Transit workers may begin a targeted slowdown if they are forced to continue working without a contract, some union officials warned yesterday as labor leader Roger Toussaint spent his first full day behind bars.
“We’re not going down that route now but it’s possible” if the dispute keeps simmering, said Stephan Thomas, a bus depot chairman from Brooklyn.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials confirmed that its board will not take any action on the labor pact today. “There will be no vote,” MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said. “It’s not on the agenda.”
Workers waged an illegal strike for three days last year after negotiations imploded. Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Toussaint began a 10-day jail sentence for the walkout Monday.
His jail stint began after two rallies and a march by more than 1,000 unionized workers from various trades. The demonstration was a bid to increase public and political pressure on the MTA to ratify a deal that both sides had signed off on in December after the strike.
But because the union rank-and-file rejected the proposed deal by a mere seven votes, the MTA says it’s no longer valid – even though the union approved it this month when put to a second vote.
MTA officials want the matter to be decided by a state arbitration panel.
Are you hearing this folks? The union is right back to threatening to violate the Taylor Law all over again. While the head thug in charge, Roger Toussaint sits in jail, the members of the union are figuring out how to screw over commuters again.
Amazing the stones these union thugs have.
bout 75 workers rallied late yesterday afternoon outside the Bernard B. Kerik Complex in lower Manhattan, where Toussaint is locked up. Chants included unspecific threats to bring the bus and subway system to a halt, or slow it down.
Bus operators, for example, might feel compelled to follow authority regulations to the fullest extent, Thomas said. “If we do that, it would take three hours to get down the line,” Thomas said.
Wait a minute. If they aren’t following regulations now, what the hell are they doing? Foot in mouth? Anyone?
[tags]union, mta, twu, strike, nyc[/tags]