WflliKEli1 ,,1NfJlIl1,, 25¢ No. 106 :~))c.52J 23 April 1976 Sto,- the Stalling-Elect Strike Committees SHUT DOWN S.F. NOWI SA;\I FRANCISCO. April 20-The reports that the Muni drivers had voted labor movement in San Francisco. a 72-hour deadline for the CLC to carry traditionally the strongest "union town" out preparations for a general strike as in the country. stands before the brink. based on a "misinterpretation." To Each capitulation. each step backward protect himself from the predictable by the weak-kneed bureaucrats heading outrage which this brazen lie will cause the craft workers' 21-day-old walkout among the membership. Martin also only emboldens the Board of Supervi­ announced that there would be no TWU sors and further isolates the strikers. But meetings held this week! at the sar.le time, a vigorous drive by the angry ranks to pull out the rest of San Demand Elected Strike Francisco labor and close S.F. down Committees could quickly turn the tables on the This morning several hundred strik­ bosses and open the road to victory. ing craft workers and supporters from The city's rulers are determined to the TWU and other unions blocked implement the notorious Proposition B buses entering the AC Transit terminal passed last November and force 30 for 45 minutes. State police maced percent pay cuts on 1.900 municipal several militants, and, after the police craft workers. If this strike is defeated. had threatened arrests, self-appointed the Board can confidently look forward picket captains dissolved the line and led to pushing through its Propositions 0 the workers over to picket City Hall. and E in June. These viciously anti­ This action demonstrates both the labor city charter amendments provide continuing militancy of many strikers for immediate and mandatory firing of and the lack of a competent and an.' city worker who strikes. determined leadership on the lines. In a pathetic disp;,,) of impotence, tho> craft union misleaders took down picket While the CLC refuses to defend the lines yesterday at the opera house. lines from a position of strength. the school bus yards and Laguna Honda handful of transit workers associated Hospital "to show good faith" and back with the Concerned M uni Drivers. a up their plea for federal mediation. group backed by the Maoist Revolu­ Quentin Kopp, head of the Board of tionary Communist Party. offers the dead end of adventurist confrontations Supervisors. arrogantly re~ponded that this concession was "not material" and . with the cops. On Monday a proposal that mediation was "not in the picture" that the fewer than 50 strikers assembled unless all the strikers went back to work. at strike central attempt to shut down The dwindling and largely ineffectual AC Transit was defeated by cooler picket lines. like lhe cra\en call for heads who argued that a mass picket line federal intervention. underscores the was necessary to carry out such a vacuum of leadership in the strike. militant action. which now hangs in the balance. The broad support for an elected The San Francisco labor brass is strike committee evident at a meeting running scared. While the Central held today in strike headq uarters Labor Council (CLC) tops plaintiwly demonstrates the rank and file's grow­ ask each other why there is so much ing consciousness that. unless they take scabbing. they provide no day-to-day direction of the struggle out of the hands direction of the strike. Pickets are of the treacherous labor fakers. they face imminent defeat. Among those mobilized and dispatched by an ad hoc San Francisco city workers picket City Hall last Wednesday. group of strikers operating out of the backing such a proposal was Howard Plumbers and Pipefitters' union hall. Keylor, a longtime waterfront union An April 5 leaflet issued by Keylor in city services and victory for the city The bureaucracy apparently gave its activist and co-editor of "Longshore and other supporters of the "Longshore workers; it could win 100% COLA. high tacit approval to the efforts of rank and Militant," an oppositional newsletter in Militant" and the Local 6 "Warehouse wages. and a shorter work week at no loss in pay for the entire area labor filers to maintain some strike activity in Local 10 of the International Long­ Militant" pointed the way forward for shoremen's and Warehousemen's Union movement. It would turn the tide the hopes that this would keep some the embattled city workers through a against the bosses' offensive and keep minimal pressure on the supervisors (ILWU). revival of the kind of active labor San Francisco a strong union town." (and allow militants to "blow off Keylor was roundly cheered when he solidarity that turned the 1934 San Unionists backing the craftsmen's