Anti-union thread

[Shek]

Should NYC fire all the transit workers and hire replacements?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,179241,00.html

Striking NYC Transit Union Fined $1M Per Day
Tuesday, December 20, 2005

NEW YORK — A state judge on Tuesday imposed a $1 million-a-day fine against New York City's transit union, after the Transport Workers Union walked away from their jobs at subway and bus stations in an illegal strike earlier that day.

State Justice Theodore Jones leveled the $1-million-a-day sanction against the TWU for violating a state law that bars its 33,000 public employees from going on strike over wages and pension benefits. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority had asked that the TWU be held accountable and that hefty fines be brought against it and its members.

"This is a very, very sad day in the history of labor relations for New York City," Jones said in imposing the fine. The union vowed to immediately appeal, calling it an excessive fine.

Click here to read the preliminary injunction issued by a N.Y. judge that was supposed to prevent the strike. (FindLaw pdf)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg had some harsh words for the 30,000 members of the TWU. Union President Roger Toussaint, as well as other union leaders and strike participants, "shamefully decided they don't care for the people they work for and that they have no respect for the law," Bloomberg said during an afternoon press conference.

"It is robbing people of their opportunities to earn a living and provide for their families," he said.

He added that the TWU leadership has "thuggishly turned their back on New York City."

More than 7 million people in and around New York City were forced to walk, find a cab, drive into work or work from home Tuesday after the strike began at 3 a.m. EST. The strike affects not only Manhattan but the other city boroughs as well — the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island.

"People there are being hurt and inconvenienced. It's not just Manhattan," Bloomberg stressed.

Subways and buses ground to a halt early Tuesday morning following days of acrimonious labor talks about pay raises, pension and health benefits for new hires. Authorities began locking turnstiles and shuttering subway entrances shortly after the illegal strike began.


At the height of the holiday season, the city placed police officers en masse around the city as part of preparations for the morning rush-hour chaos.


Bloomberg, who estimated the strike could cost the city $400 million a day, said not only is the city noticeably less busy than it is on a regular day, but many food delivery services have not been able to make their runs, schools opened two hours late, hotels were experiencing cancellations and airlines are "on edge." He said one police officer on strike duty Tuesday was even hit by a car while on the job.

"All of this because of an illegal strike," the mayor said. "Let me repeat: This selfish strike is illegal. We live in a country of laws where there can be severe consequences for those who break them. Union members are no different … we will use every available tool under the law to get the transit workers back to work."

The striking members of TWU's Local 100 deserve a "very potent fine" for the walkout because of its economic and social cost, James Henly of the state attorney general's office said in court. But TWU attorney Arthur Schwartz accused the MTA of provoking the strike.

Gov. George Pataki publicly attacked the union.

"The TWU has broken the law," Pataki said at a Manhattan news conference. "That is wrong, and they will suffer the consequences."

No talks between the two sides were scheduled by Tuesday afternoon, although a mediator from a state labor board was meeting with both union and MTA officials Tuesday afternoon.

The MTA asked the Public Employment Relations Board to formally declare an impasse, the first step toward forcing binding arbitration of the contract, said James Edgar, the board's executive director.

Commuters: 'Enough is Enough'

Around the city, at one subway booth, a handwritten sign read, "Strike in Effect. Station Closed. Happy Holidays!!!!"

At Penn Station — a major hub for commuter trains coming in and out of New Jersey and for Amtrak — an announcement over the loudspeaker told people to "please exit the subway system."

Bloomberg put into effect a sweeping emergency plan to reduce gridlock and keep certain streets open for emergency vehicles. It included requiring cars coming into Manhattan below 96th Street to have at least four occupants until 11 a.m.

Police officers were checking each car and refusing to let those with fewer than four passengers continue into the heart of the city; some drivers were picking up random people off the street to meet the quota. However, vehicles traveling within Manhattan don't need to have four passengers.

Bloomberg, a subway rider himself who spent the night at the Office of Emergency Management headquarters, walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall in the morning in solidarity with the thousands of Brooklyn residents making their way in to work on foot amid below-freezing temperatures.

The temperature at 7:30 a.m. EST in the city was only 22 degrees but felt like 10 degrees with the wind chill. Two-dozen Santas from Brookstone's department store stood on the bridge to greet commuters as they walked or biked across the bridge. Coffee and hot chocolate was also distributed to commuters there.

"I would have expected the TWU to act much more responsibly but they didn't and now the courts will impose very severe penalties," Bloomberg said while crossing the bridge. "It's sad because there are no winners when you have a strike like this."

Commuter frustration was evident both before the strike and after it was called.

"The rest of us are having to pay our health insurance and our pensions are going away, too, so I think we've all got to be in this together. No, I don't have any sympathy," one woman walking over the Brooklyn Bridge told FOX News.

