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Gear Up Solidarity ACTION
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| 28-Nov-05: We’re fast approaching a crucial period in BC Union history. In 19 weeks, at midnight on March 31, contracts covering over 90% of BC’s public sector expire.
Tens of thousands are coming out of three years of 0-0-0% to confront a provincial government wallowing in money—and willing (before the backlash) to ram through 15-22% raises for themselves. This looming confrontation comes in the aftermath of increasingly bitter struggles, including the ferry workers’ strike, the health care workers’ walkout, the Vancouver truckers’ strike, the vicious TELUS lockout and, above all, the teachers’ strike. The battle will also occur in the context of the corporate Liberals’ continuing drive to destroy public services— education, health care, child protection, transportation, and environmental protection—either by handing them over to P3's or privatizing them outright. And the results? 2,500 teachers axed. 713 children’s’ deaths ignored. 113 schools closed. 15% pay slash for the hospital workers. 0% for just about everyone else. The Good The string of defeats we have suffered since Campbell’s election may be coming to an end. Ferry workers got binding arbitration that gave the company a free hand to contract out, limited raises to 10% over seven years (0-0-0-2-2-3-3), and tied the union’s hands until after the 2010 Olympics. Hospital workers got strike-breaking legislation that cut wages 15% and enshrined the largest mass firing of women workers in Canada’s history. But the teachers may have changed all that. We all owe the members of BCTF an enormous debt. In two short weeks their unity, courage, and commitment to democratic unionism accomplished a huge breakthrough: It showed (again) that there is huge public support for strikes against Liberal attacks on public services; It showed the Liberals’ isolation, when crown prosecutors refused to criminally charge teachers; It showed that unity is our ultimate weapon, powerful enough to hold even the courts at bay. True, the strike’s outcome was, at best, a tie. At the cost of $500,000 in fines and two weeks on the line without strike pay, the BCTF only managed very partial wins. But blame for this lies not with teachers—it lies elsewhere. The Bad Teachers’ solid determination to defend public education did not find much of an echo among BC Fed leaders. There were honourable exceptions—mostly CUPE and (much more weakly) BCGEU—but most Fed officers did everything to obstruct, contain and control this strike in its final days. They did not mobilize their members to join the CUPE walkouts and rallies on Friday, October 21, and even squashed planned sympathy walkouts. Nor did leaders of the Fed or of any other affiliate appear on stage with CUPE and BCTF at the rallies. And a whispering campaign in some unions during Thursday even spread rumours the CUPE actions had been called off. They used the media to publicly pressure the BCTF by announcing Vince Ready’s proposals would be put to a membership vote—before teachers’ leaders had said so. With friends like these, who needs enemies? Once again, we’ve learned that until we elect leaderships committed to democratic, militant unionism, this cynical cycle of betrayal will continue, again and again. Despite all this, the teachers came out of their strike in better shape than the ferry workers or the HEU. Partly this was due to huge support from the general public and, especially, from their union sisters and brothers. But also it’s because they maintained control of their own struggle. Teachers adopted a motion (inspired by the Solidarity Caucus) that they would not return to work until they had held mass membership meetings across BC and conducted a province-wide membership vote. And you know what? They weren’t even fined for it! The court-imposed fine only covered October 7 to 17, not October 18 to the October 24 return to work. BCTF unity created a relationship of forces that even the courts did not challenge. And The Ugly... Gordon Campbell has been seriously weakened by the teachers. It’s clear now that the BCTF strike could well be a prelude to a much larger and more decisive struggle next spring. Teachers have shown us all that we can win against this hated government in the streets. We’re not talking about driving the Liberals from office before the next election (nice as that might be), but of a much more immediate and realistic goal—defeating their legislative agenda and stopping their campaign of privatization, wage freezes and destruction of public services in its tracks. We can do this...if... IF we can pull together a common front in the public sector with common demands, joint bargaining, grassroots member-to-member contact, and organizing—and a commitment from all unions not to meet with the Liberals separately, or negotiate separately, or settle separately.... IF we can tie our legitimate demands for improved wages, benefits, and working conditions together with a series of demands for the preservation of public services.... IF we can mobilize public support from one end of this province to the other in an aggressive strategy of outreach and alliances with every sector of the population being attacked by the Campbell government.... IF we can prepare for the certainty that a mass public sector strike will be declared illegal—by creating cross-union unity IN ACTION among public AND private sector unions and by building the public support necessary to win such a strike.... IF we reject the past conduct of the Fed leadership and organize a struggle based on education of our members in advance, on coordinated cross-union mobilization, and on democratic membership decision-making throughout.... If we meet these challenges, we can win. We have no illusions about how much change this requires, both in the Fed and within each of our affiliated unions. But it can be done—we only have to look at how teachers prepared and fought. And big as this change may be, it’s a far more realistic goal to set ourselves than the defeats, betrayals and divisions of the past. |
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| letters@generalstrikenews.ca | ||||||||||||||
