A New Bill of Rights for Workers: 10 Demands the Labor Movement Can Fight for and Win
ON A CLOUDY AFTERNOON IN APRIL 2006, ROGER TOUSSAINT LED A PROCESSION OF UNION WORKERS ACROSS THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE. Toussaint, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100 and an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago, was on his way to surrender himself to the authorities to serve a 10-day jail sentence. His crime? He led the largely Black and Latino union membership in a 60-hour strike the previous winter, shutting down the city’s subway and bus system in violation of a judge’s injunction and New York’s 1967 Taylor Law, which bans public-sector strikes. The court also slapped the union with a $2.5 million fine and suspended its ability to collect dues for a year. Individual strikers were fined two days’ pay for each day on strike. Punishments this draconian are rare outside the world of labor law. Toussaint saw more jail time than any of the top bank executives responsible for […]