Come anticipate the NYC holiday transit strike with me!

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FAPpage at Penn Station? It'll be the LIRR from/to Atlantic Ave for me, I suppose. Betting on a settlement?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/13/ap/national/mainD8EFG6R8C.shtml

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

goddamn right when it got cold, too. but i have a bike, it's a straight shoot up b'way (in bklyn) cross the bridge to work.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:01 (twenty years ago)

there's some other thread on the last threatened strike, in '02, but i dunno where it is.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:02 (twenty years ago)

No way.

― that's what nabisco is telling himself (nabisco), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:09 (twenty years ago)

no way what? no settlement? or no strike?

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:10 (twenty years ago)

Ha, I meant "no strike," which is the comforting thing I have chosen to believe despite having no particular knowledge of the situation or its likely turnout.

Anyway, I thought the norm for something like this would be less a full-on threatened "strike," and more of a dramatic one-day walk-out and then back to the table with point made?

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

Hah. I just told my boss "if there's a strike, you won't see me -- I'm not swimmin'." She lives in Queens, of course, so no one will be seeing HER, either. (All assuming it's not for more than one day.)

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

We're expected to get to work "using all reasonable means necessary." There is no way in hell I'm walking.

― Je4nn3 ƒur¥ (Je4nne Fury), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

I will go thug and steal a bicycle.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:42 (twenty years ago)

This sucks! Looks like I'm driving in I guess.

― sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

I'm leaving town for about a week. I trust y'all will work this out while I'm gone.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

I'm on it, dude.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

So, the city is offering a 3% raise next year and 2% the year after that. The union wants 8% per year. And, on NY1, they were showing footage of people walking over the Brooklyn Bridge during the 1980 transit strike. Not looking too good is it? Oh, and if you drive, you have to have 4 people per car.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

but only during certain morning hours, no?

― sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

Which is a pain for people trying to get to work of course, but I'm planning on coming down Friday evening, so I get to dodge that restriction.

― sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:55 (twenty years ago)

(Waiting for Jon to go on a Cocktari Spleenage Riot on the MTA home page)

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 19:59 (twenty years ago)

When will we know if ITS ON!?@!@?

― GET EQUIPPED WITH BUBBLE LEAD (ex machina), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 20:05 (twenty years ago)

friday.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 20:20 (twenty years ago)

I figger since my (last) (craptacular) office actually made carpooling plans in '02, everyone will laugh this one off til Friday morning.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 20:21 (twenty years ago)

it won't happen. but these things are always very 11th-hour.

― Penis, NV (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 20:24 (twenty years ago)

seriously. this shit comes up every couple of years, and nothing ever happens.

― Penis, NV (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

You've got ILX rickshaw duty if it does happen.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

ARREST THE LOT OF THEM.
retirement at 50???
fuck you dude

― detoxyDancer (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 20:55 (twenty years ago)

London Underground drivers (£30k starting salary, final salary pension, 52 days leave a year) have just lifted their threat of a strike in the three days before Xmas, but they're going to wait until 22 December before announcing if they'll take New Year's Eve off.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 21:01 (twenty years ago)

Judge grants injunction barring strike. *shrug*

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/nyc-stri1213,0,4623313.story

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 21:07 (twenty years ago)

Get bikes!

― giboyeux (skowly), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 21:19 (twenty years ago)

My bike is ready to go. ANY BUSHWICKEES FANCY A RIDE ACROSS THE WBURG BRIDGE?

― GET EQUIPPED WITH BUBBLE LEAD (ex machina), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 21:27 (twenty years ago)

I have a bike. I'm still not slogging through the traffic & slush to get to Midtown. I'm not even sure my road tires wouldn't wipe out on the ice before I got as far as Vanderbilt, now that I think of it.

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 21:32 (twenty years ago)

You people with your bicycles, are you immune to freezing temperatures or do you just really really really love your jobs?

― Je4nn3 ƒur¥ (Je4nne Fury), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 21:45 (twenty years ago)

You people with your bicycles, are you immune to freezing temperatures or do you just really really really love your jobs?

Neither! It's just that biking is FUNZONE. Esp. in the city.