Darryl Padilla, a 20-year-old club promoter, was trying to get on the train at Penn Station when he found out the strike had begun. He didn't have enough cash to take a cab to his home on the northern tip of Manhattan.

"I didn't think they were going to shut down. I can't take a cab," he said.

"I think they all should get fired," said Eddie Goncalves, a doorman trying to get home after his overnight shift. He said he expected to spend an extra $30 per day in cab and train fares.

"Enough is enough," said Craig DeRosa, who relies on the subway to get to work. "Their benefits are as rich as you see anywhere in this country and they are still complaining. I don't get it."

In Queens, Brunilda Ayala said she had no sympathy for the union after the bus strike began in her neighborhood.

"How can you give a raise to a bus driver who would make three old ladies walk home in the cold?" asked Ayala, 57.

Huge lines formed at ticket booths for the commuter railroads that stayed in operation, and Manhattan-bound traffic backed up at many bridges and tunnels as police turned away cars with fewer than four people. Meanwhile, transit workers took to the picket lines with signs that read "We Move NY. Respect Us!"

Commuters, scrounging for ways to get to work, lined up for cabs and gathered in clusters on designated spots throughout the city for company vans and buses to shuttle them to their offices.

"There were hundreds of people waiting for cabs, pulling doors left and right," said taxi driver Angel Aponte, who left his meter off and charged $10 per person.

The union called the strike after a late round of negotiations broke down Monday night. Toussaint said the union board voted overwhelmingly to call the strike, the city's first since an 11-day strike in 1980.

It is illegal for mass transit workers to strike in New York, which means the 33,000 bus and subway employees will incur huge fines — two days' pay for each day on strike.

"This is a fight over dignity and respect on the job, a concept that is very alien to the MTA," Toussaint said in announcing the strike. "Transit workers are tired of being underappreciated and disrespected."

The news drew an angry response from the city and state officials of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow called the strike "a slap in the face" to all New Yorkers and said state lawyers will immediately head to court in seeking to block the walkout.

"This is not only an affront to the concept of public service, it is a cowardly attempt by Roger Toussaint and the TWU to bring the city to its knees to create leverage for their own bargaining position," Bloomberg said at a news conference.

"They have broken the trust of the people of New York," Pataki said. "They have not only endangered our city and state's economy, but they are also recklessly endangering the health and safety of each and every New Yorker."

MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said the agency "put a fair offer" on the table before talks broke down. "Unfortunately, that offer has been rejected."

The union said the latest MTA offer included annual raises of 3 percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent; the previous proposal included 3 percent raises each year. MTA workers earn between $47,000 and $55,000 annually. The MTA originally had demanded an 8 percent pay raise per year for their members.

Pension issues have been a major sticking point in the talks. The MTA wants to raise the age at which new employees become eligible for full pensions from 55 to 62, which the union says is unfair.

But Toussaint said the union wanted a better offer from the MTA, especially when the agency has a $1 billion surplus this year.

"With a $1 billion surplus, this contract between the MTA and the Transport Workers Union should have been a no-brainer," Toussaint said. "Sadly, that has not been the case."

The down-to-the-wire negotiations came as workers at two private bus lines in Queens walked off the job, a move meant to step up pressure on the MTA.

The contract expired Friday at midnight, but the two sides agreed to keep talking through the weekend and the union set a new deadline for Tuesday.

According to the MTA, about 4.5 million people ride the subways — which serve all five boroughs — on the average weekday and 1.4 billion each year, ranking New York fifth in the world in annual subway ridership.

City buses serve Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island. About 2.4 million people ride the buses daily, and about 740 million ride them each year. New York ranks first among annual bus ridership in North America.

FOX News' Jamie Colby and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[dalem]

Fire every last one of them, yep.

When the Evil Capitalist Running Dog Boss Man won't put up a railing around the giant sausage grinder I say "Go union!" Once the railing is up they have served their purpose and should shut the hell up.

-dale

[ChrisF202]

Unions should be banned.

As a result of this millions are now at risk as they cant get to work, holiday shopping, doctors appointments, etc

[bonehead]

Originally Posted by dalem

Fire every last one of them, yep.

-dale

Lets start with Peter Kalicow and the other officials at the MTA for trying to keep the billion dollar surplus all to themselves. Lets say this again. BILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS. That money will not be used for cheaper commuter rates. The MTA is looking at huge bonuses and inflated saleries for themselves. The Union simply is after a piece of the pie.

[bonehead]

Originally Posted by ChrisF202

Unions should be banned.

Right. We dont need the 40 hr work week any more. Nor do not need all the other benefits afforded to us by unions. I am not saying unions are with out faults, but the lives of the average worker are still much better off with unions around.

