The ATU is the same union Los Angeles MTA mechanics and service attendants have. The MTA drivers' union (UTU) is just as treacherous. As we prepare for a possible strike this year, we need to draw the right lessons from the Greyhound workers' struggles.
In the previous article, we explained that after 1974, facing stiffer competition from Japan and Europe, US bosses responded by attacking US workers harder.
Since then, these attacks have become increasingly more ruthless as they face the added competition of China, Russia and developing economies like India and Brazil.
The crucial role of the treacherous anti-communist union officials has been to prevent mass labor rebellions and the radicalization of the working class.

ATU officials throw Trailways workers under the bus, triggering Greyhound's attacks against its workers
Trailways, Greyhound's main competitor, paid its workers considerably less than Greyhound, which paid the highest wages in the industry. This changed with deregulation.
In early 1982, Trailways struggled to compete with the new, even lower-paying, nonunion companies. It demanded a wage freeze from ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union). Afraid to lose dues-paying members if Trailways went under or laid off workers, the ATU hacks complied. This gave Trailways a competitive edge. It launched a major price war against Greyhound, forcing it to lower its wages.
Thus, in the 1983 contract negotiations Greyhound demanded a 30% cut in wages and benefits, forcing the workers to strike. In spite of the workers' militancy against strikebreakers and the cops who defended them, they ended with a 20% wage cut and new hires earning 20-25% less. About 8,300 workers lost their jobs.

Competition keeps eroding Greyhound's position and decimating its workers
Greyhound's "victory" did not solve its problems. The competition got fiercer among bus companies, and among bus companies and the railroad and airline industries.
To cut costs and increase productivity, Greyhound laid off 1,500 employees in 1984. A year later it sold 120 terminals, laying off another 2,000. It then bought Trailways.
This still did not stop Greyhound's slide. Its number of passengers continued to decline from 57 million in 1980 to 30 million in 1986. While negotiating that year's contract, Greyhound sold most of its bus business.
The new owners demanded concessions from the union. The hacks complied, negotiating a contract that imposed a 28% to 48% wage cut on most of the remaining 6,300 workers.

Competition: most destructive force in history
Competition is inherent to capitalism. The capitalists must compete for markets, natural resources and cheap labor. Competition massively devours workers to produce maximum profits to enable some capitalists to remain top dogs. That is the unchanging nature of the capitalist beast. The final result, however, is never final. There are always new challengers or the old challengers get leaner and meaner. Thus, the competition always sharpens and becomes fiercer.
On a global scale, competition leads inevitably to war: local, regional, and eventually world war. However, the final result of these wars is never final. New challengers emerge, and the process starts over again. It is the unending cycle of capitalism: impoverishing and slaughtering workers.

Only communism can put an end to this vicious cycle
Communism is based on collectivity and sharing. Today, Party members endeavor to collectively make all important decisions affecting our lives. As we learn to mobilize the masses for communism, before, during and after the revolution, masses of workers and their Party will collectively make all those decisions.
Without money or markets, we will have no need for competition of any kind. We will collectively decide what, how, where and how much to produce. Collectively we will decide how to share and distribute the products of our labor according to need.

Workers can never win with trade union politics
No matter how massively and militantly workers fight, we can never win reforms. The bosses have state power – the media, courts, cops, army, schools--and the economic resources to defeat any reform struggle.
Sometimes they decide it is better economically or politically to make concessions. They understand it is just a temporary retreat. They know eventually they will take them back. For us therefore, it is not a "victory," but a delayed defeat.
Our criticism of the union hacks is not for not waging more militant reform struggles which could never be won, but for their anti-communism and pro-capitalist trade-union ideology which defends capitalism and blocks the road to revolution.
Revolution needs communist ideology. We must organize strikes – not to fight for reforms, but to learn how to fight to destroy capitalism. Critical to this is learning how to mobilize the masses for communism. This final result will indeed be final.
The next article will deal with what we mean by a political strike against capitalism.