A-Infos (en) US, Minneapolis, DAYBREAK #6 - Fight or Walk: The Chicago Transit Fare Strike by Midwest Unrest

The Campaign Begins --------- In July 2004, we heard in the news that the CTA (Chicago
---------- Transit Authority) was going to raise fares $0.25 at the start of the
2005.  We thought that this was a lot to ask of transit riders whose
fares had already gone up from $1.50 to $1.75 at the start of 2004.
The CTA claimed they were facing a budget crisis but we could not
see justification for an agency in a city as stinking rich as Chicago,
to pass their crisis onto the poorest section of the population.  We
adopted the slogan that a fare increase would be a wage cut for CTA riders.
We had heard of fare strikes being called in other places,
specifically in Italy in the 1970s and more recently in San
Francisco. The idea made sense. As an anarchist collective we had
no illusions about lobbying politicians. We wanted to win our
demands through direct action. If drivers stopped collecting fares
and riders stopped paying them then we would have the economic
power needed to pressure the transit agency without disrupting the
daily commutes of all of us who depend on transit service. It was
also a very easy way to involve all the riders who would be affected
by the fare increase, promoting “working class
self-activity”, as was often quoted.

            We started passing out one flyer for riders and one for
drivers suggesting a fare strike as a tactic. This got a decent
response. Then in September the CTA announced that they
weren’t going to raise fares but instead had an entire
“Doomsday” budget to be passed unless they received $87
million from the state legislators. This budget threatened a 20% cut
to service and the loss of over 1000 jobs. Whether or not money
was received, they also had plans to increase Para-transit fares for
disabled riders by a full 100%.

            The CTA officials played it up in the media that they really
didn’t want to make any cuts but that their hands were tied.
They set up a front group called “Keep Chicagoland
Moving” which claimed the solution was for people to call their
state representatives. Many community groups in town who had
had experience with the CTA though were not fooled. The CTA
had made similar cuts before in 1997 and did not use extra money
received from the state to restore them.

            It was assumed by many that the Doomsday budget was in
fact a way to get state money, which has no strings attached, to
fund the ridiculous “legacy projects” so common in
Chicago. Just like Mayor Daley had recently spent $475 million
($350 million over-budget) on the extravagant Millennium Park,
which just happens to be his front yard, his buddy, CTA President
Frank Kreusi, had just spent $119 million on the new CTA
headquarters, often described as a “palace”. Despite the
threat to regular, much-needed service, plans to build a $2 billion
“Circle Line” (dubbed the Silver Line) and to run express
trains to the O’Hare Airport had not been scrapped. The Circle
Line has been criticized because it will contribute to the
gentrification of several working class Latino neighborhoods. While
the proposed changes in the CTA would make some riders’
commutes shorter, they are clearly designed to make the transit
system cater (even more) to businessmen and tourists—at the
expense of the everyday riders who depend on it.

            While the obvious connection of not paying fares in
resistance to a fare increase was lost, we decided to use the tactic of
a fare strike against the Doomsday budget anyway. The elimination
of several bus routes and a lot of night and weekend service would
be even more devastating and angering for people. The attack on
bus drivers’ jobs also would make the necessary alliance
between riders and drivers a lot easier. We continued to pass out
flyers, this time sure to have “No fare increases, no service cuts
and no labor cuts” as our demands.

Hearings and Lobbying

            In October, the CTA held four public hearings throughout
the city. They were a joke. The CTA bureaucrats sat there with
bored looks on their faces, drinking their bottled water and
occasionally giggling to each other, while people talked about how
they will lose their jobs without their bus lines, will starve if they
have to spend $150 of their monthly disability checks on a transit
pass or just yelled at the officials for being idiots and told them to
watch their backs.

            The public hearings had no impact on the CTA’s
decisions to cut service, of course. They were used as a way for the
CTA to have angry riders vent off their anger (sometimes against
impolite, stressed-out bus drivers) and to promote the idea that
only the state legislature could fix the problem.

Meetings and more Meetings

            Around this time, we started to flyer the 8 bus garages in
town and talk to workers more about a fare strike. The drivers were
all pretty pissed and stressed out. They had plenty to tell us about
CTA management, as well as their union reps. We hadn’t been
sure if we should contact the union; all we had heard from them
(ATU local 241) was a quote in the newspaper saying that they did
not condemn the CTA for the proposed job cuts.  Many workers
were now telling us that we should help them fight the CTA and
the union at the same time because the union was just a part of the
company.  When we brought up the idea of a fare strike, the
response was usually quite positive. Only a few drivers ever told us
it was a bad idea and most said they would support it.