― giboyeux (skowly), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 21:56 (twenty years ago)

You live in Chicago right?

― GET EQUIPPED WITH DEATH (ex machina), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 22:19 (twenty years ago)

I happened to be at the Javits Center last weekend and saw the TWU meeting there. They looked like a determined bunch.

The fact that '02 didn't result in a strike doesn't mean that '05 won't. It's entirely possible that the TWU accepted a compromise deal then as a stop-gap. Now, they won't do it again.

(just a theory)

― Super Cub (Debito), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 22:53 (twenty years ago)

Yes.

― giboyeux (skowly), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 23:13 (twenty years ago)

But I just blew a flat. DUDZONE.

― giboyeux (skowly), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 23:14 (twenty years ago)

PATH won't be on strike :-( no excuse to not come into work, then.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 23:32 (twenty years ago)

A state Supreme Court judge issued a preliminary injunction today, barring New York City's transportation worker's union from striking for the first time in 25 years if they fail to reach a new contract by Thursday night's deadline.
Skip to next paragraph
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Peter Foley/Reuters

A subway conductor checks the train doors before pulling out of the Columbus Circle Station in New York City today.
Readers
Forum: The M.T.A. Talks

The city is bracing for a walkout in the nation's largest mass transit system, which carries about seven million passengers on an average weekday. The city's contingency plans for the strike include starting public schools two hours late, closing portions of Fifth and Madison Avenues to all but emergency vehicles, and requiring cars in much of Manhattan to carry at least four passengers.

Negotiations are scheduled to resume this evening.The injunction, sought by the New York State attorney general's office, is allowed under the state's Taylor Law, which prohibits strikes by public employees. If transit employees do walk out, the Transport Workers Union, Local 100, faces millions of dollars in fines - and individual employees could be fined two days' pay for each day of work they miss. Striking workers could also be jailed.

― GET EQUIPPED WITH BUBBLE LEAD (ex machina), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 23:46 (twenty years ago)

B-b-but I want to ride in a big crowd of bikes while listening to Men without Hats' "Living in China!"

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 23:57 (twenty years ago)

Then go to China.

― Super Cub (Debito), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 00:15 (twenty years ago)

They showed footage of Toussant (the labor negotiator) tearing up the court order at the steps of the hotel where they're negotiating. It sure is hard to tell the difference between posturing and reality with these strikes though, innit?

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 00:18 (twenty years ago)

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=traffic&id=3717077

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 14:51 (twenty years ago)

Posturing is the New Reality. Since, like, 1980.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 14:55 (twenty years ago)

morbius is baudrillard and i claim my $5.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 15:37 (twenty years ago)

A la Jeff Daniels in Squid, I consider Baudrillard "one of my predecessors."

Bike riders may wish to know Friday a.m. is sposed to be a sleety muck.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 15 December 2005 14:17 (twenty years ago)

I would have to take the LIRR from atlantic to the path train, but I'm a freelancer, so I can just stay home and not get paid instead.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 15 December 2005 15:32 (twenty years ago)

I wonder if this is actually going to happen...

― Super Cub (Debito), Thursday, 15 December 2005 16:14 (twenty years ago)

http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/strike/index.html

"Customers are reminded that it will take 24 hours from the outset of any strike action for commuter railroad contingency services as outlined on this site to be in place..."

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 15 December 2005 16:19 (twenty years ago)

Friday will be a mess. I'm staying home.

― Super Cub (Debito), Thursday, 15 December 2005 16:42 (twenty years ago)

Hah, I had no idea the only way from Flatbush to Penn Sta was via Jamaica. I'm bringing my shit home tonight JIC.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 15 December 2005 16:49 (twenty years ago)

any news?

― Penis, NV (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 15 December 2005 22:09 (twenty years ago)

no, penis.

― Super Cub (Debito), Thursday, 15 December 2005 22:18 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 543 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

THEY WENT CHRISTIAN AT THE LAST MINUTE AND PAID TEH PRICE

― detoxyDancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 22 December 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

I was talking about the belittling notion that the young and recently educated have that they should be paid at least as much, maybe more, because driving buses on busy streets is supposedly mindless and easy.

