Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 22:56:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: louisgodena-AT-ids.net (Louis R Godena)
Subject: Re: M-I: Ron Carey's Victory



Jon Flanders writes of UPS:

>If there ever was a victorious strike, this was it.

After decades of inexorable retreat, even a draw seems like victory for a
union movement as badly demoralized as ours.  But a draw it was.  There will
in all probability be few if any full-time jobs created out of this debacle
(tonight, it was announced that there have been more than 5,000 layoffs at
UPS due to lost business).  The pension fund -- that black hole of waste and
corruption -- was "saved", but in any event that is a benefit that accrues,
finally, to the union leadership, and not to the rank-and-file.  And UPS has
got the half-loaf of a five-year contract.  No, UPS is not the armageddon
that Patco was, but only a self-deluding fool would call it an unqualified
victory.  And one naturally disbelieves fools.

And it is important to remember that there were special features about this
strike which limit its broader significance, such as Carey's own position
due to fundraising abuses and voter fraud.  And the issue of part-time work
-- the issue which galvanized public support --was unusual in that it simply
does not figure in most labor disputes.  Nor could UPS jobs be downsized or
shipped overseas.  It remains to be seen whether this action can reverse the
decline of organized labor in America.  My own feeling -- based on years of
experience within the labor movement -- leads me to dismiss Mr Carey's claim
of "a historic turning point for working people in this country" as fantasy.


Jon continues:

>Ron Carey, whatever his weaknesses, cannot just be summed up as a tool of
>the government. Real life is bit more complicated than that. Carey was a 
>working driver at UPS that rode the dissident wave to victory, yes with 
>government help at the time, but even that was influenced by rank and 
>file disgust with the goons. 


The government did not kick out Pressler & Co because of the TDU because of
rank-and-file disgust.  It, for example, is quite benign toward the Laborers
International -- a subsidiary of the Patriarca crime family -- though "rank
and file disgust" would put the TDU to shame by comparison.  It is politics,
Jon, and if people wish to flatter themselves with fantasies of power they
do not enjoy so be it. 


>You characterize Hoffa Jr. as a "dissident." Really? This family name 
>wielding double dipping lawyer a dissident? 


Jon, I wasn't speaking of Hoffa's "dissidence" in the way I would describe
St Thomas Aquinas' or Ghandi's, rather, I was pointing out that his is a
dissident voice within the teamsters.  And one, obviously, that represents a
near (if not outright) majority of teamster members.  Carey,
"undemocratically", occupies his post courtesy of the Justice Department of
a bosses' government. 


Jon closes with:

>Personally I care whether or not Carey and Sweeney's hand was 
>strengthened only in so far as it make it easier to advocate a class 
>struggle position. And this strike accomplished that. Every worker, not 
>just in the US either, has gotten a shot of confidence from the UPS 
>outcome.  

The strengthening of the hand of the AFL-CIO leadership is and always has
been bad news for workers.  Today is no exception.  They have not changed.
The hype around this outcome reminds me, sadly, of the Palestinian "peace
agreement" consumated on the White House lawn; rank betrayal celebrated as a
new millenium.  As the "fruits" of Carey's Pyrrhic victory unravel in the
coming months, who will be left finally to alibi the Teamster president and
his cronies?

"Not I", said the carpenter.

Louis Godena  




     --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---