A Declaration Of War!

How do we know that the maybe-perhaps strike threat is pure theater? All this great theatrical hyperbole:

The MTA proposed yesterday giving city bus and subway workers a 5% raise over two years, provided they call in sick less often — prompting one union official to call the offer a declaration of “war.”

With the contract set to expire in just eight days and the union not ruling out a strike, the MTA’s chief labor negotiator, Gary Dellaverson, made the agency’s first wage offer: a 3% raise followed by a 2% increase.

But the workforce would have to earn the second-year increase by reducing the number of sick days taken.

MTA officials say key groups of workers — including bus drivers, motormen and subway station agents –average more than 13 sick days a year.

Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint called the proposal an “insult.” Vice President Ainsley Stewart went further, saying: “They have declared war.”

At least they didn’t declare jihad . . .