I basically spend a lot of time belittling the notion that everyone in this country, old or young, educated or not, seems to have that they should be paid whatever they want for doing whatever they want. I sometimes wonder what our Euro or Aussie friends think reading some of the American job-related threads. Just salary cap some corporations already and boom argument done and hey surplus money.

nabisco if you want I will steal your bike from you, free of charge. You know, to take it off yr hands.

― Allyzay must fight Zolton herself. (allyzay), Thursday, 22 December 2005 20:55 (twenty years ago)

xxx post - yeah, i'm wondering the same thing. w/ o knowing too much right now it sort of looks that way, doesn't it. and the perlstein quote isn't encouraging either.

― TRG (TRG), Thursday, 22 December 2005 20:56 (twenty years ago)

It would seem very weak if they just got nothing out of this after making such a fuss. How could the heads of the union even feasibly keep their jobs in that case? Lost week of wages + humiliation + poss fines + not getting anything at all???

― Allyzay must fight Zolton herself. (allyzay), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:00 (twenty years ago)

euro friends are usually too busy shaking their heads in disbelief about u.s. lack of paid vacation time, comprehensive benefits, maternity/paternity leave, etc to notice much about salaries, i'd wager.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:02 (twenty years ago)

I don't follow, Allyzay. I mean most people aren't compensated - we're increasingly a country of the working poor. What people think about anything re pay is besides the point since the majority don't have a say in the matter. Maybe your point was something different.

― TRG (TRG), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:03 (twenty years ago)

I'm not ready to call this a loss for the TWU! Nobody even knows yet.

― TRG (TRG), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

lauren, that was my point re: salary cap/surplus money. Less pay for better conditions and social services, as opposed to increasingly unreasonable keeping up with the Joneses demands for higher wages (across the board, not specifically to do with MTA/TWU).

xpost people are just responding to the quote, about how they "got nothing."

― Allyzay must fight Zolton herself. (allyzay), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:08 (twenty years ago)

I would consider it more of a victory if the TWU got better benefits and improvements in working conditions than if they got that stupid 8% no-matter-what raise they requested. I don't understand why even go that route, because it just turns people against you anyway. I can't even tell you how many people I know, including myself, pointed straight to that as completely fucking retarded. Hell, we ran into a transit worker here in DC and the first thing he pointed out is that the MTA makes more than they do here! Meanwhile who wouldn't support people getting paid benefits and better conditions and better terms of employment like maternity leaves and retirement packages?*

*51% of the united states, yes, I know.

― Allyzay must fight Zolton herself. (allyzay), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:13 (twenty years ago)

xpost - I'd agree w/ you 100% Allyzay if people were already making a decent wage across the board - but I'm not about to agree with you as long as Wal Mart is the nation's largest employer and the minimum wage is so criminally low. Cap CEO salaries sure, but you seemd to be arguing beyond that. In any case, this is all hypothetical since there's no chance of better conditions and social services any time soon. Just the opposite in fact.

― TRG (TRG), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:16 (twenty years ago)

*51% of those who voted, that is. Which leaves a potentially reasonable 75%.

― TRG (TRG), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:18 (twenty years ago)

Re the wages, uh, that wasn't the sticking point. they came down to 6& annually in bargaining which seems pretty damn fair to me considering c.o.l.a. in nyc.

― TRG (TRG), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:20 (twenty years ago)

er, c.o.l. not c.o.l.a., duh

― TRG (TRG), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:25 (twenty years ago)

Yeah but when you think about it, if the workers are fined the $25k EACH that Bloomie wants to fine them, the workers can take the 6% and shove it up their asses.

― Je4nne ƒur¥ (Je4nne Fury), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:29 (twenty years ago)

The fines won't be taken seriously

― TRG (TRG), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:31 (twenty years ago)

Bloomberg seriously wants to fine the rank and file for this? Shoot him.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:31 (twenty years ago)

Nah, just fire him, overhaul the system, streamline and make more efficient.

― TRG (TRG), Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:38 (twenty years ago)

ZINGERED.

