The Marshall Plan
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The Transit Workers Union last night rejected the plan proposed by Helen Marshall, the president of Queens, and endorsed by Mayor Bloomberg, to end the transit strike by workers of three private bus companies, Queens Surface Corp., Triboro Coach Corp., and Jamaica Buses. The companies’ franchise agreements expire at the end of next year, and the holdouts want signed agreements that they will keep their jobs if the Metropolitan Transit Authority or another private company takes over the lines. The 1,500 striking workers, whose companies serve more than 100,000 riders daily, have been on strike since June 17, demanding more generous health care benefits.
The bus companies receive more than two-thirds of their operating budget from the city and the state. Nonetheless, they are private companies, and for the city to step into such a labor dispute — let alone consider a request to protect workers’ private sector job security against all coming contingencies — seems to provide an incentive for the workers of other companies that the city employs to provide services to strike with the expectation of municipal relief past what employers might reasonably be expected to afford.
Under Ms. Marshall’s proposal, the workers would receive increases in health benefits, paid for by an advance of $2 million by the city to the bus companies. The city would then deduct this money from the $175 million in subsidies the city will give the companies this year. The bus companies would be audited by the city in what the mayor called “an attempt to identify additional efficiencies and cost savings.” This is a far cry from Mr. Bloomberg’s earlier refusal to insert city government into private sector affairs.
Having had a generous offer rejected, the city might stand aside and let the market function. A privileged class of private companies that the city protects and aids stands between Queens residents and a decent commute of the kind commuter vans, for example, offer without city subsidies; their service has only become more popular as the strike has worn on.
