Held Hostage

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The New York Sun

The 2005 transit strike began yesterday. We do not know when it will end, but if Roger Toussaint and his followers in Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union had any sense, the strike would end today, or better yet never would have started.


The inconvenience to millions of New Yorkers, the loss of business by thousands of stores who depend on pre-Christmas sales, the loss of wages by people unable to get to work, the negative impact on corporate decisions to stay or build here, the heart attacks suffered by those unnecessarily exposed to prolonged cold, the financial loss to the MTA make the strike a substantial blow to the city and its people. The injuries to innocent parties suffered due to this dispute is an extreme example of collateral damage.


The strike also will hurt the union, in ways its leaders may not understand. In addition to the Taylor Law penalties of two days wages deducted for every day an employee is on strike, and a $1 million fine on the union itself, Mr. Toussaint and his aides face the likelihood of prosecution for criminal contempt for violating a court order enjoining the strike. Local 100 also ignored the recommendation of the international, its own parent union, which told them the strike would not only be illegal but unwarranted as a result of the TWU’s last offer.


On top of the legal penalties, the union was actually in a more favorable position before the strike than it will find itself in afterward.


If there is no settlement by the expiration of the contract (in this case December 15, 2005), and the employees keep working, existing terms of the contract are automatically extended. The demands of management for contributions to the health and pension plans for new employees cannot go into effect because there is no new contract.


The MTA’s final wage offer exceeded 10% over a three year term. When agreement is reached on a contract that has already expired, retroactive wage increases are part of the settlement. They cover the time elapsed before the contract is signed. Since much of the dispute was over demands by the MTA authority for concessions with regard to new employees, the TWU would only gain by maintaining the status quo.


Why then do we have a strike a week before Christmas – a walkout that hurts the union as well as the city? The reason, we believe, is internal, within the minds of the leaders of the union. Mr. Toussaint (all saints) was born in 1956, in Trinidad, and raised there until he was 18, when he immigrated to New York City. He was hired by the transit authority in 1984 and rose rapidly within the TWU. He is the namesake of Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743-1803), leader of an independent Haiti. L’Ouverture, regarded in Haiti as a national hero, died of pneumonia while in captivity in France.


Mr. Toussaint’s persona is serious and intense, and said to be that of a liberator. This is valuable when one represents people who are oppressed. It is, however, somewhat out of sync when one represents employees who are well paid, considering their skill sets, receive generous health benefits to which they do not contribute, and can retire at half pay at age 55, after 25 years on the job. Those benefits are not enjoyed by most private sector employees, who also bear the risk of their companies’ economic decline or bankruptcy. Remember Enron, the airlines and General Motors?


The reaction of public officials to the strike has varied. Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg have denounced the illegal walkout, the mayor calling it “morally reprehensible” and the governor saying it had “dire consequences.” Democratic politicians were generally silent, with some flirting with the union at its numerous press conferences.


Alone among Democrats, the city comptroller asked the strikers to return to work. The governor will call the shots because he appoints most of the MTA, including its chairman, Peter Kalikow. If Mr. Pataki pulls the carpet out from under him on the MTA, or indicates he has no objection to any settlement the union can extort, his fine words of resistance will be hollow indeed. But why should he be less generous to Mr. Toussaint than he was to Dennis Rivera in 2002? The governor could be the weak link here; we will soon learn whether he caves in or resists pressure.


Although under Rule 26 (“No Prints”) his personal influence may be hard to discern, those of us who read tea leaves will be able to see it in the labor settlement. What givebacks will be secured? What fines will the union and its members actually be required to pay for the illegal strike. For how long will the Taylor Law requirement that the union lose its check-off privilege for collecting dues be in effect? After the 1980 strike, the check-off was quietly restored to the union.


Today the city of New York is being held hostage by an illegal strike. Laws mean nothing if they are not enforced. Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo’s application to Supreme Court in Brooklyn at 4:30 a.m. yesterday was a good sign. Justice Theodore Jones imposed a $1 million a day fine on the striking union, a decision posted on the Internet yesterday afternoon. This might help motivate the TWU to settle, but if the MTA will not stick to its guns, the result may be another loss for the public.


Mr. Toussaint will fight harder for his members than Mr. Kalikow will for the public he represents. Mr. Kalikow answers to the governor. Mr. Toussaint answers to a flawed historic vision, unknowing or uncaring that the voluntary employment of his members is often more rewarding and sometimes more restful than the struggles most New Yorkers endure to provide for their families.



Mr. Stern is a former New York City parks commissioner and the founder of New York Civic.


The New York Sun

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