Fort Worth Bus Strike Is Over

The strike of bus drivers for the T, Fort Worth's bus system, is officially over now. It looks like the union blinked first this time, because they have now accepted the same contract that was rejected about a week ago.

The T had got its bus routes running normally by friday, due to a combination drivers crossing the picket line, management doing some driving, and about 40 newly hired drivers. It was starting to look like they would weather the strike by replacing the striking drivers.

The union voted on the new contract saturday. The vote was 37 against the contract and 21 for the new contract, with one ballot voided. Since the vote did not involve more than half of the 155 union members, a 2/3 majority was needed to reject the contract. Therefore the contract was deemed to be approved.

About 38 employees were replaced during the strike. The company said they would be placed on a "hire first" list, and rehired as needed.

This was a good example of the weakness of unions today. As long as too many employees are willing to cross a picket line, and the company has the right to replace striking workers, the unions will not be able to protect its members.

Our labor is all most of us have to feed and protect our families. Many brave people have laid down their lives in the past to give us the opportunity to be able to bargain for the price of our labor. But since the corporations bought our government a few years ago, our unions have seen much of their bargaining power starting to disappear. The worker is not respected in our economic system. Our government has forgotten the workers in its haste to create ever larger and more obscene profits for the corporations, in return for ever larger and more obscene campaign donations.

I don't know how we can stop the erosion of what little power the unions and workers have left. I do know it has already gone too far.