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Today's Times has a letter by Larry Hanley, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, picking up on a Times article about the impact of public sector job declines on Black workers, and pointing out the need for more spending in the sector to help those workers as well as to stop the creep of unsafe private contracting firms into the field. (Letter at bottom.) Some of the older members on the list may remember Larry from the days when he was head of the Staten Island ATU Local and one of the city's "usual suspects" of lower-level officials who would be at all the right events. Larry's letter has to be placed in the context of ATU's conservative response to the murder of Eric Garner. His line was very clearly "we're all workers, let's get past disagreements about who killed who and why, and let's spend more for all workers." To that end he quotes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's letter stressing class over race. See: http://www.atu.org/media/releases/atu-on-the-ferguson-grand-jury-decision and http://www.atu.org/media/intransit/a-new-beginning-for-progressive-labor-education-activism/the-hidden-violence In contrast the DC-area ATU Local issued a clear statement of support for protesters against police killings: http://www.atulocal689.org/uploads/4/1/1/4/41141827/police_violence_rally.pdf I'm disturbed but not surprised by Larry's line, given his base in Staten Island. Like teacher and nurse unions, transit unions have widely diverse compositions given their presence in a variety of cities and towns of varying makeup -- although this didn't stop New York's nurse union, NYSNA, from issuing very clear progressive statements on the issue. So Larry's letter today is IMO another opportunity to continue the discussion about how labor, from rank-and-file up through the officialdom, is dealing with today's racial issues. Larry's letter in today's Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/opinion/public-sector-job-decline.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss The Opinion Pages <http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html> Public-Sector Job Decline JUNE 2, 2015 *To the Editor:* “Public-Sector Jobs Vanish, Hitting Blacks Hard” (“A Shifting Middle” series, front page, May 25) <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/business/public-sector-jobs-vanish-and-blacks-take-blow.html?_r=0>rightly reported the adverse effects of public-sector divestment on African-Americans. But the article did not mention outsourcing as a leading reason so many vital public-sector jobs are vanishing. Public demand and support for transit are up, with voters passing tax-raising referendums 70 percent of the time since 2000. And studies show that the best way to provide safe, reliable and affordable transit is through the public sector. Yet Congress continues to starve transit. Lacking resources, local policy makers outsource vital services to private contractors, who typically provide service that is less safe, less reliable and, ultimately, more expensive. Transit workers receive less training, lower wages and fewer benefits. To survive, many need food, housing and other forms of public assistance. If policy makers’ preference for outsourcing continues, the acute hopelessness, civil unrest and chaos many African-Americans now experience will probably spread. LARRY HANLEY President Amalgamated Transit Union International Washington _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
