MARKETPLACE (Minnesota Public Radio), December 22, 2005, Thursday

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MARKETPLACE

SHOW: Marketplace 6:30 AM EST SYND

December 22, 2005 Thursday

HEADLINE: Contract negotiations to resume regarding transit strike in New York City

ANCHORS: KAI RYSSDAL

REPORTERS: AMY SCOTT

BODY:
KAI RYSSDAL, anchor:
It is tough to ignore the timing on this one. New York Transit Union Chief Roger Toussaint and his aides were due in court this morning. A state judge had been threatening them with jail time over the union's walkout Tuesday. Just as that hearing was getting going, though, word came contract negotiations would resume and that drivers and ticket takers would head back to their buses and subways. It was a long three days on the picket lines for transit workers. They're out six days' pay and face thousands of dollars in personal fines, not to mention the acrimony of many a commuter. MARKETPLACE's Amy Scott has the story.
AMY SCOTT reporting:
As train operators and bus drivers return to work with no contract, many New Yorkers wondered was it worth all this. Outside union headquarters, executive board member George Pearlstein, who voted not to return to work, said the union had surrendered its leverage.
Mr. GEORGE PEARLSTEIN (Executive Board Member, New York City Transit Union): We had them at a stranglehold. I do not understand the concept of giving up the stranglehold for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to put a stranglehold on us.
SCOTT: Public support may have eroded over three days of long frigid commutes, but Harry Katz at Cornell University says labor relations professors like himself will teach this strike as an example of effective bargaining. He says because of the strike, the city backed away from its demand that new workers pay three times as much as current workers to fund the company pension.
Professor HARRY KATZ (Cornell University): The union has shown that they have a strong lever. Whether or not some of the public and some city officials are angry with them, I think they've proven their point.
SCOTT: The message reached Greg Shotwell, a member of the United Auto Workers in Michigan.
Mr. GREG SHOTWELL (Member, United Auto Workers): It's a travesty that we should subject new workers, the next generation, to a pay cut while we continue to reap the higher benefit. And when we see what the transit workers are doing, it encourages us.
SCOTT: New Yorkers reacted with cautious relief. They have one more night to walk, ferry, carpool or hitchhike home. It could take all night to bring the city's transit system back to life.
In New York, I'm Amy Scott for MARKETPLACE.
RYSSDAL: Amy was one of those cold and stranded commuters today, by the way. It took her two hours to walk into our bureau in Manhattan this morning.