Just days before a threatened strike, the New York Transport Workers Union and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority are pretty much where they began their contract talks, on separate tracks to a perilous destination. With no sign of significant movement on either side, New York City's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has announced contingency plans — including his own vow to bike to work or pick up hitchhikers in his car.þþThe prospect of millions of people biking or hiking in freezing temperatures and negotiating clogged roads during the holiday season is unacceptable, and the transit workers could destroy their union if they take such a foolhardy course. While the blame for the stalled talks must be shared by both sides, the workers have neither the legal nor the moral right to hold the city hostage. þþThe union is demanding a pay hike of 24 percent over three years, while the M.T.A. offers a pay freeze the first year and the possibility of raises thereafter only if productivity merits them. It might be easier for the union to accept that position if the M.T.A. opened its books. The public, which has gotten only a murky picture of how the authority got from a huge surplus to huge deficits in a single year, also deserves fuller accounting.þþRoger Toussaint, the transit workers' new leader, does not think the M.T.A. management and New York's political leaders are giving his 34,000 members the respect and attention they deserve. That, and the union's constant complaints about non-economic issues like disciplinary procedures, suggests that this is a situation where gestures of good will by management might go a long way. Gov. George Pataki, who controls the M.T.A. but has been missing from the talks, should either take a more active role or risk sharing the blame if there's a walkout. þþBut nothing would excuse a transit strike at a time when the city is in fragile financial and emotional condition. If the transit workers walk out, even for a day, they will be breaking the state's Taylor Law and subject to enormous fines and penalties. Worse, they will lose all claim to public support. New Yorkers would understand the desire to hold out for a decent pay increase if these were ordinary times. But with a deficit of more than $2 billion, they are not. Union leaders can no longer issue fire-breathing ultimatums, as Michael Quill did when he suggested that a judge issuing an injunction in the 1966 strike could drop dead in his black robes. Mr. Toussaint needs to recognize that the old bargaining tactics aren't acceptable.þþþ
Source: NY Times
