The rulers of New York City and the state have launched a vicious attack on the rights of the transit workers who run New York City's subways and buses. They are threatening to use the cops and courts to impose astronomical fines and arrest not only against any worker who strikes, but against anyone who advocates exercising the basic right to withhold one's labor. The restraining order and City Hall's fines remain in place—backed by a force of 3,000 additional cops in the transit system—even as members of the Transport Workers Union vote on whether to accept the proposed contract.

This blatant government intervention against workers fighting for a decent contract is aimed not only against the TWU members and other city workers who face contract negotiations in the coming months, but all working people in the city and beyond. Just in this region nurses at St. Vincent's Hospital are demanding that more nurses be hired, striking truckers at Overnite are fighting for representation by the Teamsters union, dye workers in New Jersey textile mills are resisting their bosses' attempts to slash wages and benefits, and workers at the Domino Sugar refinery in Brooklyn are on strike for a decent contract. That's why the entire labor movement should stand as one to demand an end to the government attacks on the transit workers.

What are the rulers afraid of? The desire by thousands of transit workers to fight, demonstrated most graphically when more than 10,000 workers rallied December 8, a week before the contract expiration date. This rally was joined by other unionists, showing the potential to stand up to all the attacks of the bosses, the government, and the big-business media.

Leading up to the December 15 contract expiration date, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and City Hall worked overtime to whip up hysteria over the possible effects of a strike, in an attempt to undermine solidarity with the transit workers.

They have been unable to isolate the TWU members, however. In the discussion and debate raging in workplaces throughout the city, many workers agree that the transit workers' demands for better pay and working conditions are just. Their fight is part of the growing pattern of resistance among working people and others in the United States and around the world, from farmers struggling to stay on the land to Puerto Ricans resisting U.S. colonial domination of their country.

The rulers' sudden concern for the millions of working people and school children in New York who rely on the city's mass transportation system is nothing but hypocrisy. Giuliani and his predecessor, Democrat David Dinkins, have slashed funding for hospitals, social services, and schools. They, along with the state's governor, are responsible for a 300 percent increase in subway fares since 1980—lining the pockets of the wealthy bondholders who reap the profits from the transit system.

At the same time City Hall has forced tens of thousands of workers onto "workfare," including some in the subway system. Instead of receiving union pay and benefits for a union job, they get benefits amounting to less than minimum wage. In an attack on workers who are homeless, the city administration is demanding "workfare" in exchange for shelter, while jailing people for "vagrancy."

After taking concessions in their previous contract, the transit workers' demanded a 27 percent wage increase over the next three years and an end to arbitrary and unjust discipline. New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Gov. George Pataki joined the MTA in claiming that pay demand was excessive. Subway and bus workers have been under a virtual wage freeze for the last several years. And the wages they have won over decades of struggle—including two strikes—can only seem high when compared to the pitifully low wages that many workers in New York City receive. Giuliani went so far as to claim the wage increase the transit workers are demanding would force a doubling of the fare, despite the fact that the MTA tops, city, and state officials have debated how to spend the massive surplus accrued over the last decade.

The TWU membership will now be voting on a proposed contract. Whatever gains they make will have been the result of the determined stance of the ranks.

City officials have leveled the baseless accusation that transit workers have engaged in sabotage—charges should be rejected by every worker as part of the attempt to smear workers whose only "crime" is to demand a just contract.

Giuliani has declared that government workers have no right to strike and his senatorial opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, has remained silent on this question.

Working people can only rely on our own strength and unity—not the twin parties of the bosses—to stand up to the bosses attacks on our livelihood and democratic rights. We need to stand in solidarity with the transit workers and their right to strike and demand: Lift the injunction now! Repeal the Taylor Law! Hands off the TWU!  
 
 
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