― TOMBOT, Thursday, 22 December 2005 21:42 (twenty years ago)

Bus driver man was so happy this morning. I don't think I've ever seen a bus driver smile at every passenger before!

― Je4nn3 ƒur¥ (Je4nne Fury), Friday, 23 December 2005 14:58 (twenty years ago)

wasn't quite the same cheer on the j train but it sure made my day easier that it was running.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 23 December 2005 15:42 (twenty years ago)

Honestly I don't understand this whole "they make more than me!" attitude. I earn less than most of these workers, have no company health benefits, no pension, and no paid time off and I say good for them for standing up for themselves. I find it heartening. Ultimately I think the union was successful in a larger sense because this was largely a show of force -- it was saying "Don't forget that you rely on us, and we can shut you down if you don't respect us." Why do you think Wal-Mart is so fervently against unionization?

TOMBOT - I know I'm responding with like two days delay, but I don't see what "the globalized economy" has do to with this -- these are jobs that can't be outsourced. It's the same factor that makes the S.E.I.U. a viable union in a time when most are sinking.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Friday, 23 December 2005 15:53 (twenty years ago)

I sometimes wonder what our Euro or Aussie friends think reading some of the American job-related threads

Most of our Euro and Aussie friends have much more of a social safety net than we do.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Friday, 23 December 2005 15:54 (twenty years ago)

And honestly, WTF are you talking about? Americans have an idea that they should be paid whatever they want for any job? Our minimum wage is so low that studies show you couldn't afford an apartment on it in any county in the U.S.!

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Friday, 23 December 2005 16:01 (twenty years ago)

who are you talking to?

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 23 December 2005 16:04 (twenty years ago)

Sorry, last one was xpost to Ally. The italicized part was from her post but I forgot to actually direct it.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Friday, 23 December 2005 16:05 (twenty years ago)

ah, cool.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 23 December 2005 16:07 (twenty years ago)

According to the newspaper coverage, it appears that the way every person in the NYC metro area gets to work during a strike is by walking over the Brooklyn bridge. And we get the NYT. I guess it makes sense: Bloomberg lives on the Upper East Side, yet the way he gets to work when the subways are shut down is by walking over the Brooklyn Bridge.

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 23 December 2005 23:31 (twenty years ago)

HA! Yeah, I noticed the same thing. In one report I noticed they mentioned the Manhattan Bridge, but in one only. Not a mention of a single other bridge!

― TRG (TRG), Saturday, 24 December 2005 03:39 (twenty years ago)

per my sister, the transit strike provoked two essential New York activities - innovation and kvetching

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 26 December 2005 03:59 (twenty years ago)

So I just want to officially report here, since it will probably never happen again, that last Tuesday night I walked all the way home from the East Village to Sunnyside, Queens (through the Lower East Side, over the Williamsburg Bridge, through Williamsburg and Greenpoint, over Newtown Creek, into Queens.) Took 2 1/2 hours -- 4:30 pm to 7 pm. From thereon, though, I mostly carpooled in and out of the city. Had the strike lasted longer, I would have tried the water taxi from 34th Street into Long Island City, which I didn't even know existed until Thursday. (I had originally planned to take the LIRR in from Woodside, but Tuesday morning there was a two-hour line for it around the block, so I caught a taxi in which cost me $30 despite holding four paying customers, and from there I regrouped and did my best to come up with another plan.) Walking was kind of fun, actually -- like how Germans take Sunday volksmarch strolls through new neighborhoods for a hobby (and not cold at all - that's the one thing I didn't get. Walking in 32 degrees weather with no wind or precipitation or ice or snow on the ground is a hell of a lot easier than walking into Manhattan in 90 degree weather from Park Slope over the Brooklyn Bridge during the blackout two years ago. Lots of the kvetching during the strike made sense, but the kvetching about how cold it was was ridiculous -- I mean, it's not like the strike hit in the middle of the day; put on a scarf and long johns and an extra pair of wool socks before you leave the house, for Crissakes. You don't have to be Einstein to figure that out. When I walked, by the time I got home I was sweating, not freezing. (And oh yeah, Mary is right about the media's Brooklyn Bridge obsession; that was absurd. I mean, how many bridges are there into the city? It was pathetic how the news [including the front page of the Times, as I recall] kept acting like there was only one all frigging week.)