[dalem]

Originally Posted by bonehead

Right. We dont need the 40 hr work week any more. Nor do not need all the other benefits afforded to us by unions. I am not saying unions are with out faults, but the lives of the average worker are still much better off with unions around.

Who says the life of the average worker needs to be "bettered"?

-dale

[Shek]

Originally Posted by bonehead

Lets start with Peter Kalicow and the other officials at the MTA for trying to keep the billion dollar surplus all to themselves. Lets say this again. BILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS. That money will not be used for cheaper commuter rates. The MTA is looking at huge bonuses and inflated saleries for themselves. The Union simply is after a piece of the pie.

The debt service is $1.4 billion a year, not to mention all the future projects that need to be funded. The average salary of a MTA worker is over 50% greater than the median NYC income and is nearly three times the starting salary of a NYPD officer. They wanted guaranteed annual 8% raises. No tears from me here. However, whatever raise they do get now will be spent on the increased TWU union fees to pay off all the fines they're getting for the illegal strike.

All unions are now are a legalized mob. You pay your mob (union) protection money whether they do anything for you or not.

[Bulgaroctonus]

The strike is over. I have been watching it intently since it is in my area.
From The New York Times
State Mediators' Plan Clears Way to Resolve 60-Hour Ordeal
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
and SEWELL CHAN
On the third day of a citywide transit strike that has left millions without subway and bus service, union members began returning to work this afternoon, ending a 60-hour walkout that caused much hardship but also put on display the creativity and resilience of New York commuters.

Union leaders ordered an end to the strike, the first in 25 years, early this afternoon after state mediators brokered a deal with transit officials.

Limited subway and bus service could resume later tonight, though normal service might not be restored until early Friday morning, officials said.

"We have an enormous system," Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a City Hall press conference. "It can't be turned on or off with a flip of a switch." "This was really a very big test for our city and I think it's fair to say we passed the test with flying colors," the mayor said. "We did what we had to do to keep the city running and running safely." The order to return to work came after executive board of the Transit Workers Union, Local 100, voted 38 to 5 with two abstentions to accept a preliminary framework of a settlement as a basis to end the walkout.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority had already agreed to the framework, which was devised by state mediators after all-night negotiations with the union and the authority.

"We thank riders for their patience and forbearance," Roger Toussaint, the president of the union, said outside union headquarters this afternoon. "We will be providing various details regarding the outcome of this strike in the next several days."

A few minutes earlier, one of the executive board members, George Perlstein, who said he had voted against the settlement plan, angrily told reporters that the union had not achieved its goals.

"We got nothing," he said. "Absolutely nothing."

On its Web site, the union claimed victory and told members to "Hold your head high when you report to work."

"In the face of an unprecedented media assault, the average New Yorker supported the TWU and blamed the MTA for the strike," the union said in a statement.

Even as workers began returning to work, Gov. George E. Pataki said penalties against union members and leaders for the illegal walkout would stand. "There is a lesson to be learned from this: no one is above the law. You break the law and the consequences are real," he said at a press conference at Rockefeller Center.

"They cannot be waived. They will not be waived."

But a short time later, noting the need for both sides to complete their negotiations, Justice Theodore T. Jones of the State Supreme Court adjourned until Jan. 20 a hearing on possible fines and jail terms for union leaders under the Taylor Law prohibiting strikes by public employees. The hearing was originally scheduled for this morning and later delayed till 4 p.m.

The strike forced New Yorkers, who are heavily dependent upon public transportation, to walk, bike, hitchhike and endure traffic jams as early as 3:30 a.m. to get into Manhattan for work. Weary commuters welcomed the end of the strike.

"I'm relieved," Jennifer Stephens, 29, a publicist who lives in West New York, N.J., and works in downtown Brooklyn, said at Grand Central Terminal this afternoon. "I can't believe they went on strike to begin with."

Ms. Stephens said the strike had forced her to take three days off work, and said, "I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't have any more days I could take off." She added that she had not been able to shop for Christmas. "It was frustrating. It put my life on hold. I wasn't able to get anything done."

Workers received word of the strike's end in the middle of the afternoon.

At the Casey Stengel bus depot on Roosevelt Avenue, across from Shea Stadium in Queens, about 100 picketing workers looked surprised after a union official at the site got a call on a cellphone, then picked up a megaphone and announced that the strike was over. "If you're on for a 4 o'clock shift, you have to go to work," the official said.

There was some confusion among workers, who didn't have their work uniforms with them and had questions about the end of the walkout.

"I feel like we lost if we go back to work without a contract," said Fazlu Miah, 43, of Queens, a bus driver who works out of the depot.

