MTA renews its attack on NYC transit union

Once again, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is trying to provoke Trans port Workers Union Local 100 and its 33,700 members.

NYC transit workers rally, Dec. 2005. WW photo

Blinded by arrogance and self-serving interests, the transit bosses have interpreted the rejection of a tentative contract by a slim majority of the workers as a sign of weakness and division. The MTA, joined by Gov. George Pataki and other political cronies, crowed that a split had occurred in the multinational union.

Split? Formally, yes. Fundamentally, no.

Two-thirds of the total membership participated in the Jan. 20 vote. The outcome was 11,234 to reject the contract and 11,227 to accept. Those who voted yes saw that the MTA had grudgingly added a host of benefits above what was in its earlier “final offer.” The members who rejected the contract never denied that the benefits won were a good deal. They were concerned that a 1.5 percent assessment on wages for health care costs would dilute the gains.

These are honest differences among union members in evaluating the merits of the contract. Roughly half rejected the recommendations of their leaders, the Local 100 Executive Board, which had voted 37 to 4 to ratify the agreement. The rank and file disagreed among themselves by the slim margin of seven votes.

Two fundamental issues define the relationship between the two groups: conditions on the job and the MTA’s behavior.

Local 100 President Roger Toussaint characterized the latter as “plantation justice.” Racism takes various forms in a union that, like Local 100, is made up overwhelmingly of Black, Latin@ and other oppressed nationalities. The fight against racism forges unity at the workplace.

Being faced by a work environment fraught with danger above and below ground creates a sense of comradeship. Transit workers live in an atmosphere of diesel exhaust, dirt, steel dust and other noxious agents. They daily face the risk of accidents and injuries, as well as threats to their long-term health. This is the culture of transit workers, who spend most of their waking hours on the job and getting to and from the workplace.

The day the contract was rejected, the MTA called on the New York State Public Employees Relations Board (PERB), an agency administering the infamous anti-union Taylor Law, to revoke the union’s dues checkoff. It formally charged TWU Local 100 with calling an illegal strike.

On Jan. 25, five days later, the MTA included in its petition to the PERB a declaration that “a voluntary resolution of the contract cannot be effected” and called for binding arbitration. It proposed a contract that would wipe out most of the gains the union had won earlier.

Toussaint, who had rejected binding arbitration, urged the MTA to return to the table and bargain in good faith. The proposal fell on deaf ears. The MTA calculated this was the moment to wipe out the workers’ gains in the tentative agreement.

There have been mixed reviews by media journalists, consultants and academics following the outrageous MTA declaration of war against Local 100. Bruce C. McIver, a former chief of labor relations for both the city and the MTA, is an example. McIver told the press that “The MTA has the upper hand right now. ... Binding arbitration carries risks for the union. Rather than help Roger to solve this problem, this seems to put him in a much tougher position.”

But McIver warned that the MTA’s strategy could backfire. “The danger is that they can lose public support if it looks like they’re being gratuitously provocative. ... At the end of the day, they have to remember that these guys run the trains. It’s hard work to heal the wounds after a strike. The angrier the work force is, the harder it will be to heal.” (New York Times, Jan. 26)

His message to the MTA, Governor Pataki and billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg: Be careful what you wish for.

MTA provoked strike

From day one, the MTA had made a sham of the collective bargaining process. It was the three-day strike that brought them to their senses. Following the tentative contract, Governor Pataki called it a reward for criminal behavior and began to sabotage the agreement. He challenged the payback of pension overcharges to 22,000 transit workers that would amount to more than $131 million. In 2001 and 2002, he had vetoed bills that would have provided pension refunds of overpayments between 1994 and 2001.

Peter Kalikow, appointed by Pataki to head the MTA, is a real estate tycoon and former owner of the racist, right-wing New York Post before the current reactionary owner, Rupert Murdoch. Though he signed off on pension retroactivity, he began to sow doubts among the rank and file that Pataki could veto it. Kalikow was Pataki’s co-conspirator from the get-go in provoking the strike.

Fight the Taylor Law!

For now, the struggle is moving back to the courts and to PERB, the agency that conducts the administrative procedures set up under the Taylor Law. The TWU said in response to the MTA’s attack that its extreme provocation helped to cause and prolong the strike.

The Brennan Center for Justice, a public-interest law firm, has filed a brief in federal court contending that the fines administratively imposed on the union were unconstitutional because it was entitled to a jury trial under the Sixth Amendment. In a separate contempt case, Local 100 has appealed a state judge’s decision to fine it up to $3 million, Local 726 up to $150,000 and Local 1056 up to $225,000. (New York Times, Jan. 28) The last two locals were still working for private bus companies at the time of the strike.

Toussaint charged in state court that the MTA also broke the law when it imposed a two-tier system on pension contributions for new hires.

History—a guide to action

Being right is no guarantee that TWU Local 100 can win in the courts or with PERB. It will take a mass mobilization of the workers and allies in the labor movement to reverse the anti-union attack. The shackles of the Taylor Law must be removed from public sector workers. The transit workers must end up with a decent contract, dignity and respect.

On Jan. 1 exactly 40 years ago, 35,000 transit workers walked off the job and shut the city down for 12 days. They struck in defiance of the Condon-Wadlin Act, a state law that forbade strikes in the public sector under penalty of dismissal and a three-year pay freeze for those reinstated after they were fired or jailed.

The labor movement closed ranks and fought back. The TWU, led by President Mike Quill and the AFL-CIO, mobilized over 15,000 members to converge on City Hall and demand the penalties be removed. Mayor John Lindsay agreed to waive the penalties and, backed by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, decided to terminate Condon-Wadlin. One year later, in 1967, the Taylor Law was passed. The municipal unions filled the old Madison Square Garden in May 1967 to condemn it.

In the January 2006 issue of Local 100 Express, headlined “Countdown to Success,” the words of the local’s founding president seem as alive as they were 40 years ago. Quill, an Irish revolutionary in exile, had been jailed during the strike. He died just two weeks after the settlement and a few days after his release from prison.

“Whatever the problem, your efforts will be crowned with success only if your union is sound and united. It takes planning, patience, vigilance and determination to win any struggle, regardless of the arena. Above all else, the membership must wholeheartedly believe in its organization and the role it can play in building a better world. We have learned that a labor union is not a gambling table; it is not a bingo game where you hit the jackpot once in a lifetime. Membership in a union is a way of life. Dues payment is not enough. You must attend meetings, prepare yourself for leadership. ... You must invest a part of yourself.”

The 33,700 members, overwhelmingly workers of color, face “plantation justice.” The fight for unity in the spirit of Mike Quill is indispensable.