Lessons From NYC Transit Strike: Who’s Right, Who’s Wrong?
Many viewed the New York City transit strike just before Christmas as an illegal powerplay by a bunch of selfish “thugs” with unrealistic economic expectations. I’d have expected most of the vast numbers of New Yorkers whose daily commutes were disrupted to have shared this view.
However, apparently many New Yorkers and other observers sympathize with the strikers and are quite willing to overlook the strike’s unlawfulness, considering it morally and economically justified. Some even see it as the long-awaited resurrection of the moribund American labor movement and a turning point in American “class warfare.”
Enjoying the holidays here in St. Louis, I was safely removed from the immediate impact of the New York transit strike. Yet, as a lawyer involved in labor relations and strikes, I felt it was an event of some significance, both actual and symbolic. I thus felt compelled to travel the blogosphere quite widely, sampling news and commentary on this strike, and gathering a collection of recommended reading on the topic.
Here’s a guide to the information below:
- General Sources
- Basic Facts
- Antiunion Sentiments
- Union and its Apologists
- Fair and Balanced Views?
- Special Angles
- General Sources
For starters, check the New York Times’ central strike news page: “COMPLETE COVERAGE — The Transit Strike.”
You can also do your own blog-browsing on Technorati using the tag “transit strike.”
Crossing the Manhattan Bridge
Originally uploaded by MsAnthea.
Someone is also running a blog that aggregates tons of strike-related news, rather indiscriminately (perhaps simply posting a feed from a google search?) entitled: “New York Transit Strike Blog: Information and Updates About The TWU New York Strike.” No original material, but a source potentially worth browsing.
- Basic Facts
Gothamist, in “Transit Strike Nitty Gritty: The Offer” provides facts on the offers and issues going into the strike. Make your own comparisons to the settlement and see who gave more.
The MTA was now offering 3% raise increase for year 1 of a 3 year contract, then 4%, and 3.5% for the final year, up 1.5% from last week’s offer - which is still much less than what the Transport Workers Union wanted (8% for each of the 3 years), but the TWU had signaled they might agree to it. However, the pensions and benefits were the sticking point.
Don’t Let Me Stop You quotes a Wall Street Journal summary of the transit worker compensation package and offers on the table, and then describes the employee wages as: “25% above the pay for comparable jobs in the private sector in New York. And that’s before the rich benefit package.”
NY Times: “State Mediators’ Plan Clears Way to Resolve 60-Hour Ordeal”
AP: “Businesses lost $1 billion in revenue during the three-day transit strike, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a Sunday radio address.”
NYTimes: “M.T.A. Offers Strong Defense of Union Deal”:
The MTA laid out a detailed defense yesterday of the settlement it signed last week, arguing that an important concession made by the transit workers’ union - having all workers contribute to their health insurance premiums - is worth more than pension demands the authority abandoned. . . . The authority’s director of labor relations . . . said the strike failed to achieve gains for the union, an assertion the union vigorously disputes. ” The contract is cheaper and better for the M.T.A. than at the time that the strike commenced,” he said.
- Antiunion Sentiments
NY Daily News: “Crime pays. That’s the lesson of the illegal subway strike that cost New Yorkers tens of millions of dollars in lost business and extra expenses.”
A Blog For All doesn’t mince words:
The Union says that this is all about the worker. With the fallout from the strike hitting nothing but workers unaffiliated with the union, it’s hard to see that this is about the worker at all. It’s all about the myopic and greedy bastards running the local union.
Nor is any timidity expressed by Brain Terminal:
Metropolitan Transportation Authority should immediately begin investigating upgrading the subway system to replace all train drivers with automated systems. A number of other cities have proven such systems workable . . . The taxpayers of New York should not be expected to underwrite the salaries of people whose jobs can be done more cheaply, efficiently and without complaint by machines.
Strategic HR Lawyer piles on as well:
For those of you who think I might be swayed in favor of management here - you’re right. The idea the employees are striking over free health insurance when most of the world doesn’t get it for free bothers me. The fact that striking is illegal and they decided to do it anyway bothers me. The fact that employees making $60,000 are on strike resulting in other workers making far less having to walk to work bothers me even more. . . Lastly, having just returned from New Orleans . . . I really have no sympathy.
frogma, in “Dear Anonymous Transit Worker” starts out critical of both sides, but then loses her union tolerance as she suffers through a tough commute (with photos of what really got her goat): “y’know, I dropped those tiny shreds of tolerance and sympathy around miles 5.5 and 6 (guesstimating) of my 7-plus mile walk home tonight.”