In a statement, Lawrence G. Reuter, president of New York city Transit, said that restarting the system was "complicated," and would take between 10 and 18 hours for subways - and "somewhat" less than that for buses.

"As employees report to duty, an assessment is made to determine what level of service can be provided with the personnel available," the statement said. "By the time the first trains are ready to roll, all 468 subway stations will be opened, but service levels will be ramped up incrementally."

He said the system would have to undergo thorough safety inspections as well.

Word of a possible end to the strike began filtering out earlier in the day and was made officially announced by state mediators.

"In the best interests of the public, which both parties serve, we have suggested, and they have agreed, to resume negotiations while the T.W.U. takes steps toward returning its membership to work," Richard A. Curreri, the lead state mediator, said at a news conference this morning.

However, he noted that a final contract agreement would still take some work. "While these discussions have been fruitful, an agreement remains out of the parties' reach at this time," he said. "It is clear to us, however, that both parties have a genuine desire to resolve their differences."

The return-to-work agreement, said several people close to the negotiations who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitive stage of the talks, would give every side some of what it asked for.

It would allow Mr. Pataki to save face because the final negotiations would not take place until the strikers return to work, the people said, and it would apparently allow the Mr. Toussaint, the union's president, to save face because, they believe, the authority's pension demands - which are at the crux of the deadlock - have been significantly scaled back.

Mr. Curreri and two other mediators were appointed by the state's Public Employment Relations Board on Tuesday afternoon, after the union declared a strike at 3 a.m. that day and the authority said the talks had reached an impasse.

Mr. Curreri, the board's director of conciliation, invited two veteran mediators - Martin F. Scheinman, a longtime arbitrator who has negotiated many labor agreements, and Alan R. Viani, the former chief negotiator at D.C. 37, the city's largest municipal workers union - to join him.

All three met with both sides for hours at a time on Wednesday and into the night. The authority's chairman, Peter S. Kalikow, and Mr. Toussaint both participated in the talks on Wednesday and early this morning.

The news was an abrupt change from Wednesday's developments, when a war of rhetoric surrounding the strike entered a louder and more contentious phase, with Mr. Toussaint demanding that thorny pension issues be removed from the table before the strikers returned to work. But Governor Pataki joined Mayor Bloomberg in saying that the transit workers must end the strike before negotiations could resume, contradicting the M.T.A.'s earlier position that it would talk anytime.

In addition to disagreements over pensions, the union and the M.T.A. have also had a difficult time on health care benefits. The transportation authority had originally demanded that future transit workers contribute 2 percent of their pay toward health premiums. It reduced that demand to 1 percent several days before the strike deadline, then dropped it altogether, just hours before the strike deadline. Current workers do not pay premiums for the union's basic health plan.

Mr. Toussaint's union has repeatedly said he would not agree to a contract that treated future workers worse than current workers - on pension or health insurance.

Several people close to the negotiations said they expected the two sides to discuss proposals to have the union agree to have all workers, current and future, pay health premiums

Repeatedly saying that he wants to beat back the wave of concessions demanded by managements across the country, Mr. Toussaint has also insisted that he would not agree to a contract that required all workers to pay health premiums.

Mr. Toussaint had attacked the mayor and the governor Wednesday for what he called the use of "insulting and offensive language," apparently referring to the mayor's characterization of the strike by the city's 33,700 subway and bus workers as "thuggish" and "selfish."

In a speech that belied the union's tenuous position - it is already being fined $1 million a day - Mr. Toussaint seemed to cast the conflict in a social-justice context. In describing the struggle of his largely minority union, he invoked the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, saying: "There is a higher calling than the law. That is justice and equality."

The transit strike, the first in a quarter century, began at 3 a.m. Tuesday after negotiations between the union and the transit authority broke down over the authority's last-minute demand that all new transit workers contribute 6 percent of their wages toward their pensions - up from the 2 percent that current workers pay.

The authority has said it needs to rein in its soaring pension costs. Mr. Toussaint has argued that, under state law, it is illegal for the authority to insist on including a pension demand as part of a settlement.

[Bulgaroctonus]

Everyone should remember that this strike happened because the Metropolitan Transit Authority tried to include pension percentage changes as a rider to the settlements that were under way with Roger Toussaint and the Transportation Workers Union. The strike would never have happened if the MTA used a more appropriate forum and time to discuss pensions. To my information, the TWU responded because they felt it was unfair to change pensions in the settlements.

The Strike also collapsed since the Union only had $3.6 million in assets. They were being fined $1 million a day. This could not go on for more than three days before the Union entered debt. So, the TWU is already weak.

