Article 70. Dealing With out of Control Union Costs and Strikes
When President Reagan broke the Air Traffic Controllers strike he set a precedence which at the time seamed impossible to deal with. Now we have the New York Transit Strike which has nearly shut down the city. This strike happened because the powerful Transit Union has placed demands that the city has found impossible to meet or are so far out of line that there was no choice but to force negotiation. Currently before the strike union members could retire at half salary at the age of 55 with generous health benefits. The city has determined that it cannot continue to support these benefits and is trying to negotiate a lower benefit package. The Union wants to lower the retirement age to 50 years at half pay and full benefits. The consequences of this strike are far reaching throughout the country transit unions will make similar demands.
It appears that New York city is going to try to force the union to negotiate but the union has gone on strike. Clearly the union has the upper hand and will expect the city to give in in a few days and most New Yorkers just want the problem solved. The City does have the law on its side the strike is illegal. I would fight this strike and not give in because the union demands are only going to get worse and some day the city will have to fight why not now.
Here is my approach. First there are two major problems people can not get to their jobs and holiday shoppers can not get into the city to shop costing the city millions each day. For the shoppers I would enter an agreement with suburban school transit companies to transport shoppers into the city. Here is how it works. When the school buses drop off their students at the school instead of taking the buses back to the bus barn they pickup shoppers and take them to New York City. The bus driver’s can have lunch take a walk around Central Park where they can park their buses. On their way back they pickup the shoppers drop them off at the school and pickup the students. This requires some planning and coordinating ahead of time. This my be a great way to get people to go down town and shop even when there isn’t a strike.
Now for the details. Since negotiation has already been tried I would rule it out and fire all union leaders employed by the city because they have instituted an illegal strike. Then I would announce the closure of all public transportation routes that are unprofitable listing each one. The reason for this is to send the message that not all the transit employees will have a job when the strike ends. Next announce the opening of the main trunk line with supervising employees and union members who come to work. Further announce that those union members who come to work on the next day will receive the pay and benefits package proposed by the city (but rejected by the union). On the second day after assessing how many employees actually came to work make the following announcement. Employees who do not come back to work on the third day are fired from their jobs forfeiting all benefits and the right to future employment with the City of New York. On the fourth day the city will begin mass hiring of new employees to replace current striking workers. This is only one way to approach the situation other individual cases will determine how best to get the job done.
