Despite the premature crowing of some people who wouldn’t understand labor relations if they were forcefed a Samuel Gompers biography, Local 100 of the Transport Workers of America won the strike. Do you understand? Won. The. Strike.
Raises bigger than a COLA? Check. Status quo on discipline? Check. Pension contributions by the workers? Off the table. Any past contributions by workers? Refunded.
When Mr. Toussaint appeared before television cameras at 11 p.m. on Tuesday to announce the settlement, he commented little except to read an impressive list of new worker-friendly provisions: raises averaging 3.5 percent a year, the creation of paid maternity leave, a far better health plan for retirees, a much-improved disability plan, the adoption of Martin Luther King’s Birthday as a paid holiday, and increased “assault pay” for bus drivers and train operators who are attacked by passengers.
Then Mr. Toussaint announced a big surprise: Some 22,000 workers will each receive thousands of dollars in reimbursements for what are considered excess pension contributions; for several years, these workers paid more toward their pensions than other workers. For those workers, that money will easily offset the fines of slightly more than $1,000 that most of them face for taking part in the illegal strike. The union itself could still face a $3 million fine that a judge ordered because of the 60-hour strike.
Union power, motherfuckers. Tell me again who the genius is. I’m betting your answer isn’t “Peter Kalikow.”