The Joe Hill LTD Project
Why the Board and Management Will Secretly Agree to Push Forward with a Strike at the Board Meeting Wednesday.
It has been awhile since you have had an issue related article, and your poll results have clearly shown you want issues. Well, here it is.
It is close to indisputable that Ken Hamm, and especially BRT Project Manager Mark Pangborn, want a strike. The bargaining strategy of the management seems clearer and clearer to ol' Joe. We will not give on anything, we will contain the cost of the settlement into terms that are, and shall remain, unacceptable to the Union, and then we will just force the issue by making it our last best offer. Accept it or else. Or else what? It will look something like this:
LTD will say this is our take it or leave it offer. A plan that they have hatched from the beginning. And the workers organized in their union will have to make the decision either to accept the demand of the employer or go on strike. LTD will save wages and benefits while the strike is underway. LTD will save $250,000 every week that there is a strike if all the workers go out. But will there be scabs?
LTD wants scabs. They believe that there will be scabs. LTD is counting on scabs, supervisors, and workers like Ruth Linoz, Will Mueller, Steve Rayack, and Marcia Mafei to scab on us too. Workers who will turn their backs on their fellow workers, and take the demand of the employer, will be SCABS and any of their allies. They will be the economic means leading to the demise of the their union and their own protection. LTD hopes that 20% will scab. If they get 50 scabs, they may keep it running on a scab schedule of sorts, maybe with other scabs from SMS. Lots of over time for the scabs too. Shop - no problem - we will just contract out the shop needs with Cummins or others. Customer service will be all hands on deck from the front office staff and temps.
LTD recruited recently for drivers. How big is the hiring pool right now? I will bet it is bigger than usual. They hire a handful of select replacement workers - you know, those that don't mind scabbing, and they circulate a petition to decertify the union. It passes and LTD goes on a hiring spree. "Good bye old timers, union strikers, we will be replacing you bums and getting us a clean upstanding all American and non-union workforce. We don't need trouble makers and any stinkin' union." You see Hamm thinks he is so popular and charismatic that he expects Team LTD to scab on their Brothers and Sisters. It is the team way you see.
Think it can't happen? It happens all the time in the private sector. No replacement workers have ever been used under Oregon law, but LTD is just the evil administration to push the limits of the law and be the test case.
So, if you are thinking of scabbing if it comes to this, you need to think twice or even three times. Why? Because your actions could lead to the permanent loss of employment for your coworkers. It could result in the loss of your own job, because without a contract, what have you got - hope and a prayer?
If you are thinking of scabbing, you will sacrifice the struggles of the people who went before us and you. We are all standing on the shoulders and backs of workers here at LTD and other places, who have gotten us what we have, and sometimes at extreme prices of blood, guts, and stamina. So today we add a question for Mr. Hamm for the fall training - Mr. Hamm will you approve the hiring of strikebreakers or replacement workers if our negotiations end up in a strike? And we might add, Mr. Hamm why are you forcing such difficult negotiations when we are just trying to remain similar to other transit agencies in pay and benefits, and you keep shifting money to capital spending?
You see fellow trade unionists, the union is our protection. LTD buys buses with contracts and guarantees terms. They buy contracting services to build the Springfield Station with a contract. Maybe we should be there at the grand opening of the Station to demonstrate our desire for a fair contract. Until the public gets the idea that there is trouble in River City, we may not be able to get anywhere. But action by many is required, in hearts and in your minds, and now in your hands and feet.
In Solidarity,
Joe Hill
JH 50
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