[Bulgaroctonus]

The New York Times
December 23, 2005
Back-Channel Communiqués Paved Way to Strike's End
By SEWELL CHAN
and STEVEN GREENHOUSE
On Wednesday morning, Roger Toussaint's closest advisers encouraged him to face his difficult circumstances. The workers in Mr. Toussaint's union, who had brought the city's transit system to a halt, were incurring fines and public scorn with each day of the union's strike.

What's your endgame? the advisers asked him gently.

Already, Mr. Toussaint had sent intermediaries to seek Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's aid in ending the deadlock with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, according to several people involved in the discussions.

But by noon, other labor leaders had become more blunt in counseling Mr. Toussaint, suggesting that his union was in real peril.

In an early afternoon telephone conference call with 40 union leaders, according to people who participated, Mr. Toussaint showed his frustration as he sought a public showing of support.

"I don't need anyone standing on the sidelines holding my coat," one person recalled that he said. "I need someone to take off their coats."

Eventually, Mr. Toussaint's back-channel communication to Mr. Bloomberg paid off, and the groundwork for a return to work was laid.

Mr. Toussaint signaled that if the transportation authority relaxed its demands involving pensions for his workers - the issue at the heart of the contract dispute - he would be willing to talk about workers' making payments toward their health benefits. Mr. Bloomberg, after initial skepticism, indicated it might be a formula for success.

It was. Less than 24 hours after Mr. Toussaint's moments of hard reckoning, state mediators announced that the union leadership felt encouraged enough about progress that workers would return to work, and trains and buses would start running.

The story of what happened over those 24 hours - the role of the state mediators, the background role of the Bloomberg administration, the contrasting realities of heated public exchanges and behind-the-scenes headway - was pieced together through interviews with government officials, labor leaders and people close to the union and the authority. The principals themselves, Mr. Toussaint and top officials of the authority, have agreed to conduct the remaining negotiations toward a final contract in secret.

The beginning of the end of the transit strike of 2005 started innocuously enough, with the arrival around 3 p.m. on Tuesday of a middle-aged man with a dimpled chin and a dark gray mustache. He slipped into a Midtown Manhattan hotel unnoticed, 12 hours after the city's subway and bus workers walked off the job for the first time in 25 years.

The man, a state mediator who had driven down from Albany to enter what for New Yorkers was the World Series of conflict resolution, would help establish enough of a negotiating peace that millions of people who had been all but stranded in their own city could resume their normal lives.

The mediator, Richard A. Curreri, and two other veteran mediators practiced shuttle diplomacy inside the Grand Hyatt hotel near Grand Central Terminal, where the talks were held. But their main accomplishment may not have been so much performing feats of persuasion as providing a kind of public cover for each side to resume negotiations, even as a war of rhetoric continued to rage at press conferences and picket lines.

Mr. Curreri, who has worked for a state labor board since 1990, invited two other negotiators to join him on Tuesday: Martin F. Scheinman, a veteran arbitrator and mediator who has helped settle thousands of labor contracts, and Alan R. Viani, who was the chief negotiator for District Council 37, the city's largest union of municipal workers, from 1973 to 1985. They would work through the night on Wednesday before emerging early yesterday to announce that an end to the strike was likely.

On Wednesday, Mr. Toussaint had clearly begun to appreciate the depth of the problems his Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union faced. Those who were advising him said he had clearly begun to contemplate the prospect of being jailed, and the economic harm to his workers.

Around 10 a.m., Mr. Toussaint called two other labor leaders: Bruce S. Raynor, the general president of Unite Here, the union representing apparel, hotel and restaurant workers, and Mike Fishman, president of the city's giant union of building service workers, Local 32** of the Service Employees International Union.

Mr. Toussaint asked the two men, who had both supported Mr. Bloomberg's re-election, to call the mayor to urge him to pressure Peter S. Kalikow, chairman of the authority, to drop his demands on pensions, according to Mr. Raynor.

Mr. Raynor said he had tried to gauge the mayor's response to the idea of having the authority back off on its pension demands and instead consider health care costs as a way of achieving long-term savings.

The mayor at first rejected the notion, but "eventually he came around to believing that was a good idea," said Mr. Raynor, who has been a prominent supporter of the mayor's.

Mr. Raynor said he and Mr. Fishman tried to serve as informal mediators. "We both believe that you have to find a solution, the quicker the better, and we both had credibility with the mayor and with Roger," Mr. Raynor said.

The resolution of the strike began to pick up speed Wednesday afternoon, even surviving harsh public performances by the mayor and Mr. Toussaint, and by Gov. George E. Pataki, who demanded that the workers return to their jobs before negotiations could continue.

When David Catalfamo, a spokesman for Mr. Pataki, was asked on Wednesday whether the authority was free to bargain, he replied in an e-mail message, "The M.T.A. can speak for themselves."

