How Does The Strike End?
December 20th, 2005
In the weeks leading up to the contract deadline, representatives of the Transport Workers Union praised transit workers in Philadelphia for their courage to stage a week-long strike in November. Now, New York City workers have followed suit.
However, the manner in which the transit strike was eventually resolved in Philadelphia may be more difficult to emulate here in the city.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell helped broker the agreement between management and labor. In New York, Governor George Pataki has so far rejected calls to get personally involved in negotiations; today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there should be no further negotiations until workers go back on the job.
Also in Philadelphia, the final agreement gave workers 3 percent raises each year for four years in exchange for agreeing to pay 1 percent of their salaries toward health care costs. The MTA has offered similar pay increases, but TWU President Roger Toussaint rejected calls for employees to contribute to health care costs, saying this is “a fight over the erosion, or the eventual elimination, of health-benefits coverage for working people.”
By Mark Berkey-Gerard on December 20, 2005, 4:00 pmIn category: Transportation | 1 Comment »


December 20th, 2005 at 4:24 pm
With every day the union stays out, the incentive to stay out grows. Why?
Because the TWU will want to stay out until the city and state agree to waive the all fines, which grow greater each day. The longer they are out, the greater the incentive to stay out.
But if the city and state waive the fines, that means there is no penalty for striking, which means there will not only be a strike at the end of every contract (unless retirement at age 30, or something, is enacted) but perhaps stikes will happen on an ongoing basis all the time (since it is no less illegal within a contract than upon expiration). That would bring the city’s transit system, and perhaps the city, back to the 1970s.
That’s why the prior strikes went on so long. In 1966, I believe, the fines were waived. That’s why we had another strike just 14 years later despite the city remaining broke. In 1980, the fines were not waived. Thanks to 22 days of lost pay, we didn’t have another strike for 25 years.
I wouldn’t expect an end to this until after New Years.