― xhuxk, Monday, 26 December 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

(On the other hand, had I ridden a bike, I admit, I might have been a lot colder. So I was sort of jealous of bike riders, and sort of not. They got there faster, I got there warmer -- I was also walking 45 minutes into Greenpoint most days to catch my car pool, by the way.)

― xhuxk, Monday, 26 December 2005 13:54 (twenty years ago)

(And oh yeah, Mary is right about the media's Brooklyn Bridge obsession; that was absurd. I mean, how many bridges are there into the city?

i don't think it's anything so absurd... the temporary headquarters of the office of emergency management were in downtown brooklyn, right near the bridge. obviously there were a lot of reporters on the scene there.

― inger lynde (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 26 December 2005 15:53 (twenty years ago)

breaking news: the twu likes the mta's newest contract proposal.

― born-again christians in the old corral (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 04:06 (twenty years ago)

there are what, like 18 bridges (or bridges and tunnels) into the city? But it's the Brooklyn Bridge...it's iconic. When it was built, it was the tallest structure in america, or the city, or something.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 05:23 (twenty years ago)

aaaaand... the camera crews were already there because they were parked at the OEM emergency site, which was basically at the foot of the bridge.

it's not a conspiracy, people.

― born-again christians in the old corral (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 12:59 (twenty years ago)

omg, every asshat at my parents' 100+ person xmas eve cocktail party thought I was going to be using the Brooklyn Bridge.

had I ridden a bike, I admit, I might have been a lot colder.

Dude, I was so hot after summiting on the Williamsburg bridge that I was stripped down to just 2 shirts and a thermal, with open jacket and hoodie. Fingerless gloves are urgent and key for biking in the cold.

― GET EQUIPPED WITH BUBBLE LEAD (ex machina), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

I was touched that when I walked over the Williamsburg Bridge(Manhattan on wed, Williamsburg on thurs, stayed in manhattan for fri) at the foot of the bridge there was a table giving away free hot chocolate. A real tender New York moment, that was.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

"that's where the camera crews are" is also why every NY1 man-on-the-street Q&A piece takes place squarely in front of chelsea market, but i'm confused about how that's desirable at a minimum, or good journalism at a maximum.

lupica had a great christmas day piece about kalikow, pataki and bloomberg -- about how these are the same three guys that were breathless to sell the last great undeveloped real estate in manhattan to the jets for hundreds of millions of dollars below its appraised price -- to rich guys -- and are now the ones talking "tough" about union pensions.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 29 December 2005 15:52 (twenty years ago)

i was over there when this was happening, yowzers! i took photos of the people crossing the brooklyn bridge and the nbc newsreader woman at the foot.

i just didn't understand the taxi ruling about crossing zones, so i walked everywhere for the couple of days it was on. and all the bar workers weren't happy.

Fucking great city though !

― Ste (Fuzzy), Thursday, 29 December 2005 16:06 (twenty years ago)

oh, leave ny1 alone. they mean well.

― jody, Thursday, 29 December 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

i luv NY1, i'm just being cranky.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 29 December 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

yeah, i kinda have a crush on pat kiernan. i love it when he reads the newspaper to us.

― jody, Thursday, 29 December 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

when he holds up the paper and points to the headlines -- classic!

straight outta SCTV...

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Thursday, 29 December 2005 17:27 (twenty years ago)

so now the mta wants to take away the twu's ability to receive dues from the rank and file? that's a goodwill gesture, f'sure.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 15:10 (twenty years ago)

i hadn't read that - where did you read/hear?

― TRG (TRG), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 15:13 (twenty years ago)

Pataki has been his usual ass: "I made it plain from the beginning - you don't reward illegal strikes. You don't benefit as a result of illegal acts."