Mr. Toussaint went before television cameras on Wednesday afternoon and tried to claim the moral high ground in the dispute. He tried to place the strike in the context of social justice and likened the illegal walkout to Rosa Parks's civil disobedience. He also tried to raise the ante, by offering to resume talks immediately if the authority agreed to drop its pension demands.

Two hours later, more than a dozen public-sector union leaders - representing teachers, CUNY professors, police detectives and municipal workers, among other groups - stood before the same cameras and vigorously asserted that Mr. Toussaint's demand to have pensions dropped from the talks was fair and reasonable.

What the union leaders did not do, however, was declare their support for the strike.

Privately, in the conference call on Wednesday afternoon, they had warned Mr. Toussaint that the fines, public anger and contempt citations from the strike could be disastrous.

"All day long there were a couple of us, that kept on trying to figure out what can settle this, what can solve this," said Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers. "We were very concerned that management was going to bear down and go after the union."

Assemblyman Brian M. McLaughlin, a Queens Democrat who is the president of the New York City Central Labor Council, spoke to both Mr. Toussaint and Mr. Kalikow.

Mr. McLaughlin said yesterday he was aware that the union's position was delicate but credited Mr. Toussaint for being willing to return to the table. "Nobody really knew where Roger was willing, or not willing, to go," he said. "He said if this issue was removed from the table, we could within hours reach an agreement."

Mr. McLaughlin said the strike had been a major obstacle in getting the authority to make concessions. "You have to work past things," he said. "Once there's a strike, attitudes change. Politicians go more for blood than conflict resolution, and place the blame squarely on one side."

Bill Lynch, a former deputy mayor who has advised Mr. Toussaint, said the stance by the unions and the communications with Mr. Bloomberg had been critical in persuading the transportation authority to bend. "I think that they were hearing all that static out there and I think, with the municipal unions coming as strongly as they did, the momentum toward saving the pensions was starting to build," Mr. Lynch said. The transportation authority, he said, was "losing ground on that issue."

Enter the mediators. Their proposal - having the union agree to return to work with the transportation authority essentially acknowledging that pensions were all but off the table - ultimately allowed each side to swallow something.

Barry L. Feinstein, a former Teamsters leader who has served on the board since 1989 and is close to both Mr. Pataki and Mr. Kalikow, said Mr. Kalikow was to be credited for showing resolve but not foreclosing the possibility of reopening talks.

Mr. Feinstein said that many people had expected Mr. Kalikow to give in under the threat of a strike.

"Many people thought that he wouldn't be able to take the pressure, that he would fold, that he would do whatever had to be done to prevent a strike, that the M.T.A. would avoid a strike at any cost," Mr. Feinstein said. "That didn't happen."

Jerome Lefkowitz, a labor lawyer who helped draft a state law that provides for mediation and arbitration in contract disputes involving police, firefighters and transit workers, said he felt the law had helped people find a path of reason.

"Mediators must have the facility to listen to what the negotiators are saying and to hear priorities and demands that may not be articulated explicitly," he said. "When they start making progress, more tradeoffs follow pretty quickly, once you can break the ice."

[Bulgaroctonus]

Originally Posted by dalem

Who says the life of the average worker needs to be "bettered"?

-dale

The betterment of all of our citizens is one of the roles and tasks of any responsible government, including ours.

It is not a zero-sum situation. I do not believe that worker welfare and profits are mutually exclusive. We can have a successful and thriving private sector and have unions that protect the interests of employees.

Of course, some might argue that all Americans are earning too much for our nation to be competitive, since globalization is enabling foreigners to do the same work as Americans for much less money. I am not an economist, so I do not know the merits and drawbacks of our high wages precisely.

I do not know your economic station, whether you have a high income or not, but I think that if you are an average-income earner, you may have some sympathy for those that share your socio-economic class.

[Bulgaroctonus]

The New York Times
December 23, 2005
60-Hour Transit Strike Ends, and New York Cheers
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and SEWELL CHAN
Thousands of New York City transit workers put down their picket signs and streamed into bus depots and railyards last night to restart the nation's largest transit system, after leaders of their union agreed to a tentative framework for a new contract and ended a 60-hour strike that hobbled the city.

After three frenetic and frustrating days of carpooling, biking, roller skating and trudging to work in chilly temperatures, New Yorkers reacted joyfully to the news that the city's sprawling network of subways and buses would soon be running again. Transit officials said they expected the system to come haltingly back to life last night but be running at nearly full capacity by this morning's rush.

"I'm so happy," said Christine Grant, 34, of Rego Park, Queens, who bought a weekly MetroCard last Monday but never got to use it to commute to her job in Greenwich Village. "You take things for granted until something like this happens, and then you realize how much you need the subway."

