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Decision Time for Illegal NYC Transit Strikers

* Updated and bumped *   (Updates at the bottom...)

Well, it's finally here.  The last day of voting by the Transport Workers Union membership to ratify or reject the contract their leader Roger Toussaint negotiated for them.  Toussaint, his fellow union thugs, and more than 30,000 MTA employees staged an illegal 3-day strike in December as leverage for the above-market terms of this contract (at a cost of hundreds of millions, if not more than a billion dollars to New York City), yet opposition has been bubbling within the rank and file.

The bone of contention: that workers will be required to contribute 1.5% of their gross wages toward health care costs.

That opposition bubbles away, despite the fact that Toussaint and his scofflaw cronies still face the very real threat of jail time for mounting the illegal strike (New York's Taylor Law makes it unlawful for public employees or employee organizations to participate in or condone a strike).  A contempt hearing this morning before State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones was adjourned until some time after the voting has concluded.

Not without a sense of irony, union lawyers have indicated their defense will invoke... you guessed it:  New York's Taylor Law.

Arthur Schwartz, a lawyer for the local, said the union will argue that it was provoked into a strike by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's insistence on a final contract offer that included pension changes. That would be a defense under the Taylor law, he said.

Under the Taylor Law, one side cannot make pensions a condition of a settlement. Still, in 1994 and 1999, the union and management agreed on pension changes.

Incidentally, the Taylor Law doesn't say anything about making an exception for unions who are "provoked".  Toussaint and his cohorts who so brazenly, severely, and illegally injured New York for monetary gain still need jailing.

Previously:

Fat Lady Iced
What a Deal
Roger Toussaint's Billion Dollar Christmas Present
Back on Track
The [Unofficial] Not For Tourists Guide to NYC - Strike Edition
Strike 3 (Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $62,000)
Transit Strike Update
TWU Walks Out On New york
New Yorkers Behaving Like New Yorkers
T-Minus 1 Hour: Transit Union Walks Out
No Progress on Transit Negotiations
Bracing for Bedlam
Bloomberg Steps Up
New York's Looming Illegal Transit Strike

---

Update:

Let's play Jeopardy.  The category is "Economic Travesties Wrought Upon New York City".

Answer: A million to one.

Question: What is the ratio of the number of New Yorkers stranded during the illegal transit strike to the number of votes by which ratification of the union's ill-gotten gains failed to pass?

To put it in local parlance: unbefreakinlievable.

Everyone please take your seats.  The second act of New York's transit labor crisis will begin momentarily...

Elsewhere:

Urban Elephants, GOP and the City, A Blog for All

Refresher Course:

Comments

Decision Time for Illegal NYC Transit Strikers

* Updated and bumped *   (Updates at the bottom...)

Well, it's finally here.  The last day of voting by the Transport Workers Union membership to ratify or reject the contract their leader Roger Toussaint negotiated for them.  Toussaint, his fellow union thugs, and more than 30,000 MTA employees staged an illegal 3-day strike in December as leverage for the above-market terms of this contract (at a cost of hundreds of millions, if not more than a billion dollars to New York City), yet opposition has been bubbling within the rank and file.

The bone of contention: that workers will be required to contribute 1.5% of their gross wages toward health care costs.

That opposition bubbles away, despite the fact that Toussaint and his scofflaw cronies still face the very real threat of jail time for mounting the illegal strike (New York's Taylor Law makes it unlawful for public employees or employee organizations to participate in or condone a strike).  A contempt hearing this morning before State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones was adjourned until some time after the voting has concluded.

Not without a sense of irony, union lawyers have indicated their defense will invoke... you guessed it:  New York's Taylor Law.

Arthur Schwartz, a lawyer for the local, said the union will argue that it was provoked into a strike by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's insistence on a final contract offer that included pension changes. That would be a defense under the Taylor law, he said.

Under the Taylor Law, one side cannot make pensions a condition of a settlement. Still, in 1994 and 1999, the union and management agreed on pension changes.

Incidentally, the Taylor Law doesn't say anything about making an exception for unions who are "provoked".  Toussaint and his cohorts who so brazenly, severely, and illegally injured New York for monetary gain still need jailing.

Previously:

Fat Lady Iced
What a Deal
Roger Toussaint's Billion Dollar Christmas Present
Back on Track
The [Unofficial] Not For Tourists Guide to NYC - Strike Edition
Strike 3 (Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $62,000)
Transit Strike Update
TWU Walks Out On New york
New Yorkers Behaving Like New Yorkers
T-Minus 1 Hour: Transit Union Walks Out
No Progress on Transit Negotiations
Bracing for Bedlam
Bloomberg Steps Up
New York's Looming Illegal Transit Strike

---

Update:

Let's play Jeopardy.  The category is "Economic Travesties Wrought Upon New York City".

Answer: A million to one.

Question: What is the ratio of the number of New Yorkers stranded during the illegal transit strike to the number of votes by which ratification of the union's ill-gotten gains failed to pass?

To put it in local parlance: unbefreakinlievable.

Everyone please take your seats.  The second act of New York's transit labor crisis will begin momentarily...

Elsewhere:

Urban Elephants, GOP and the City, A Blog for All

Refresher Course: