« George Lucas' Shame | Main | Damon to the Yankees??? »
December 21, 2005
Unions: Winning Friends, Influencing People
It's a really good thing for these guys that Ronald Reagan is not mayor of New York City.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A judge ruled a strike by New York transit workers illegal on Tuesday afternoon, while millions of commuters battled their way home in frigid temperatures.A million dollars a day. That's going to leave a mark. When are public sector unions going to learn - it's against the law to strike. Those with public sector jobs should realize there's a reason they are called "public" sector jobs. With the taking of public money comes a responsibility to serve the public. That doesn't mean they should be taken advantage of, but it also means those employees who do strike should have some concern for the important nature of the jobs they do. The public puts more trust in those who serve in these jobs, and that trust should not be used as a negotiating tool to blackmail a city.New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg lashed out at union leaders for "thuggishly" turning their backs on the city, vowing there would be no further contract negotiations until the strike ends.
"You can't break the law and use that as a negotiating tactic," he said at an afternoon news conference. "This is unconscionable," he added.
Judge Theodore Jones ruled Tuesday afternoon that the Transport Workers Union was in contempt of two court injunctions ordering it not to strike, and he ordered that the union be fined $1 million a day beginning Tuesday.
If I were Mayor Bloomberg, I'd give these guys one day to get back to work, then I'd start firing them. The law is simple - public employees cannot strike. These guys have broken the law, and there should be consequences. No matter what grievances the striking employees have against the city, each of them made a promise when they took their jobs - and now many of them are breaking that promise.
In the end, I think this strike will prove more counterproductive than anything else. The union isn't finding a lot of support among New Yorkers who had to walk or take cabs to work today, and a continuation of the strike would only make things worse for their negotiating position, not to mention the union's funds. Once again, it seems a union is breaking its own back with a bad decision.
Since I'm on the union kick - from Protein Wisdom - Unions make children cry.
Posted by slublog at December 21, 2005 12:00 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.slublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2037
Comments
If public workers cannot strike, what leverage do they have? What is the point of a union, if it has no teeth?
Posted by: MainiacJoe at December 21, 2005 08:22 AM
The power of collective bargaining.
I think strikes do more harm than good in the long run. The transit employees have lost a lot of goodwill, and have broken the law. Again, it comes down to public trust - most public employees receive good salaries and benefits and for that consideration, we forbid them from striking, since they do a necessary public service.
Teachers, another group forbidden from striking, do well at this sort of thing. They don't strike, but they demonstrate at every opportunity and put pressure on the school board/local government. The 'we're public servants not being treated fairly' argument still has great weight, but only works when they show they put the public's well-being above their own. The transit workers have lost the high ground in that argument and because the government can now rightly say they've broken the law, their negotiating position is much, much weaker than it was if they had not gone on strike.
Posted by: Slublog at December 21, 2005 08:37 AM
I agree with your thoughts here and I really love your blog! I've bookmarked it so that I can come back & read more in the future.
Posted by: Link Building at December 6, 2010 07:38 AM