MacArthur Park, 5/1, 10 am
Over 100 operators and a dozen mechanics at LA Metro have been affected by the Trump & Newsom administrations cancellation of commercial drivers licenses (CDLs). Join in solidarity with unionized LA Metro workers standing up to restore CDLs for our operators and mechanics! Stand against ICE! Meet other unionists and workers in LA who share our struggle for labor conditions we all deserve!
Gather at the southeast corner of 6th and Park View at 9:45 am
Zoom discussion, Sunday, April 26 at 1 pm
As the U.S. ruling class escalates its war on Iran, they’re ramping up brutal domestic attacks against workers using ICE, and our economic conditions are worsening by the day. Gas and food prices are going up while [Teamster President] Sean O’Brien is basically there to ensure the Teamsters keeps bleeding members. On this call, union members will present on how we are organizing to ABOLISH ICE! and OPPOSE IMPERIALIST WARS!, plus how we can build up our ability to wage militant strikes-including preparing for a GENUINE GENERAL STRIKE! We must struggle to oppose union misleaders who collaborate with the bosses, the state, and Democratic Party-led nonprofits like 50501 and Indivisible, which only seek to co-opt and defang working class struggle.
This May Day, let’s revive the history of fierce working class struggle against the capitalists!
Zoom discussion with: Teamsters Mobilize, Transit Workers for a Fighting Union and Machinists Reform Action Committee, Committee for One Fighting Transit Union, Workers Strike Back and Student Workers of Columbia:
Colleen Donovan, TM Steering Committee, UPS part-timer Local 804
Will Peña, TM Steering Committee, UPS driver, Local 396
Kat Latimer, TM Steering Committee, Swissport JFK, IBEW
Elliot Brown, Committee for one Fighting Transit Union, ATU Local 1277
Traik Peltier-Johnson, Machinists Reform Action Committee (MRAC), former IAM Local 839
Ethan Johnson, organizer in Student Workers of Columbia (UAW 2710) and member of Socialists in Teaching and Research (STAR)
Eddie Lizarraga, Transit Workers for a Fighting Union (TWFU), TWU Local 100
Emily Turnbull, retired longshorewoman ILWU Local 10 (and former Executive Board member), co-founder of Committee to End Tier Segregation
Kshama Sawant, Workers Strike Back
Unions are organs of workers defense, yet they are led by bureaucrats who care only for their perks and privileges. It’s for this reason the brass seek “friends” among the bosses while silencing the rank and file, avoiding the class battles necessary to defend our interests. To empower the membership, and as part of the fight for a new, class-struggle leadership, COFTU calls for:
COFTU has endorsed the petition below, initiated by Teamsters Mobilize.
We, the undersigned Teamsters and supporters of the union movement, demand that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters leadership:
Unions: Defend Anti-ICE Bus Drivers
SMART bus operators Seán Broadbent and Jaime went public in the LA Public Press in July saying that they and around 30 of their coworkers had vowed to not let unidentified, masked and armed ICE agents without a warrant onboard. As a result, they were both fired. After Seán went back to the media saying this was retaliatory, the discipline was reduced to a 60-day suspension. But this remains a threat to the rest of the workforce. So we in the Committee for One Fighting Transit Union (COFTU) joined with other Metro workers and formed the Unionists for Seán and Jaime and held a rally on September 25, fighting for clean reinstatements with full backpay.
While the rally was small, various Metro and other unionists and left activists joined in. It was a victory, given the blowback we encountered. TCU leadership refused to engage. ATU mostly stonewalled, only sending a letter to the top dog at SMART which they then refused to make public despite a motion the membership passed calling to do so. A SMART local vice chairman wanted to speak at the rally, but upper leadership ordered him to stand down. Meanwhile, rumors circulated that management would discipline anyone who attended.
All Metro workers must defend these operators! Metro intimidates workers who reach out to the press—including on safety—in order to control the narrative. Many co-workers amplified this, saying “follow the policy” or “it’s not your bus.” But operators are like captains of a ship, they are the stewards of their riders’ safety. What Metro feared most was these drivers’ step toward collective action, taking safety into their own hands, especially in the face of Trump saying that ICE can go anywhere. If the unions can come together now, in the defense of two of their own, it puts us in a good position to defend not just immigrants but the whole Angeleno population.
While all rally participants agreed on the main demands, there was open debate on how best to achieve them. The Democratic Socialists of America and others, for example, pushed for Metro to adopt a “proactive policy” to protect immigrants and a training program on ICE for drivers. But Metro already has a policy: to punish people like Seán and Jaime who stand up to ICE. Metro’s interest is to keep transit moving so the profits of L.A.’s bosses keep flowing. Metro doesn’t care about its own workforce, let alone immigrant riders.
The bosses will not bend to moral pressure to do right. The only pressure they will listen to is the one that effects the bottom line. That’s why COFTU demands that the unions exert their power. The bosses need us, we don’t need them—we make the wheels turn! For more on the rally, watch our video at youtube.com/@foroneunion.
Related video: