The New York Times Takes A Bold Stand

As traffic getting on to the Williamsburg Bridge backs up to La-fucking-Guardia Airport, let’s see what the editorial boards are saying.

The Post:

The fact is that TWU members, relative to MTA riders, simply don’t have it all that bad.

Just as most state and municipal employees don’t have it all that bad — certainly not relative to the state’s overburdened taxpayers.

Government in New York is unaffordable, or will be shortly — and the time to address the crisis is now.

New York City is to be paralyzed by a union that’s fighting to preserve the rights of people not yet even hired by the MTA to retire after just 25 years of employment: The notion would be laughable if it weren’t so serious.

That’s why Mayor Bloomberg reiterated the need for Albany to introduce some rationality on pensions — which TWU President Roger Toussaint at one point deemed to be a drop-dead strike issue.

Mayor Mike wants across-the-board pension reform for new government hires — and while he may be the only major elected official saying that out loud, others are pushing for it in private.

Reform would save the city billions — which is why so many of the public-employee unions have taken such an interest in the MTA-TWU bargaining.

And while pensions have become too rich for the blood of New York taxpayers, the problem is not just pensions.

The MTA also wants newly hired transit workers to contribute 2 percent of their wages to health-care premiums. Current workers contribute nothing — the most generous arrangement of any public-employee contract.

Notes Bloomberg, “Everybody’s discovering that they cannot afford some of the things in the past that they agreed to. People living longer makes the costs of pensions much greater. The cost of medical care continues to go up, so providing those benefits without co-pay is getting more and more problematic.”

Affordability aside, equity is also an issue: Nobody in the private sector enjoys benefits of that sort any longer — but it’s the private sector that ultimately pays the bills.

The TWU — and its brethren unions — must get the message now: There has to be a way of making 21st century government affordable for all concerned.

The Daily News is even more forceful:

The full weight of the law must swiftly be brought to bear on the Transport Workers Union for having the irresponsible lawlessness to shut down the transportation system that is New York’s lifeblood. Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg must seek severe sanctions against TWU President Roger Toussaint, his treasury and, sadly, the 33,700 workers who were thrown off a cliff by their leaders.

Pataki and Bloomberg must ask a judge to:

• Jail Toussaint and his bull-headed lieutenants.
• Impose fines on the TWU that double daily and are large enough to bankrupt the union within days.
• Hit every transit worker who walks with a penalty of two days’ pay for every day out, as the law allows.

Then, Pataki and MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow must hang tough. There can be no amnesty for those who have broken the law, disrupted the lives of millions, jeopardized public safety and dealt a blow to the city’s economy. There can be no making nice to extortionists.

The state Taylor Law bars strikes by public employees, so walking out would be unacceptable under any circumstance. Here, though, it is particularly outrageous because the MTA offered 3% wages hikes in each of three years, plus the opportunity to achieve larger increases through productivity savings.

Since 1999, transit worker salaries have more than kept pace with inflation, rising to an average of $63,000 for train operators and $54,000 for conductors. The MTA proposal would have boosted those numbers to $68,000 and $59,000 while opening the door to substantially more. Toussaint responded by demanding raises totaling more than 25% and refusing what he called givebacks.

Even so, the strike is not ultimately about wages. It’s about the MTA’s health and pension costs. Because both are skyrocketing, the agency faces a deficit of almost $1 billion despite planned fare hikes. Riders and taxpayers are going to get hammered unless expenses are brought into line. And that’s just fine with Toussaint & Co.

Transit workers contribute 2% of pay to pensions and can retire after 25 years at age 55. The MTA proposed requiring new employees — and only new employees — to stay on the job until 62 and contribute 3% to their pensions. And the agency would have softened the impact by making 1% matching contributions to workers’ retirement savings. The MTA also called for new employees to contribute 1% to health coverage, a minuscule amount in this day and age.

Toussaint rejected every reasonable proposal out of hand. There was no negotiating with him because he refused to negotiate. Now he’s about to lose a fight he never should have picked. And, tragically, transit workers are going to suffer the worst consequences.

Meanwhile, the Times op-ed page is . . . silent. Well fuck them, too, while we’re at it!

Meanwhile, the local television stations are reporting that the Tranport Workers Union parent organization told Toussaint not to strike. The Village Voice, for what it’s worth, says that this was just theater:

The TWU’s announcement of its action was delayed for nearly three hours as officials of the local union, which represents nearly 34,000 members, argued with representatives of the union’s parent body who said they wouldn’t support the strike.

At one point during the discussions, Toussaint and his allies on the local’s executive board feared the international union would order them not to strike at all, or perhaps seek to place the local under receivership if it did so. But union sources said an agreement was reached in which the international agreed to state its disagreement — a move aimed at insulating it from heavy fines — while allowing the local to pursue the job action. Toussaint declined to answer questions about the dispute after his announcement.

Update: this WCBS exclusive seems to contradict the Voice scoop, suggesting that Local 100’s parent union might take over the local and restart negotiations:

Sources within other large public employee unions tell CBS2 reporter Marcia Kramer that the TWU’s international leadership is considering taking over the local and seeking a settlement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Those sources say the upper level of the TWU thinks the MTA’s latest offer is fair and worthy of further consideration and negotiation. They stand against a militant faction within Local 100 that pressed hard for a strike.

Somebody Swiped My Sunday Times!

The Times’ Jake Mooney attempts to define the unique mix of befuddlement, disappointment and pure, unadulterated rage which residents in walkup apartments on busy streets experience when their newspaper is stolen:

If you were driving down Court Street in Cobble Hill some morning last fall, or rushing to catch the F train at the start of your midmorning commute, you might have seen me. I was the one in the blue bathrobe and slippers, darting out the front of my building onto the busy sidewalk to pick up my newspaper before trudging back up the stairs for a bleary-eyed cup of tea and a bowl of cereal.

That was if things went well — and they usually did. Usually the blue plastic bag was leaning against the building, or within arm’s reach, so I could lean out, grab it and duck back inside in one quick motion, avoiding the prospect of darting onto the sidewalk in pajama pants, to the disapproving looks of the elderly women who always picked that moment to walk by.

Some days, though, the scene was altogether different. The bathrobe and I were there, and the old women were there, but the blue bag wasn’t. There was no darting outside on these days, no quick grab and return to a warm apartment. There was me on the sidewalk, rubbing my eyes, scratching my head and wondering: Who took my paper?

Weekend mornings bring a peculiar blend of fatigue and heart-racing stress, the sort of we-are-all-Jack-Bauer-now sensation one feels when the need for immediate, deliberate action is compromised by a lack of sleep:

When people talk about crime in their neighborhood, they always seem to talk about the big things: muggings, stolen cars. But slinking back inside empty-handed and scrounging for a week-old magazine to read with breakfast can ruin your day too, and after a while it will drive you to distraction. On weekends, trying to sleep late, I’d snap awake at the first rays of sun and wonder if I could afford not to bring the paper in. These were the weekend sections, after all, more tempting to thieves, and more annoying to have to replace. Sometimes the decision to go back to sleep was worth it, and other times I was punished with an empty front step a couple of hours later.

Which brings us to Mooney’s inspired idea — staking out his own apartment using the blue plastic home delivery bag as bait. Except he never could wake early enough for the plan to work. (Eventually he simply gave up and moved into a newspaper-safe environment.):

Still, the odds are strong that somewhere in the city, maybe even on my old block, a newspaper has been stolen. Maybe its rightful owner doesn’t even know it is missing, and in an hour or two he will stand half awake, scanning the sidewalk and wondering just what kind of person would take it.

And maybe, just maybe, that person is reading right now. To him, I say this: You have a lot of explaining to do.

A lot of explaining to do? More like, you should be forced to redeliver all my missed papers — ever. You stinking little shit. I will squish you like a bug.

Now that’s how it feels.

Underground Kabuki Theater

If your subway commute seemed s l o w e r this morning, it was likely because transit employees are purposely s l o w i n g down trains, as per Transport Workers Union instructions:

With a potentially crushing transit strike looming on Friday, the Transport Workers Union has handed out a manual instructing train operators on how to disrupt subway service with a “rule book” slowdown.

