> From the, now defunct, New York Hard Hat News. March 7 will be the
> anniversary of Rat Monday. I still have my t-shirt....
>
> <http://www.laborers.org/HardHat_NY_Autumn-98.html>
>
>
> 1988 "Near Riot" in San Francisco:
>
>
> 10,000 workers protest rat contractors meeting
>
> by Frank McMurray
>
> West Coast correspondent
>
>
> Rat Monday, March 7, 1988, is a date burned into the memory of the scab
> Associated Building Contractors (ABC). It was the opening day of their
> annual convention in San Francisco. They were expecting to thumb their
noses
> at a few pickets assembled by the ineffectual leaders of the local
building
> trades union, and toast the death of unionism in a city famous for its
past
> militancy.
>
>
> Instead they were greeted by a general strike of construction workers that
> shut down every major site in the city, and a crowd of 10,000 shouting,
> chanting workers who showered them with raw eggs as they arrived at the
> downtown Moscone Convention Center. The police, who had been told by the
San
> Francisco Building Trades Council to expect "several hundred pickets,"
were
> unwilling to tackle this crowd. After several hours they managed to open
the
> street in front of Moscone Center and provide a corridor of access for the
> rat contractors, but the cops were clearly afraid to go into the crowd and
> arrest the workers throwing eggs-only three arrests were made that day.
The
> defeated ABC rats packed up their displays, closed the convention early
and
> called their lawyers.
>
>
> How had this happened? Had the leaders of the local building trades unions
> suddenly developed backbones?
>
>
> It surely did not appear that way--almost every union leader had abandoned
> the demonstration early on Rat Monday. One exception was Stan Smith, head
of
> the Building Trades Council, who stayed on the police side of the
barricade
> with a bull horn, begging the workers to obey the cops. Perhaps it was a
> ruse by the leadership, a ploy to divert attention from them after they
had
> secretly organized this strike and near riot, unleashing the amazing power
> of the rank and file?
>
>
> The ABC quickly filed a lawsuit against those who they felt were
responsible
> for destroying their annual meeting, naming the SF Building Trades
Council.
> Their suit also named "The Rat Monday Strike Committee," an unknown group
> whose names had appeared on a yellow leaflet with a red stop sign. The
> leaflet called on all construction workers to strike on March 7th and
> assemble at Moscone Center to "greet the rats." The committee gave the day
> its name.
>
>
> The Building Trades Council denied responsibility for the Rat Monday
events,
> but ending up paying damages to the scab association. The ABC was never
able
> to determine who the members of the Rat Monday Strike Committee were, and
> therefore was unable to bring them to court.
>
>
> Although no one has ever stepped forward as a member of that Committee,
Hard
> Hat News interviewed one worker who admits he was-"close to the events"
and
> agreed to speak. Joe (as we'll call him) explained how the Committee put
out
> leaflets: "They would go into the construction sites at 2 am and paste
those
> yellow flyers all over the place. The next morning when the crews showed
up
> the leaflets were just there-calling for a strike on Rat Monday. Nobody
knew
> who was doing it, but we thought it was the right idea. When I asked my
> Business Agent he waffled -he wasn't for it and he wasn't against it.
>
>
> "The Rat Monday Committee were rank and file members of several
construction
> unions. They knew the Building Trades was planning their usual gutless
> picket line-a few fools walking around chanting. No strike, no eggs, no
mass
> demonstration. The unions were afraid to call out the rank and file
because
> they would lose control-once the genie is out of the bottle, how you gonna
> put it back?"
>
>
> Although Rat Monday was the largest labor demonstration since the General
> Strike of 1934 and a front page story in the local papers, it was almost
> totally blacked out by the national media, who seem to have a fear that
> reporting such events will encourage other workers to copy them. Perhaps
> they are right.
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