In NYC, Labor Joins the 21st Century, Finally

If anyone had any doubts about the changing face of labor, literally and otherwise, one need look no further than the two union leaders currently in the news in NYC -- Ed Ott, Executive Director of the NYC Central Labor Council and Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.

Desai is, on the surface, an unlikely union leader. A woman in an industry that's 99 percent male and an immigrant from India, she is one of the most outspoken and refreshing union leaders in NYC. This week, her union called for a two-day strike because the city is demanding that all cabs use global positioning systems and video screens that will allow for credit card payment. The reason for resistance: among other things, the cabbies fear they will be dogged by this expensive and potentially intrusive Big Brother technology and that the use of credit cards will cost them an extra 5 percent per fare, something they can ill-afford. It's estimated that cabbies in NYC drive the first 5 hours just to pay off fees and gas. Every single one of the drivers works 6 days a week/12 hours a day. Some work 7 days. It's a hard job, a job that's mostly done by an immigrant workforce.

It looks like the strike was fairly successful. Here where I live, in Brooklyn, I saw a huge line of taxis just sitting by the curb on 4th Avenue in Park Slope, near one of the main taxi depots, on the first day of the strike.

This job action coincides, not accidentally, with the week of Labor Day, traditionally, in NYC anyway, a holiday commemorated with a parade.

A parade? With organized labor under increasing pressure not only from employers but from outside financial realities, escalating internal costs, a much more ethnically diverse work force, and an increasing police state mentality that abhors organizing, who cares about a parade?

Exactly.

So thought Ed Ott and the Executive Board of the NYC Central Labor Council. They scrapped this year's parade in favor of a more direct and relevant action -- a rally tomorrow, Saturday, September 8th, that will focus on the health care needs of those who worked cleaning up the mess after 9/11. Six years later, it's clear that there are health problems that are still surfacing and that haven't been addressed.

(Tomorrow's rally starts @ 10 am @ West Broadway between Barclay Street & Vesey Street on the north side of World Trade Center Site. Click here for more info.)

Both the strike and the rally represent a more activist approach to "celebrating" Labor Day and a return to the true core principles of unionism -- taking on issues that are actually relevant to working people.

But, of course, there were some naysayers who were wringing their hands about the loss of the parade.

Some of the mainstream media, in particular -- which has what I'd kindly call a "checkered" history when it comes to covering labor -- wrote about this change in plans. One New York Times columnist even took a sideswipe at the parade's cancellation without, obviously, ever having talked to anyone in organized labor. Ironically, a search of the Times' own online archives reveals that the paper hasn't covered the parade as a separate feature since 1996, the year that the parade was changed from Labor Day itself to the Saturday following Labor Day. The Times' moaning about the loss of a parade it never covered seems not only to be simply hypocritical, but underscores the fact that the parade isn't a good way to garner attention for real issues.

Parades were, once upon a time in the 19th and 20th centuries, one of the only ways for people to gather and make a show of force and solidarity.

However, in the 21st century, with all of the new computer-based technology that's available and a very different kind of workforce which is facing challenges unheard of in the last century or so, a stroll down Fifth Avenue doesn't quite do it.

And so, just in time for this year's Labor Day celebration, a more activist, worker-centered, modern view has finally come to the labor movement in NYC.

Welcome to the 21st century.

Follow Linda Cronin-Gross on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lindacgross@twi

Comments

[Esquizito]

"Parades were, once upon a time in the 19th and 20th centuries, one of the only ways for people to gather and make a show of force and solidarity."

Oui Madam! Yass, yass... Parades provide many other beneficial results that the people need and enjoy! Therefore, don't tro da' baby out wit'da bath water, na.

I recall that on Saturday, September 15, 2001 - we paraded behind a funky brass band thru the downtown populations of old New Orleans. I will note here that there was a significant showing of the characteristic patriotism, i.e. Never before did a 2nd line parade glow such red, white & blue.

I remember the words of two individuals in particular, said to me. First, the younger brother of a previous Mayor: "We brought this on ourselves." Second, the then wife of a blues scholar, poet, cultural activist etc. who now makes his home in A'dam: "It's time for dialogue."

So strange it is to look back however, would I have heard these statements said in many other places in America then? Now? Albeit with horns and drums ringing in my ears, proclaiming peace.

Keep swingin',
E.
1018 Music Street
N.O. LA

P.s. A very happy anniversary my dear lady! Our idea will prevail.

[Desiderata]

On September 11, 2007 do not go to work, shop, buy gas. Do demonstate with signs that say: "We are mad as Hell and we're not taking it anymore."

[rich1107]

Unions also need to be more creative in organizing other workers. Take for example computer programmers - many jobs have been shipped to India and they certainly need a union to fight for them. However, because they have been brainwashed against 'unions' it is difficult to organize them. Maybe less union sounding names...perhaps: The IT Professionals Asoc., for example, might at least get a fair hearing with the workers. Once the prejudice against unions is overcome by explaining the benefits of membership there would be a greater chance of getting something done.

[larry278]

The NYT write might be surprise to find that parades which formerly had patriotic themes & involved the participation of active duty members of US Armed Forces & veterans of US Armed Forces have been cancelled since all of those fit to particapate were serving in Iraq & other sites. Friends of labor also cancel Labor Day parades because union members are walking picket lines or organizing demonstrations similar to the one NYC taxi drivers will be having. It is good for a reporter to read union press releases & go out to speak to a union's leaders & rank & file when writing a story by hitting the street. It takes more than phone calls to get facts for a story on some beats.

[BlackGirl]

It is not surprising that the New York Times has not written about the Labor Day parade since 1996 or the cancellation of this year's parade. The NYT often but obviously never writes about the working class, brown & black communities or as they see it the folks that don't read or buy their paper. More and more of us--working brown & black people--have read your paper and are not satisfied with the way you conveniently editorialize aka not report about issues i.e. Jena 6 or cancellation of this year's Labor Day parade or the rally that is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 8 @ 10am. That is why more and more of us are logging into the HuffPo or AlterNet.

That is why we are thirsty for people like Ms. Cronin-Gross, Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to supply us with the true news in the world.