NEW YORK CITY—Recently, I led my first virtual transit workers’ meeting. This is a very exciting time to be gathering workers across multiple departments in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), where I work, and sharing how the bosses attack us and how we fight back. Between the terrible conditions on the job, union misleaders and the increase of fascism by President Donald Trump, workers may be discouraged, but they are also searching for someone and something to trust and have confidence in. We need to struggle with transit workers to help them realize that “someone” is their fellow worker and that “something” is communism through Progressive Labor Party!
Laying the groundwork
This meeting has been building since my campaigning through November with a fellow employee and union member who ran for president of our union, TWU Local 100, but lost. I was expecting to lose, but my primary goal was organizing the workers. But two weeks before the meeting, the then union president got removed from his seat for sexual misconduct and stealing money. Now fighting for reelection is what the person who I campaigned with wants to rally workers for. The union’s electoral board recently chose a new president the way they have in the past but it is the workers who should choose their union leadership even if they're not the leadership we need.
We had ten workers show up including this person herself. I led the meeting with the state of the world. I talked about Trump's racist and sexist attacks on migrant workers and women workers, including deportation policies and being against abortion. I tried to make the connections between Trump and what the Democrats have been doing for years. Calling the Democrats just as fascist as Trump, I wanted to make the argument that the Democrats are the main danger but I didn't want that argument to take up the whole meeting. So I made the connections to how transit workers are also facing on the job attacks, including against our retiree medical, hiring non-unionized contractors, poor wage increases, etc.
Inspiring the workers
After I finished my introduction, I ended with a question: “How can we fight back?” One worker responded, “Workers need to be inspired. Many workers are too defeated to take a stand.” I agreed; another worker stated he liked the idea of trying to unite with other workers, so he mentioned a workers’ labor group he'll be attending. I asked him to report back about that meeting. After that, our former union president took the floor. She spoke about shop steward classes she'll be teaching. But then she started to drill me with questions, basically, trying to discredit me as a leader.
Soon after that I cut her off. I said, “I agree with most of what [she] said and I support that we have the right to choose our union president. However, if we are not organized it doesn't matter who is in leadership.” So I ended the meeting by asking the workers to bring back stories of how management has attacked them or a coworker for the next meeting and ideas for future meetings.
Following up
After the meeting, I called one of the workers. I think she has a lot of curiosity and potential. We spoke for half an hour about my take of the state of the world. She doesn't have confidence that workers would join a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She thinks they could only be motivated by money. It will be my goal to push her into leadership even though she may be quiet for now. I think there's something brewing, all she needs is a spark. More reportbacks to come!
