On April 29, all the various documents, briefs and motions that the judge reviewing our arbitration award has asked for were given to him. He will now write his opinion on whether the award is in compliance with the law or not. He stated in his February opinion that he would attempt to finish his final opinion as quickly as possible. For a federal judge this is probably about two months.
When the opinion is handed down by the court it will do one of two things, either he will order Metro to pay the wage increases in the award or he will declare the award illegal and order the parties to go back and begin negotiations on a smaller wage increase. If either party is dissatisfied with his opinion they of course can appeal his decision and delay the final outcome for another year.
Many members have asked how can Metro do this if we have final and binding arbitration. The court told the union in February of 2010, that we no longer have final and binding arbitration. This was taken away from us when Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Wolf Bill into law in 1995.
Since the original award was written in November 2009, unions across the country have been under attack and the arbitration process has been labeled unfair to the bosses and the local governments. The bosses seem to have forgotten their history on this one. Arbitration was set up in the first place to prevent workers from striking because the bosses felt strikes were too effective in winning workers demands. In recent years, the unions have been weaken to the extent that they can rarely wage an effective strike, so now the bosses feel they can take away our right to arbitrate contracts without any repercussions
We have all seen the process unfold in Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana where collective bargaining rights have been eliminated or greatly reduced. In Montgomery County the courts have ruled that the County Executive can set aside an arbitration award if he honestly believes it will threaten the financial stability of the county.
From the 1930’s to the middle 60’s a militant trade union movement and the civil rights movement were able achieve a decent standard of living for many workers through collective bargaining, and a decent retirement through Social Security, Medicare and the private pension systems. Now 50 years later, the bosses have decided that all these gains by workers have to be taken back because they are no longer affordable.
The problem is not that we do not have the workers and the resources to provide workers with a decent standard of living but rather that the bosses run the system to make profits rather meet the needs of the working class. As long as we let the bosses continue to spend billions on foreign wars to protect their profits, billions more on police repression at home to keep the working class down and billions more in fighting each other to see who can make the most money, workers will not have a decent, secure and productive life.
To build a struggle to protect the rights of all workers, ATU Local 689 is holding a town hall meeting at the Martin Luther King Jr. Public Library in downtown Washington on June 20 at 6:00 p.m. The purpose of the meeting is to build unity between Metro workers and the riding public to fight for decent public transportation, low fares, and a strong union presence at Metro. Metro workers are willing to fight not only for themselves but for all workers in the region. Join us. For more info email: movingforward689@yahoo.com