            We had a hard time pushing the campaign to a more
coordinated level however. Originally we had planned to call a
meeting with all the contacts we had collected at the hearings (and
with people who had contacted us through email and our voice
box) but we decided to call an initial meeting solely with drivers
before proposing a fare strike to riders, hoping to have a more solid
plan of action.

            A lot of drivers told us they would try to make it but when
the evening came, only two employees actually showed up. The
meeting was still useful though. They were interested in the idea of
a fare strike, but worried about management cracking down on
employees who participated—especially if fare boxes were
sabotaged. On the other hand, they said that they doubted that any
drivers would call the cops on people for evading fares. This
pointed in the direction of a rider-lead fare strike.

            The next week we had our open meeting. About 35 people
showed up, all riders. They were of all ages and from different
groups such as the Little Village Environmental Organization (a
group based in a working class Latino neighborhood, that has been
fighting for restoration of transit service to their neighborhood cut
in 1997), a high school group, the Campaign for Better Transit and
many other folks. We proposed calling a fare strike starting
December 15th, just over two weeks before the Doomsday budget
was to go into effect. We felt it was key to have the fare strike
before the cuts went into effect so that the 1000 drivers being fired
would still be working, be pissed off and not have much to lose.
Also the idea of starting the strike the day the cuts went into effect
would be undermined if the CTA delayed or was unclear about
when this would happen. We wanted it to be more than just a
single day strike. We wanted it to continue until our demands were
met (and even then we wouldn’t issue a call for people to start
paying fares). The proposal was passed.

December 15th

            Then finally on the 15th, the day the strike was to begin, the
Chicago Sun-Times reported that a deal had been struck with state
legislators and that all the cuts and any decision on them would be
delayed 6 months. The CTA refused to comment on the matter.
While this announcement was not official it served to weaken the
fare strike as many people thought the issue had been resolved.

            Still, many bus drivers and station booth attendants did let
people ride for free that day.  In one instance, a bus driver let a rider
sit at the front of a bus, handing out flyers for the entire route,
letting about 200 people on for free.  Due to the decentralized
nature of the fare strike, we’ll never know how many people,
either workers or riders, took part.  From stories we’ve heard
though we would estimate at least a 50% success rate when riders
tried to get on for free. To our surprise, people had more success
on the trains than on busses. We imagine that this is partly because
the bus drivers have more cameras on them. We also focused on
the drivers when promoting the strike, as they were mostly the
ones losing jobs. It’s likely then that they were feeling more
pressure from management to collect fares whereas the station
attendants had not been cracked down on.

            The CTA reported 4 arrests for fare evasion that day, which
seems about average for a weekday. None of the arrestees ever got
in touch with us. We had made it very clear whenever talking about
the fare strike that it was not a
chain-yourself-to-the-fare-box-and-get-symbolically-arrested deal.
We were not encouraging anyone to get themselves arrested. We
were counting on the groundwork done with bus drivers to make it
likely that people could get on the bus for free, without incident.

            There were definitely more cops around the CTA busses
and trains on the 15th. Cops were spotted riding busses or closely
following behind them in their cars. It was also obvious that much
economic loss to the CTA avoided by having cops around to
intimidate people into paying fares, would happen anyway in the
money spent on additional security.

Cuts Delayed

            After months of stalling tactics and leaving the decision on
the Doomsday budget until the last minute, it was finally on the
agenda at the December 16th CTA board meeting. The CTA had
this “public” meeting so filled with their own people that
very few of the 200 riders who showed up, on a weekday afternoon,
could even get in. The public comment process is very strict,
allowing 3 minutes each to only 5 speakers, who must book their
space a week in advance. After giving Frank Kruesi a lump of coal
for Christmas, high school students from Students for Transit
Justice walked out and started chanting in the lobby downstairs,
loud enough to disrupt the meeting upstairs. The students led
others in chanting that continued for a good 2 hours.

            The meeting eventually restarted however. The decision in
the end was in fact, like the Sun-Times had hinted the previous
day, to delay any service cuts or decisions on them 6 months. This
had been at the request of state legislators who suggested that
money would now be made available during the spring session.
Furthermore, the decision to double Para-transit fares in January,
which had already been passed, was reversed.

            We then put out a statement declaring partial victory, and
have stopped organizing fare evasion.

January 2005


Of course the fight is not over. We are encouraged by our
successes so far and will continue to organize against the CTA.


Midwest Unrest

www.midwestunrest.net/farestrike

midwest_unrest@riseup.net

773-250-7060

===================================
Daybreak is an anarchist tabloid put out from Minneapolis.



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