job.
Of course the strike is demonstrating in a very powerful way just how important this work is!
Being Ridiculous
Duggernaut wrote: “The race card is pretty dubious considering that a majority of Philadelphians are a member of a minority group.”
Price wrote: “Talk about dubious arguments! The majority of people in South Africa are non-white so by extension racial inequality must not be a problem there.”
Duggernaut wrote: “First, comparing Philadelphia to South Africa is ridiculous.”
Let me simplify my analogy for you. Again using your adjectives, dubious and ridiculous is an argument that race is not an issue because demographically racial and ethnic minorities are in the majority. Racial and ethnic inequality is a much more complex phenomena than simple voting majorities.
Duggernaut wrote: “Third, to you hypothetical situation where college educated people look down on the 'working class' because of their race; isn't it possible that when the college educated hear that the 'working class' is expected to contribute to health care they say 'So what? I contribute to health care' and they don't inherently think of race?”
The answer would be yes! I was not arguing that race is the primary motivating factor in most peoples reaction but simply that it does a play a role for some. In the end it is impossible to know how much race contributes to the negative reaction people in general have to this issue but it seems to oversimplify a bit too much to ignore it. My point remains, the knee jerk reaction of some is to trivialize the work that transit workers do and this feeds into hysterical rants against these workers.
The success of these workers at the bargaining table hinges critically on their ability to get support from the public and therefore I think an open discussion of all the dimensions of this dispute from the trivialization of work, to race to deeply flawed initial reactions like “I contribute to health care why shouldn’t they” is warranted.
Duggernaut wrote: “But the point remains that we should be careful where we are getting our information. It may not be a good idea to get your infromation about a union issue from a union rep.”
I can’t speak for the organizers of YPP but my impression of this site is that it is an open forum for debate and exchange of information. Most users I would assume are capable of judging for themselves the credibility of the information distributed. Would a post from SEPTA management be rejected? I doubt it.
Get on the bike
Plus, getting a little excercise is good for those of us who rarely leave the computer. Go outside, geeks!
On the other hand
I thought the comments posted on the other related thread were very interesting: People who characterized themselves as "pro-union" slamming a union for demanding that healthcare benefits not be rolled back. So, either they're not telling the truth, and they're captialists in unionist clothing (comments about "competition" and "accountability" make me somewhat suspicious), or if we take their comments at face value, they reflect certain political realities - realities of which unions need to be congnizant.
Many people, some of whom who consider themselves "progressives," associate greed, cronyism, corruption, and bullying with unions. Those associations are not COMPLETELY without some basis, and unions need to be savy about how to improve their image.
Andy Stern's efforts are a prime example of unions trying to move into a changed political landscape, and while I agree with Fabricio's characterization of many progressives as being "isolated" and "myopic," I'm not sure that the aggressive tone in his post is productive in the long run; I have to wonder if it shows an appropriate political savy.
Ray, Your definitely corre
Ray,
Your definitely correct. This is both a funding and management issue. I should point out that JwJ has focused on the managment angle at this moment for two reasons 1)the funding issue will essentially not be taken up for two years 2) management is vunerable for the reason that you point out...they usually operate out of the public view. JwJ is giving the public a direct line (via the provided link below) to SEPTA managment AND the people (SEPTA Board, elected officials) who have the power to make SEPTA management work toward a solution that does not harm the workers. Faye Moore has the power to tell the negotiating team to back off of the health care demands, Tomlinson and the SEPTA Board have the power to fire Moore if she isn't making sure that this will be settled without a strike and in a way that the public views as favorable. The Faye to "Keep your hands off our neighbors health care." Her boss will hear you.
Misunderstanding
Mark, I interpreted Jay's post a little differently than you. I am pretty sure he is in full support of the SEPTA workers' right to healthcare. I think he was saying that the misguided priorities come from pouring hundreds of thousands of city dollars into things like the convention center which at this point can only make a somewhat tenuous claim to benefit low and stagnant wage workers in the city.
In terms of the union issue, again, Jay is not coming at organized labor like some of our conservative friends (who normally like to stir stuff up around here). I thought Jay was saying that organized labor as a whole does more to prop up a failing democratic party than it does to build a grassroots infrastructure that could create real change.
Speaking as someone who has worked for progresisve organizations in Pgh, Philly and Harrisburg I can safely say that Jay is right. With the exception of SEIU, AFSCME, CWA, the Steelworkers, some of the Laborers, Unite/HERE and TWU (and maybe the ATU in Pgh), organized labor in this state doesn't do much these days to fund real grassroots organizing in or outside the labor movement.
Specifically in terms of the SEPTA issue, I am not sure the TWU has as much public support as it deserves in large part because the lack of affordable health care in this city makes the majority of low-wage workers unsympathetic to the plight of TWU members.
re: careful
Race is an important issue in almost everything in American society -whether on purpose or not.
According to the 2000 Census for Philadelphia County (the latest data available), 35% of all non-whites relied upon public transportation for their journey to work, while only 16% of whites relied on public transportation.
Price is right - this issues is shaped by race. Due to different commutation patterns, this strike affects more minorities than whites.
Clarity
The point in my original entry was that we should be careful about the information we are reading:
And although this appears to be a forum for open debate the two suggested entries to read are 1) an interview with SEPTA workers and 2) a blog by a union representative.
Which is not to say its not open but certainly not representative of all viewpoints.
I also pointed out that we should be careful about the union rep's blog because his numbers as far as I could tell with a quick analyis, are not true in at least one case.
Also that his arguments were a smokescreen in front of the real issues here.
Fabricio's blog apparantly was effective because his figures were cited in replies and this blog has been reduced to a discussion of racial issues, which is not a primary issue.
If you go to another popular Philly blog for more information, (phillyist.com) you are directed to the exact same sources this site provides.
So be careful. Easy enough.
re: misunderstanding
Ray and dashrinc, If I came on too strong and or misunderstood my sincerest apologies. I was reacting to what appeared to be an argument that the workers building the convention center should be asked to take a pay cut to help fund other priorities and therefore by extension so should SEPTA workers.
I think strategic mistakes in supporting and holding candidates accountable is a much broader issue than the current troubles for the workers at SEPTA and they shouldn’t get burned as retribution for those mistakes.
On health care and public support I think you are right on Ray. A few years ago the food and commercial workers were on strike in California because their employers were demanding give backs on health care to prepare for the entry of Wal-Mart. Story after story contrasted the plight of most workers with the striking workers who had overtime negotiated a pretty good health plan. And just Wednesday the editorial board of the times gleefully applauded a $1 billion in health care give backs by retirees at G.M.
“While workers will feel some pain, the reality is that right now G.M. beneficiaries have a first-class health care plan, with many paying no monthly premiums or deductibles. The reduced benefits will probably still be superior to what most Americans have.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/opinion/19wed4.html)
In a separate times story a Princeton economist was not only “delighted” that the union and company reached a deal but went on to argue “Of course the retired workers may feel betrayed," [he said, but many people in this country were having trouble coping with the soaring cost of health care.] "I say to them, my heart goes out to you, but you are in America." (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/18/business/18retiree.html)
That’s right grandma you got a problem with your co-pay, you just remember there are 45.8 million people with no health coverage, you should consider yourself lucky. Hell, you got it good; I mean you could be in a nursing home in New Orleans.
SEPTA workers who are in no way as well off as workers at G.M. now find themselves in the same trap, people who have gold standard health care (Ivy League economists, editorial board members and newspaper reporters) will point out that they actually have a health plan while many in Philadelphia don’t so why not absorb a cut. Never mind that their solidarity with the uninsured suddenly disappears when talk turns to actually covering the uninsured.