The abrupt return - many strikers simply laid down their placards and walked into the buildings they had been picketing - capped a day of fast-moving developments in a labor showdown that just a day before seemed headed for an intractable and ugly stalemate.

Despite the end of the strike, a final settlement of the dispute remains to be reached. But officials hinted that in exchange for the union's ending the strike, the authority would significantly scale back or even abandon its insistence on less-generous pensions for future workers. In return, the union would consider having its members pay more for health insurance.

The negotiations will now resume under an agreement not to speak with reporters.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg hailed the union's decision, a state judge postponed a hearing that could have seen union leaders jailed, and many workers expressed relief that the strike was over.

"In 21 years as a transit worker, this has probably been one of the best days of my life," said Dennis H. Boyd, a train operator and member of the union's executive board, who voted to end the strike. "The membership wanted to make a statement, they wanted to go to battle with the M.T.A., and we fulfilled that."

The strike - the city's first transit walkout in a quarter-century - paralyzed New York's mass transit system at the height of the holiday season, devastating sales for retailers, enraging the mayor and governor and making it hellishly difficult for New Yorkers to get to jobs, schools and doctors' appointments.

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg took a more conciliatory tone toward union leaders than he had in previous days, but reserved his most voluble praise for the residents who had had to contend with massive disruptions. "This was really a very big test of our city," Mr. Bloomberg said. "It's fair to say we passed with flying colors. It wasn't easy and certainly serious economic harm was inflicted and we did what we had to do to make the city run."

As buses began to warm up last night and workers went about the complex task of bringing the subway system back to life - inspecting tracks, testing brakes, restoring power - the mood could not have been more different than it was 24 hours earlier, when many signs suggested the strike could be a long one.

On Wednesday, Roger Toussaint, the president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, had traded barbs with Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. George E. Pataki from afar as all three drew what seemed to be deeper lines in the sand. Mr. Toussaint said he would agree to talk only if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would remove the nettlesome issue of pensions from the negotiations; Governor Pataki said no talks could take place until the strike ended.

But behind the scenes, both sides were meeting with state mediators. At 2 a.m. yesterday, Mr. Toussaint arrived at the Grand Hyatt hotel, where negotiations had been taking place, suggesting major progress was occurring.

Three state mediators held an 11 a.m. news conference that gave subway-less New Yorkers their first reasons for hope in days.

The mediators said the union's leadership had indicated they would send strikers back to work after accepting the preliminary framework in which the transportation authority hinted it might take off the table the main obstacle to a settlement - its demands that future workers pay 6 percent of their wages toward their pensions.

As part of that framework, the union agreed to negotiate over having transit workers pay more for their health coverage to offset the money the authority would lose by relinquishing its pension proposals.

The mediators, led by Richard A. Curreri, director of conciliation for the New York State Public Employment Relations Board, said they expected the two sides to engage in intense negotiations to reach an overall settlement, hopefully in the next few days.

"An agreement remains out of the parties' reach at this time," the three mediators said in a statement. "It is clear to us, however, that both parties have a genuine desire to resolve their differences. In the best interests of the public, which both parties serve, we have suggested, and they have agreed, to resume negotiations while the T.W.U. takes steps toward returning its membership to work."

"The M.T.A.," the mediators continued, "has informed us that it has not withdrawn its pension proposals, but nevertheless is willing to discuss whether adequate savings may be found in the area of health costs."

Two officials close to the talks, one on the authority's side and one on the union's, said the authority would soon take its pension demands off the table.

Around 2:30 p.m., the union's executive board voted 36 to 5 to end the strike. Two abstained. A half hour later, Mr. Toussaint, low-keyed in contrast to the defiant tone he took on Wednesday, told reporters and union members gathered in the cold: "I'm pleased to announce that the Local 100 executive board just voted overwhelmingly to direct transit workers to return to work immediately and to resume bus and subway service throughout the five boroughs of New York City, and we thank riders for their patience and forbearance."

As soon as Mr. Toussaint made his 3 p.m. announcement, many of the union's 33,700 members put down their picket signs and began heading to bus depots and subway yards.

Even though the strike violated a state law barring walkouts by public employees, many New Yorkers backed the union in its fight with the authority, even as many others cursed the union. As a result of the strike, the union faces a $3 million fine while individual strikers face loss of two days pay for each day on strike.

Justice Theodore T. Jones of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn had fined the union $1 million a day and originally threatened to have Mr. Toussaint jailed yesterday. However, reacting to the end of the walkout, he adjourned hearings for a criminal contempt order and the possible jailing. He set a new hearing for Jan. 20. He also has the power to alter the fine.

"I am pleased on behalf of the people of the City of New York, and indeed hopeful that we will be able to salvage Christmas," Justice Jones said.

