HAPPY TO BE BACK AT WORK

[Eucerin]

and not on that cold picket line

[topgun]

Does anybody need some wooden pallets, have two truck load I got get rid of.

[bug]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/02/18/nybu-f18.html

[Buzz]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/02/18/nybu-f18.html

Well, it doesn't surprise that the WSWS only presented anti-union interviews. That's what they do. It's easy to second-guess the union and play armchair quarterback, but no matter what the union did, not everybody was going to be happy.

Some say we should have gone out in December when the bids went out. That would have made sense, except for the time of year.  What a dilemma for Michael ... how do you put guys out on the street just before Christmas? TWU 100 did that a few years ago and the strike lasted about 2 days.

Some feel we should have stayed out longer. To what end? We were never going to get a concession from Bloomberg. He was looking to fast-track what ever companies are awarded the work that went up for bids. He would have pulled those contracts and the workers for those companies would have been out of work NOW instead of September.

With at least a couple of lawsuits pending, there is a lot that can happen between now and September. There's a good chance the courts can freeze the bids until it's all sorted out, or they can be thrown out altogether. There is a good chance some form of EPP can come from Albany. I don't think the gesture from the 5 democratic candidates was an "empty promise." There were many, many people paying attention to this strike, not only in this country, but in Canada as well. If one of those people becomes mayor they'll know millions of people will be looking for them to live up to their commitment.

We were all hoping for a "win" by getting the EPP from Bloomy. It was never going to happen, and I credit our union officials for acknowledging that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and they don't require people to be on picket lines any longer than we  were.

[bug]

Buzz this is the only article from WSWS that was against the union. I've posted many of their articles on my site and all were pro unions . They were the only paper and site telling it like it was.

[GMC JOE]

  What happens if a republican wins ? 

[Buzz]

Buzz this is the only article from WSWS that was against the union. I've posted many of their articles on my site and all were pro unions . They were the only paper and site telling it like it was.

Hardly. Below are links to just some of the anti-1181 comments that have appeared in their columns. Under each link is a quote (or 2) from that article that illustrates the point. They have a particular penchant for quoting workers who are not happy with the union. I'm not saying their assertions aren't true ... some are, some aren't, but the very last quote in the examples I gave below sums up where WSWS is at. (Their anti-union rhetoric is not limited to ATU.) The purpose of the WSWS is to steer you toward the "Socialist Equality Party," which is 100 times more leftist than even Obama could hope to be.


http://wsws.org/en/articles/2013/01/24/pers-j24.html ...

Indeed, the union, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1181, was long dominated by mobsters, with its former president jailed in 2006 and its current head a longtime member of the old regime. As in "cleaner" unions, these officials pursued their own interests at the workers' expense. The drivers, matrons and mechanics neither benefited from nor are responsible for the corruption.



http://wsws.org/en/articles/2013/01/25/nybu-j25.html ...

Like other picket lines in this strike, the union has made no provision to give even minimal comforts to strikers, such as hot coffee or port-a-potties in the extremely cold weather. Nevertheless, we found that workers were more interested in information about the strike than anything else.



http://wsws.org/en/articles/2013/01/30/nybu-j30.html ...

Local 1181 has been complicit with Bloomberg in wearing the strikers down, withholding information from them, and attempting to demoralize them. After first saying that it would only meet with Bloomberg, the local agreed to mediation on Monday with the bus companies and without the participation of the city.



http://wsws.org/en/articles/2013/02/02/nycc-f02.html ...

The leaders of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 and the ATU International, however, have offered workers no way forward to break their isolation and mobilize this support.

Although the combined assets of ATU Local 1181 and the International are over $121 million, the union has handed out only a paltry sum, around $30 a day, in strike benefits, while advising workers to sign up for COBRA supplemental health care insurance, which they must pay for, and directing workers to food banks.



http://wsws.org/en/articles/2013/02/04/nybu-f04.html ...

However, they were angry that Local 1181 hadn't been supporting them as they stood out on the picket lines.


http://wsws.org/en/articles/2013/02/04/stri-f04.html ...

On the picket lines, strikers who have spoken to the World Socialist Web Site have expressed frustration over the direction of the strike. Some have talked about marching to the headquarters of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) to protest being kept in the dark by the union while strikers man picket lines in the cold and receive a miserly $30 a day in strike pay.


http://wsws.org/en/articles/2013/02/05/nlrb-f05.html ...

ATU International President Larry Hanley, whose salary is $285,000, and ATU Local 1181 President Michael Cordiello, who takes in $245,000 a year, sounded like business consultants discussing opportunities to be opened up through backroom discussions with Democratic Party politicians. There wasn't the slightest hint that workers were locked in a life-and-death battle.

In pursuit of this surrender, International ATU President Hanley said the union was "working the press and the political establishment." He had the gall to boast that AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka had offered the miserable sum of $25,000 for a food bank for strikers.

This only underscores the fact that school bus workers can prevail in their struggle only if they break the stranglehold of the unions and fight for the full industrial and political mobilization of the working class in opposition to the political establishment, the two big business parties, and the Wall Street oligarchs they represent.

[mirrorcheck]

GMCjoe.,....I doubt a Republican can or will win. If that happens hope for the best assume the worst.