Many of you probably recall the transit workers strike in December 2005 in NYC when the members of TWU Local 100 walked out for two days right before the holidays. Details on the strike can be read on Working Life here and here. One of the major ways this strike continues to impact the union and its members is that after the strike, the union was prohibited from automatic dues check-off unless it agreed that it would not strike again.

The state imposed this penalty on the union for violating New York’s Taylor Law. A little refresher: NY has a hideous law called the Taylor Law that prevents public employees from striking and imposes large penalties on workers and the union if they do strike.

Today’s NY Times has a piece stating that the transit authority supports allowing TWU to begin automatic dues check off again:

However, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has now made a major concession by urging the judge to permit the union to resume the withdrawals, even though the authority said it did not think the union had made a firm promise not to strike.

In court papers made public yesterday, the authority said it was hoping to achieve labor harmony.

Its switch has so infuriated city officials that the Bloomberg administration stepped in later yesterday, asking the judge to keep the punishment in place until union leaders “once and for all time declare unequivocally that they may not, and will not, ever again engage in a strike.”

Not a big surprise that Billionaire Bloomberg is unhappy about this – the Taylor Law is designed for guys like him.  We have the head of the MTA, Elliot Sander, saying:

“This position recognizes that the strike in 2005 was a major dislocation to the city and that the union broke the law,” Mr. Sander said. “On the other hand, it is important to the M.T.A. and to the public that we have a functional union, and the T.W.U. and the M.T.A. have taken some very good steps to rebuild our relationship.”

He said it was a “fair compromise” to ask the court to suspend the penalty under the condition that it could be reinstated swiftly if the union threatened to strike.

The reinstatement of dues check-off would be a very good thing for the union – they have had to cut staff and programs because of this financial loss, which isn’t good for its membership. However, the major issue still at play here is the Taylor Law…which needs to be reformed.

Posted by Natasha Winger – Jonathan is en route to Ithaca for the day.