TWU organizers handed out the blatant “do’s” and “don’ts” newsletter — aimed at creating havoc in the transit system — to members at a Saturday meeting in which the union rank-and-file voted unanimously to authorize a strike if a new contract is not reached with the MTA by Friday.

“A lot of guys have been hitting the emergency brake and saying they ‘slipped.’ They call it in, but then you have to walk the whole train before you can keep going,” one train operator told The Post.

In other words, they may be carrying out an arguably illegal job action that delays service for thousands of straphangers.

The TWU said it’s just informing train operators of their legal rights — wink, wink — on how to operate trains safely “as per car-school instructions.” The note was put out in the TWU’s “Rapid Transit Operation” newsletter, dated Dec. 10.

“Train Operators: Watch Your Do’s and Don’ts,” the newsletter urges.

Train operators are told to be slowpoke sticklers for the rules by taking their time when leaving the terminal and when restarting the train after hitting the emergency brake. They’re also told to obey all signals.

A TWU source defended the flier. “The MTA wrote the rules. We’re just following them,” one union insider said.

A strategy is obviously designed to build tremendous amounts of good will among the riding public . . .

Meanwhile, the Post piles on the TWU, calling attention to its leaders’ six-figure salaries:

The leaders of the Transport Workers Union are living a lot larger than the train operators and bus drivers they represent — pulling in six-figure salaries and having a fleet of union-paid SUVs at their disposal should workers go on strike Friday.

There are a total of 31 officers and employees at TWU International whose compensation exceeds $100,000, a Post analysis of union payroll records show.

Two officers at the TWU Local 100 affiliate also make more than $100,000. Eight other union employees earned more than $90,000.

But Local 100 leaders make substantially less than the officers at TWU International and other union bosses.

TWU International President Michael O’Brien was paid $225,281 — $216,637 in salary plus another $8,644 for expenses. Treasurer John Kerrigan was paid $220,714.

That’s four times more than the $53,959 in average pay for the typical train conductor, and it nearly quadruples the $62,500 made by train operators and bus drivers.

TWU Local 100 chief Roger Toussaint was paid $126,725 last year. Of that total, $101,990 was for salary and $24,735 was for “disbursements for official business.”

Ah, the irony:

Local 100’s top officers get around in vehicles leased by the union. The international union also has cars for its staffers, payroll records show.

Sure, Because All Of My Friends Live In Midtown

The Mayor is pretty sure the strike won’t happen but is apparently encouraging people to think about alternate housing arrangements “just in case.” At least he didn’t suggest getting a bike:

Bloomberg took some heat in 2002 when he paid $663 for a 27-speed bicycle the day before a threatened strike by transit workers, who never struck.

This time, Mike (The Bike) Bloomberg said his plans are more bare-bones — he’ll sleep on a cot in the city’s Emergency Management office in Brooklyn, then schlep over the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall on his own two feet.

“I just want to find the easiest ways to get to work, and if I can stay close by and walk [to City Hall], that’s so much the better,” said Hizzoner, whose E.79th St. townhouse is a good 7 miles from City Hall.

Yobbo Alert: Columbia University

Is Columbia University this yobbo? “2 Columbia students face rap in hate scrawl”:

Matthew Brown, 20, and Stephen Searles, 19, were charged with criminal mischief after students fingered them as the hands behind a hate crime in Ruggles Hall, police said.

The duo reportedly used red and blue markers to line a suite hallway with swastikas, homophobic slurs and racial epithets on Friday, students said. Four women live in the suite, including a lesbian and a student involved in an interracial relationship.

“You think intelligent people are coming here, and if they have these opinions, they would keep them private,” said suite resident Cassie Herr.

Brown “had made inappropriate remarks in the past” said 22-year-old Herr, a white Indiana native who is engaged to a black student from Trinidad. She said she debated with Brown about his “conservative views” and what she described as his allegiance to Adolf Hitler. But she never thought the exchanges would lead to vandalism.