New York CITY, June 1 — “When you reach a certain point, you can’t continue taking your kids to the doctor, or you can’t afford to go to the doctor. You can’t raise your kids here in New York, so you have to find other work…The cuts are so drastic that they will undermine our ability to serve our clients.”
That’s how one striker explained why 270 lawyers, paralegals, process servers, and other staff are in Week 3 of their strike against Legal Services NYC (LSNYC), after working without a contract for over a year. The strikers are members of the Legal Services Staff Association/UAW Local 2320 (LSSA), a nation-wide UAW local with branches across the country.
The millionaire cooperate lawyers who run the LSNYC board want workers to take a pay cut equivalent to two years of seniority, pay thousands of dollars a year in health care contributions while providing greatly reduced coverage, cut employer contributions to the retirement fund by nearly one-third, and end cost-of-living pay increases.
Even more than union-busting, the proposed cuts are a racist attack on the poorest, mostly black, Latino and immigrant workers whose only access to legal assistance is through LSSA. It represents workers facing evictions and foreclosure, those denied disability benefits or unemployment compensation, victims of domestic violence, guides newly arrived immigrants through the racist immigration system and more.
The Legal Services Corporation was created by Congress in 1974 after the anti-racist rebellions of the 1960s, to ensure the grievances of poor and working people were moved into the judicial system. Forty years later, U.S. rulers can no longer afford a safety net they created when they were mostly unchallenged by rival capitalists.
The attack on Legal Services is a part of the shredding of the old social contract and very much a part of the development of fascism as the U.S. lurches to ever widening wars. And no strike, no matter how militant, can change that course. While we need to fight tooth and nail to defend our livelihoods and our clients, at the same time we must build a revolutionary movement that can smash war and fascism with communist revolution. We invite every striker to join and build a mass Progressive Labor Party.
The bosses have dug in, hiring the notoriously anti-union law firm Seyfarth Shaw. One striker noted,
“Milbank Tweed [building], where the chair of the board works, is downtown at Chase Manhattan Plaza. Michael Young, the vice chair, works in the New York Times building in Midtown Manhattan…Their clients are large banks. Our clients are the poorest of the poor, often being sued by those banks.”
The strike has the support from workers around the city. Workers from other unions have joined the picket lines and offered cold drinks to the picketers. Like the recent struggle to keep Long Island College Hospital open, workers uniting with those they serve can be a winning, anti-racist formula. It also has the “support” of the NY Central Labor Council, which helped to pull the rug out from under striking school bus drivers just a few months ago.
This past week, UAW Region 9A, which includes LSSA/UAW2320, rounded up about 50 strikers and union staffers to endorse Christine Quinn for mayor on the steps of City Hall. Quinn, as speaker of the City Council, has been billionaire Bloomberg’s closest ally as he has refused to settle even one contract with a city workers’ union. She refused to allow a vote on paid sick days for three years and is the strongest defender of racist NYPD commissioner Ray Kelley. She and four other Democratic candidates for mayor signed a letter urging the school bus drivers to end their strike, even though many no longer had jobs to go back to.
Strikers don’t need to be standing behind Quinn or any of her rivals. They are doing the right thing, relying on each other (every striker is on a strike committee) and the clients they serve. And they need to be wary of the Central Labor Council and UAW leadership. As the fight unfolds, we’re fighting to hold on to what we can, and limit our losses. That’s the period we’re in. In order to get the fruits of all we produce, we will have to take power from the bosses with communist revolution. That day may not be around the corner, but the opportunity to build that movement lies within this strike.