No Progress on Transit Negotiations

Transport Workers Union employees for two private bus lines in New York City will walk out tomorrow morning, according to union leaders.  The union's contract with the MTA expired on Friday and weekend talks have failed to yield an agreement.

The steep fines authorized by a Brooklyn judge under New York's Taylor Law at the request of the Bloomberg administration ($25,000 per worker, doubling each day) do not apply since the employees of Jamaica Buses and Triboro Coach Corporation are not public employees.

An MTA representative said Sunday night that talks had concluded for the night, but that additional negotiations were scheduled for Monday and that each side had plans to contact the other if any "new ideas" occurred to them.

This move of the TWU's might be a shrewd one, as it lends some credibility to their (reprehensible) threat, without incurring the devastating fines on striking rank-and-file members.

Still, the Taylor Law uses fairly sweeping language in its prohibition of strikes (Section 210):

1. No public employee or employee organization shall engage in a strike, and no public employee or employee organization shall cause, instigate, encourage, or condone a strike.

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me that, even if the only walkouts are private company employees, the TWU (the employee organization) would still be encouraging and condoning the strike, subjecting it to a $1 million (doubling daily) fine and the jailing of union leaders.

If my read is right, let's hope the fines are swiftly levied.  The last thing we need is for the TWU to be further emboldened to mount their illegal strike, which has been estimated to pose as much as a $600 million daily threat (not to mention the public safety implications) to the city.

Previously:

Bracing for Bedlam
Bloomberg Steps Up
New York's Looming Illegal Transit Strike