Suitably Flip

Transit Strike Update

Update (4pm):  GOP and the City is hosting a transit strike joke-off.  Submit yours now!  My entry:

Q: How is Roger Toussaint like a cocktail waitress trying to earn a few extra bucks?
A: They're both spending Christmas behind bars.

Update (3pm):  Now we're getting somewhere.  Roger Toussaint and his cohorts may be sent to jail tomorrow for this criminal strike.  They should be forced to walk there.

State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones, who is hearing several legal issues related to the strike, directed attorneys from the Transport Workers Union to bring president Roger Toussaint and other top officials before the court Thursday to answer to a criminal contempt charge. He said he may sentence the union leaders to jail for refusing to end the strike, calling such a scenario a "distinct possibility."

Update (2pm):  Judge Theodore Jones has fined two chapters of a second union, the Amalgamated Transit Union, a combined $125,000 for their participation in the strike. Progress. But pennies compared to the ruinous damage this criminal activity is doing to our city.

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- TWU Local 100 chief Roger Toussaint remains out of jail.  I remain nonplussed as to why.

- The TWU is being fined $1 million per day for carrying out their illegal strike.

- Public Employment Relations Board representative Richard Currieri held initial mediation between the MTA and the TWU.

- Wednesday morning temperature (at 8:30): 24 degrees (15 with wind chill).

- The Wall Street Journal ponders just how many hundreds of millions of dollars per day this strike will cost.

- Michael O'Brien of the TWU of America has stated his clear lack of support for the illegal strike and that the national union will provide no money or other assistance to the TWU Local 100.  O'Brien published this statement on the TWU website:

"TWU (International) hereby notifies all members of Local 100 of their obligation under the December 13, 2005 preliminary injunctions and the December 20, 2005 temporary restraining orders issued by the New York Supreme Court to cease any and all strike or strike-related activities and to report to work at their regularly assigned work hours and work locations.

"As has been reported in several media outlets, I personally spoke before the Local 100 Executive Board when it met on the morning of Dec. 20, and told them that I would not approve this strike. I told them that the only road to contract victory for the membership was not by strike but continued negotiation. I continue to believe this. It should not be construed in any way that my refusal to sanction this strike lessens my resolve to secure the best possible contract for this membership."

"I stand ready to assist the Local leadership in returning to the table."

- Lawyers are back in front of Brooklyn State Supreme Court Judge Theodore Jones today, where additional fines for union leaders and a second striking organization (the Amalgamated Transit Union) may be handed down.

- Ediotrials in local newspapers, including Newsday, The New York Times, the New York Post, and the Daily News, are appropriately unsympathetic to the TWU (hat tip: Wonkster).

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I see no reason why we don't move immediately to the maximum fines and jail time provided by the Taylor Law which the union is so flagrantly breaking.  Their disregard for the law, their employers, and their millions of fellow New Yorkers is despicable and dangerous and should be addressed with every available legal tool.

Most New Yorkers are experiencing this strike most immediately as a long cold walk to work - an inconvenience, but not a dire one.  If prevailing estimates are anywhere near accurate, however, the financial toll being wrought on our city is incredibly severe, as businesses stay closed, tourists stay home, and Christmas shopping goes unshopped.  Add to that the compromised public safety environment, as police work overtime and are called upon to handle the incremental logistical problems created by the strike, and we find ourselves increasingly (and avoidably) susceptible to violent crime or terrorist threats.

This illicit strike needs to be quashed today.

Strikeblogging elsewhere:

GOP and the City on the zombification of New York.
Lawhawk on the rogering of New York.
Jeff Jarvis on editorial coverage.
The NJ Blog on the lighter side of the transit strike
Alarming News on the fledgling niche of transit strike poetry
Mary Katherine Ham @ Hugh Hewitt rounds up reaction

Previously:

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

Comments

Transit Strike Update

Update (4pm):  GOP and the City is hosting a transit strike joke-off.  Submit yours now!  My entry:

Q: How is Roger Toussaint like a cocktail waitress trying to earn a few extra bucks?
A: They're both spending Christmas behind bars.

Update (3pm):  Now we're getting somewhere.  Roger Toussaint and his cohorts may be sent to jail tomorrow for this criminal strike.  They should be forced to walk there.

State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones, who is hearing several legal issues related to the strike, directed attorneys from the Transport Workers Union to bring president Roger Toussaint and other top officials before the court Thursday to answer to a criminal contempt charge. He said he may sentence the union leaders to jail for refusing to end the strike, calling such a scenario a "distinct possibility."

Update (2pm):  Judge Theodore Jones has fined two chapters of a second union, the Amalgamated Transit Union, a combined $125,000 for their participation in the strike. Progress. But pennies compared to the ruinous damage this criminal activity is doing to our city.

---

- TWU Local 100 chief Roger Toussaint remains out of jail.  I remain nonplussed as to why.

- The TWU is being fined $1 million per day for carrying out their illegal strike.

- Public Employment Relations Board representative Richard Currieri held initial mediation between the MTA and the TWU.

- Wednesday morning temperature (at 8:30): 24 degrees (15 with wind chill).

- The Wall Street Journal ponders just how many hundreds of millions of dollars per day this strike will cost.

- Michael O'Brien of the TWU of America has stated his clear lack of support for the illegal strike and that the national union will provide no money or other assistance to the TWU Local 100.  O'Brien published this statement on the TWU website:

"TWU (International) hereby notifies all members of Local 100 of their obligation under the December 13, 2005 preliminary injunctions and the December 20, 2005 temporary restraining orders issued by the New York Supreme Court to cease any and all strike or strike-related activities and to report to work at their regularly assigned work hours and work locations.

"As has been reported in several media outlets, I personally spoke before the Local 100 Executive Board when it met on the morning of Dec. 20, and told them that I would not approve this strike. I told them that the only road to contract victory for the membership was not by strike but continued negotiation. I continue to believe this. It should not be construed in any way that my refusal to sanction this strike lessens my resolve to secure the best possible contract for this membership."

"I stand ready to assist the Local leadership in returning to the table."

- Lawyers are back in front of Brooklyn State Supreme Court Judge Theodore Jones today, where additional fines for union leaders and a second striking organization (the Amalgamated Transit Union) may be handed down.

- Ediotrials in local newspapers, including Newsday, The New York Times, the New York Post, and the Daily News, are appropriately unsympathetic to the TWU (hat tip: Wonkster).

---

I see no reason why we don't move immediately to the maximum fines and jail time provided by the Taylor Law which the union is so flagrantly breaking.  Their disregard for the law, their employers, and their millions of fellow New Yorkers is despicable and dangerous and should be addressed with every available legal tool.

Most New Yorkers are experiencing this strike most immediately as a long cold walk to work - an inconvenience, but not a dire one.  If prevailing estimates are anywhere near accurate, however, the financial toll being wrought on our city is incredibly severe, as businesses stay closed, tourists stay home, and Christmas shopping goes unshopped.  Add to that the compromised public safety environment, as police work overtime and are called upon to handle the incremental logistical problems created by the strike, and we find ourselves increasingly (and avoidably) susceptible to violent crime or terrorist threats.

This illicit strike needs to be quashed today.

Strikeblogging elsewhere:

GOP and the City on the zombification of New York.
Lawhawk on the rogering of New York.
Jeff Jarvis on editorial coverage.
The NJ Blog on the lighter side of the transit strike
Alarming News on the fledgling niche of transit strike poetry
Mary Katherine Ham @ Hugh Hewitt rounds up reaction

Previously:

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