December 22, 2005
A City Held Hostage!
Workers crossing the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan early this morning in 22F.
I cannot believe that in day 3 of this strike there are no joint talks scheduled, instead they are talking separately to a federal mediator. However, their role is only in an advisory capacity as the parties are not in binding arbitration. The only official thing scheduled for today is a mandated court appearance and a media war that's unbelievable. So here's the current status:
- A furious State Supreme Court judge yesterday threatened to toss transit-union leaders in jail for ignoring his injunction against a walkout — calling it a "distinct possibility" they would wind up in Riker's by the end of today.
- Calling them "frauds" for striking in the name of working people, Mayor Bloomberg tore into Roger Toussaint and the Transport Workers Union yesterday for the second consecutive day as the war of words and between Public Relations consultants escalated.
- The media war 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 and that the Mayor, Governor, and MTA officials.
- A very angry Gov. George E. Pataki joined Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in saying that the transit workers must end the strike before negotiations could resume. Of course they could take that stance because their chauffer driven limos would ensure that they would never have to walk more than a few steps to each appearance.
- The MTA and the International Transit Workers' Union took the highly unusual steps of running television ads urging individual workers to return to their jobs. So far only a few hundred strikers have returned to work, however, those that have returned have seen their property damaged and their lives threatened.
- The MTA, in an effort to play hardball with union members, will be using the direct deposit information on their striking employees to freeze their bank accounts in an effort to obtain the 25,000 court-imposed penalty from each striker.
Don't you just love the holidays in NYC?
Wow... It almost sounds like the union didn't think this through too well.
Posted by: Contagion at December 22, 2005 06:49 PM