― TRG (TRG), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 15:15 (twenty years ago)

heard it on wnyc just now.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 15:19 (twenty years ago)

Pension Demand Was an Error, Chairman of M.T.A. Concedes
By SEWELL CHAN and STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: January 5, 2006
The chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said yesterday that he had erred in making pension changes a central demand in contract negotiations with the city's transit workers, a miscalculation that helped lead to a 60-hour subway and bus strike the week before Christmas.
The chairman, Peter S. Kalikow, did not take responsibility for provoking the strike, the city's first since 1980, but he acknowledged misjudging the union's hostility to his demands that future workers accept a higher retirement age or contribute more to their pensions than current workers do.
"I put out a proposal that I thought would be most palatable to the union, and it turns out I was wrong," he said in an interview. Before the strike, Roger Toussaint, the president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, had repeatedly said he would not accept a pension plan that did not treat future workers the same as current ones.
Mr. Kalikow, who was appointed by Gov. George E. Pataki in 2001, defended the settlement reached last week as fair. He said the union's main concession - having workers for the first time pay part of their health-insurance premiums - was more valuable than the pension demands that were ultimately abandoned.
"It didn't matter to me where I got the savings," he said.
After the settlement was announced on Dec. 27, a furor erupted over a contract provision that would give about 20,000 workers refunds of a portion of pension contributions they made between 1994 and 2001. The authority estimates that the typical worker will receive $8,400 and that the total cost will be $130 million.
The refunds require approval from Albany. In 2000 and 2001, Mr. Pataki vetoed bills that would have provided the refunds, saying that such refunds should first be agreed to in collective bargaining. Fearing that he might again veto the refunds, the union demanded a side agreement that would require the authority to pay union members $131.7 million even if officials in Albany blocked the refunds. The authority agreed.
On Sunday, Mr. Pataki said that he was "extremely unhappy" about the side agreement and had not been told about it. He argued that the refunds seemed to reward, rather than punish, the workers for engaging in an illegal strike.
Yesterday, Mr. Kalikow would not discuss what the authority had told Mr. Pataki and his staff members during negotiations, but he suggested that the provision and the side agreement could easily be misinterpreted.
"I think the deal itself is an excellent deal," he said, adding when pressed about the side agreement, "I don't like the way it was written."
The settlement needs to be ratified by a mail-in vote of 33,700 transit workers, but union officials said they might delay the vote until after the authority's board votes on the contract on Jan. 25.
"I don't think we're going to put it to the board until the union has ratified it," Mr. Kalikow said yesterday. He added that he was not sure whether to advise the board to approve the contract.
If either the board or the union's members reject the contract, negotiations could resume and another strike could be called.
Mr. Kalikow, 63, is a real estate investor and a former owner of The New York Post. He is expected to resign his unpaid position as chairman of the authority by the end of this year.
In the interview, Mr. Kalikow said he was "not happy about" the 37-month duration of the proposed contract, which would expire in January 2009, because the authority has projected sizable deficits starting next year.
"I really don't know what wages we can afford to pay in 2008," he said. "I'm not going to be there, but nevertheless I have a responsibility to leave my successors and the agency in good shape."
Mr. Kalikow said the settlement "makes a very good beginning" at addressing the rising costs of benefits. "Health care and pensions, to me, are two sides of the same coin," he said. "They're both of them running out of control, and I think we need to start making an effort to limit their growth."
He noted that pension problems affected public and private employers alike. "If General Motors can be almost toppled by this, then I think no one is immune," he said.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, who intervened as an informal mediator during the strike, said labor leaders had tried to convince Mr. Kalikow that Mr. Toussaint was adamant about not treating future workers differently.
"I'm very pleased that Kalikow sees that now," she said yesterday. "It would have been better for everyone if that had been seen beforehand."
On the eve of the strike, Mr. Kalikow personally substituted the demand for a higher retirement age with the demand for a higher contribution on pensions. The proposal failed.

Asked if he regretted his actions, Mr. Kalikow said: "God put eyes in front so we could look forward. He doesn't want us looking backward."

― miss michael learned (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 5 January 2006 19:48 (twenty years ago)

Convenient about the eyes thing, eh? Apparently God wants flounders to look up at all times.

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 5 January 2006 19:57 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

The workers have rejected Touissant's contract. I wonder about the chances of another strike.

― TRG (TRG), Friday, 20 January 2006 20:26 (twenty years ago)

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