Mayor Bloomberg said that as of today the city would end its emergency plan that allowed taxis to carry multiple fares, increased ferry service and barred cars with fewer than four passengers from entering Manhattan south of 96th Street during the morning rush.

The agreement's framework seemed carefully designed to allow everyone to save face.

After Governor Pataki said the authority should not negotiate until the union ended its walkout, the agreement allowed him to save face because the final negotiations will not take place until the strikers return to work.

After Mr. Toussaint said the strikers would not return to their jobs unless the authority took its pension demands off the table, the agreement allows him to save face because the framework hints strongly that the authority will soon drop its pension demand.

And the authority's chairman, Peter S. Kalikow, can save face because he can maintain that the authority has not entirely scuttled its pension proposal in response to the union's demand.

While many workers seemed relieved to return to their jobs, there was at least a small undercurrent of anger directed at the strike's result.

"I'm very disappointed to have to come back now, I think we should have held out," said Larry Powell, 55, who was returning to work at the 239th street maintenance facility in the Bronx. "I feel bad. I don't know what we got."

He also said he was also unhappy about being fined two days' pay for every day he was on strike, adding: "I do not want to go back to work without a contract."

Governor Pataki did not soften his tone, saying that judges could not grant amnesty to erase the individual fines faced by workers. With transit workers' base pay averaging $900 a week, being fined two days pay for each day of the strike would cost them $1,080 each on average.

Mr. Pataki said: "I think that there's a lesson to be learned from this: no one is above the law. You break the law and the consequences are real."

Before the negotiations collapsed late Monday night, the authority increased its wage offer to a 3 percent raise the first year, 4 percent the second and 3.5 percent the third year. It also dropped its demand to raise the retirement age for future workers to 62, from 55 for current workers. But it added a demand that new workers pay 6 percent of their earnings toward their pensions, up from 2 percent for current workers.

The authority also agreed to make Martin Luther King's Birthday a holiday, and it dropped its demand that future workers pay 1 percent of their wages toward health premiums. The union's current workers do not pay premiums for their basic health plan.

Mr. Toussaint has said he would steadfastly oppose having workers pay health premiums.

Jose Orjuela, 36, a preproduction manager for a cinema advertising firm in midtown, walked to work this week from his home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He celebrated the end of the strike.

"We were all freaking out when we heard," he said. "It was huge. We were just relieved it was all over."

[Shek]

Originally Posted by Bulgaroctonus

Everyone should remember that this strike happened because the Metropolitan Transit Authority tried to include pension percentage changes as a rider to the settlements that were under way with Roger Toussaint and the Transportation Workers Union. The strike would never have happened if the MTA used a more appropriate forum and time to discuss pensions. To my information, the TWU responded because they felt it was unfair to change pensions in the settlements.

The Strike also collapsed since the Union only had $3.6 million in assets. They were being fined $1 million a day. This could not go on for more than three days before the Union entered debt. So, the TWU is already weak.

It will be interesting to see if what NYC did with the pension was illegal. If so, then we'll soon find out. However, if you want to know why GM and Ford are getting crushed right now, it is because their cash flow position sucks, I say again, sucks, because of fat pension plans that they're paying on that were negotiated during the good ol' times of the 60's and 70's when business was booming and gas was cheap. IIRC, 1/4 of GM's expenditures are on pensions. That's right, 1/4 of their expenses go towards people that currently provide 0 productivity. That's why union pension plans are a huge liability and sticking point in negotiations.

[Bulgaroctonus]

Originally Posted by shek

It will be interesting to see if what NYC did with the pension was illegal. If so, then we'll soon find out.

Yes, many people have been calling the TWU the criminals. However, the only law that they would be breaking is the Taylor Law, that forbids public officials from striking. However, this infringement would only be applicable to some of the TWU leadership. That is why Judge Jones of the New York Supreme Court has only found three people in possible contempt of court.

Originally Posted by shek

However, if you want to know why GM and Ford are getting crushed right now, it is because their cash flow position sucks, I say again, sucks, because of fat pension plans that they're paying on that were negotiated during the good ol' times of the 60's and 70's when business was booming and gas was cheap. IIRC, 1/4 of GM's expenditures are on pensions. That's right, 1/4 of their expenses go towards people that currently provide 0 productivity. That's why union pension plans are a huge liability and sticking point in negotiations.

The greater drawbacks of pensions are up for discussion. However, from what I've gained it sounds like the MTA tried to surreptitiously add a pension settlement to negotiations that had nothing to do with pensions. The added this without warning.

Health care and pensions are a big problem for American companies, but GM and Ford have been making inferior products to those of the Japanese for at least 15 years. They are paying the price for a poor product.