steam") while the labor fakers negotiate urged that the ranks elect a picket Francisco general strike into an historic struggle had their first taste of arrests a sellout. committee, send a delegation to the victory for the American working class: and police attacks at an April 14 strike The possible shape of such a sellout Thursday night meeting of Local 10 and "With the warehouse contract coming support rally in front of City Hall. was indicated this weekend when issue a call for a mass meeting of all San up June I, and a major Pay Guarantee Although initial news reports described Laborers union chief George Evanko­ Francisco labor unions to plan an Plan crisis facing longshoremen July I. the time is ripe for the IL WU to call for the rally as sponsored by the TWU and vich told television news reporters that immediate city-wide general strike. He a general strike. Such a call would find the Service Employees International he had offered to take a IO percent pay pointed out that his Local had approved an immediate response from militant Union, cfficial endorsements were cut for the laborers, who are a majority a strike support motion last month, and Muni drivers who once again-to a disavowed after several hundred mili­ of the striking city workers. I n another that the strikers would have the long­ man-have honored the craft workers' tant workers took steps to "educate" particularly crass display of cynicism. picket lines and whose own contract shoremen's backing in shutting down expires July I. scabs intent on crossing the lines. Larry Martin. head of Transport Work­ the waterfront if they threw up lines at "An I L WU-initiated general strike Shattering the myth of cops as "fellow ers (TWU) Local 250A described the docks. could not only assure an end to all cuts continued on page II International Campaign Launched to Save Mario Munoz ..... 3 ~ Muni Drivers Demand General Strike Now! SAN FRANCISCO. April 17-Nearly The TWU bureaucrats have been Martin was being paid during the strike" and to "publish a Strike Bulletin 1.000 drivers of the S.F. Municipal carefully probing the militant ranks for walkout, and why the International was for the people of San Francisco to Railway (Muni) met today at a special signs of anti-strike sentiment in order to not providing strike benefits. Martin at counter the lies and distortions put out union meeting of Local 250A of the start a back-to-work movement. Larry first ducked the question by saying that by the company-owned news media." Transportation Workers Union (TWU) Martin. president of Local 250A, issued "Well. I didn't receive my check on To Chee and his supporters. who have at the Marine Cooks and Stewards Hall. a press statement prior to the meeting, Friday." But as virtually the entire the backing of the Socialist Workers After a lengthy floor discussion. the announcing that the Local executive crowd demanded to know the answer, Party, the strategy to win the strike is an membership voted overwhelmingly to board would take a neutral stand on Martin, to the hoots and jeering of the education campaign about the evils of continue respecting picket lines of continuing the walkout. Martin lament­ crowd, said that he was still being paid the Board of Supervisors! striking craft workers and to demand ed to the assembled press: "Our mem­ because he was still at work. The next speaker proposed to amend that the Central Labor Council (CLC) bers have been holding out pretty well Roosevelt Watts. International the executive board resolution by implement a general strike within 72 but their pockets are getting kind of secretary-treasurer of the TWU. told the calling on the TWU to issue a public hOllrs. light." members that no local of the TWU has statement demanding that the Central The meeting occurred as the S. F. At the meeting, however, Martin strike funds and that the International Labor Council implement its own Board of Supervisors. Mayor Moscone briefly presented an executive board has the responsibility for raising bene­ motion for a general strike within 72 and the Bay Area media intensified a recommendation to continue respecting fits. Asserting that the Muni drivers hours. The initiator of the amendment, back-to-work campaign pressuring the picket lines. Nonetheless, Martin's were only engaged in a walkout and not Curt Schneider, had issued a leaflet Muni drivers to abandon their shut­ subdued tone contrasted starkly with his a strike, Watts claimed-to boisterous calling for the strike to be intensified or down of the city's buses, trolleys and flamboyant hour-long speech at the last heckling-that the International cannot called off. and calling on M uni drivers cable cars in support of the tradesmen. local meeting of April 9.