LORTON, VA, January 22—After three brave and bold months of striking, the 130 TransDev transit workers at the Cinder Bed Road facility of the D.C. area transit authority (WMATA) have approved a contract and returned to work. (See earlier articles 12/4/2019 and 1/11/20).
Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members joined the workers’ picket lines and rallies over this period, bringing revolutionary ideas and strategies to these workers, many of whom hail from African and Latin American countries and were enthused to have communist support. The bosses thought they could crush the efforts of these workers by refusing to negotiate seriously, and then not at all. But it was the bosses who finally gave in and the workers gained a partial victory.
Murky contract
The new contract provides for a $3.50 increase in pay for bus operators over two years and a 7 percent increase in pay for other workers in the bargaining unit. Much else remains murky, as the contract language on health insurance is not clearly defined. The contract uncertaintities are one way the bosses will try to take back what was won during the strike. That is the nature of capitalism, the bosses try and often do take back whatever gains our class makes during struggles like this. The only way to fully liberate our class from the bosses is to fight for a society run by the working class, communism.
The workers accepted the contract not so much because of its content, but mainly as a gateway to better paying jobs with Metro, the regional transit system. Metro has contractually agreed to end contracting out in two years, fire Transdev (the private contractor), and bring these workers into the main collective bargaining agreement as direct employees of the public transit system.
Lessons from the strike
An important lesson from the strike is that even a small group of workers who provide a key public service – in this case moving workers in Northern Virginia to jobs throughout the region – can, by withholding their labor and shutting down production, fight and win some reforms from the bosses. Could they have done better? More could probably have been won had the 8,000 D.C. Metro workers in the main Metro union forced their leadership to join the strike. While there were some rumblings about expanding the strike to all transit workers, the union limited its support to a large strike benefit and verbal support of the Cinder Bed workers.
Build a base for communism
But beyond the increase in wages, the fight is still going on to build a base for communism among the TransDev and D.C. Metro workers. Our class wins in these kinds of battles when we gain the confidence to fight for a society without the bosses. That is the most important thing about these battles. Under capitalism, any gains workers make are always subject to reversal. The bosses regroup and launch a counter-attack, which we expect to happen in transit shortly.
Only a communist movement which can defeat the capitalist system and replace it with workers’ power, communism, can sustain its victories.  Defeating racism and building workers’ confidence and committment to abolish the wage system of capitalism are essential to the struggle to take power from the bosses.
The PLP members fought hard through this strike to advance this understanding and expect that, before too long, more transit workers will join PLP in the long-term struggle for communism.