- Union and its Apologists
From the TWU website: Contract 2005: Was the Strike Worth It?
Blue Collar blog: “There could be a lesson here for neutered Big Labor, and, by example, for the neutered Democratic Party. Standing up for what is just and fair, and doing so in the face of some spirited opposition, does NOT mean you’re doomed to lose.” TWU head belongs “in a pantheon of union leaders who knew that sometimes the public must suffer in order that government/management is forced to bargain fairly.”
Dan J. Berger’s Blog has some “Pro-Labor Thoughts on Strike”
nyc indymedia writes: “MTA Strike–Partial Victory at Great Cost”
Left Behinds offer “A Defense of the Transit Strike”
Ed Strong invokes good old leftist class warfare: ‘NYC Transit Strike: Class, Capitalism & Exploitation”:
CLASS STRUGGLE
We salute the 34,000 transit workers of New York City, whose courage in the face of draconian threats has provided an inspiring example of determination and solidarity to the working class throughout the United States and, indeed, internationally. The strike by transit workers is an event of international significance.
Defying massive fines and even the threat of jail, the strike represents a direct challenge to a super-rich Wall Street elite that is accustomed to imposing its economic interests and its will not only on New York City, but on the world.
- Fair and Balanced Views?
The Oil Drum: New York City notes interesting poll results (and includes a fine photo).
New Yorkers are actually pretty split about who’s to blame for the strike with 39% blaming the MTA vs. 40% for the TWU. As you could imagine, due to the many inconveniences, a majority (55%) of New Yorkers are against the strike, but surprisingly 38% of people actually favor the strike. . . On ethnic and racial lines, there is a wide divide between support for the strike between . . . white (23%), Latino (44%) and African-American (61%).
NY Times: “Transit Strike Reflects Nationwide Pension Woes”
Fast-rising pension costs for government employees - the issue that helped set off this week’s transit strike in New York City - are a problem confronting cities, counties and states nationwide, causing many budgetary experts to predict a wave of painful fights over efforts to scale back government retirement programs.
On a similar note from the Christian Science Monitor:
Some of the issues in the Big Apple - especially the effort to diminish pension and healthcare benefits for future employees - will be watched carefully by other unions. Management teams around the nation will also be watching to see what succeeds and what doesn’t.
Left Behinds takes on Fox News and Mayor Bloomberg, but then balances this criticism with:
I do wonder if it’s worth ruining the holidays for the rest of the city. Couldn’t the TWU have chosen different timing? In 1980, their strike went on for 11 days. That would really f*** up Christmas and, even more, New Year’s Eve, for the whole city. Plus it would turn everyone against the unions for like a generation.
NY Times: “Glad to Return to the Job, Though Unsure of Gains”
Union worker: “I miss my passengers. My passengers are like family; they’re good people. I’m very sorry that I left them stranded.”
Another union worker: “To be honest, this is a no-win situation . . . We lost several days of pay, people were inconvenienced, businesses lost money, the tourists couldn’t get around. And even after we get a contract, none of that will change.”
A Blog for All entitles a post“A Pox On Both Their Houses.” Though somewhat critical of management (hence the title), this post mainly sticks it to the union.
Christian Science Monitor sees a trend: “At the table, public unions do better”
- Special Angles
The New York Times online put out a wonderful interactive map for reading individual New Yorkers’ stories of commuting under strike conditions while viewing their journeys on a map. So creative — and handy!
The Times also profiled this key figure in the strike and its resolution: “The Mediator Behind the Curtain in the Transit Strike”
Then there’s this clever poem: “‘Twas five days before Christmas and all through the town;
Not a train was up running, they’d all been shut down. . . “
Writer’s Blog observes: Telecommuters Avoid New York Strike Problems
The “So what can I do?” blog draws inspiration from the strike to remind us to always: “Respect workers and their work.”
Whew! There you have it. Only a small selection — but I hope a choice one — of the megabytes that have been written about this high-profile labor struggle that affected so many on three cold winter days in Gotham City.
I set out to do this before Christmas, but did some other things instead. So I resolved to finish in time for the start of work the first week of the year (assuming you took Monday off for your New Year’s Day holiday). I hope someone gets something out of it.
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Whew! is only the best way of commenting on your blog entry. I wish I could compile something like this. If only traditional media went to such lengths over very serious subjects such as strikes.