Results tagged “thetwu”

Interesting fact about the fines imposed on the Transport Workers Union over last December's strike. The TWU can resume collecting membership dues (about $1.5 million per month) if TWU president says the union will never strike again. The thing is that TWU president Roger Toussaint has been pretty adamant about the right to strike, and it'd be unlikely he'd go for it... even though it seems like the union might want some sort of leadership shake-up. And in the "Toussaint's going to jail!" coverage that is so excitable in the tabs, the Daily News looks at what Toussaint can expect in jail. He'll be at "The Tombs" on White Street (aka the Bernard Kerik Complex!) downtown, in a 6" by 8" cell, and breakfast include "cereal, bread and fruit."

Brooklyn Supreme Court's Justice Theodore Jones nailed the transit union with a huge $2.5 million fine yesterday, plus ordered the union to stop collecting dues, and the Transport Workers Union vowed to appeal the decision. The loss for the TWU could be over $7 million all told, since the TWU takes in $1.6 million in dues each month and the union cannot appeal the dues payment stoppage for three months. The TWU will now have to collect fines on the individual basis, and who knows how successul that will be. Naturally, the MTA appreciated the ruling, saying, "In light of the decision by the TWU leadership last December to willfully violate the Taylor Law and disrupt the lives of millions of New Yorkers, we respect the ruling of the court." The Reverend Jesse Jackson, along with the Reverend Al Sharpton, was present for the fines hearing, and complained that the ruling means unions cannot fight back. You can read TWU president Roger Toussaint's court statement, proclaiming that transit workers were engaging in civil disobedience. With the appeal, Gothamist wonders if the fine will be reduced further, as Justice Jones already knocked off half a million - it seems that since the Taylor Law is in place, the TWU has to be punished in some way, like it or not.

The hearings to determine the Transport Workers' Union fine from the three day transit strike is just full of (weird) new tidbits. The TWU has been arguing that paying a $3 million fine, plus not receiving its union members' dues automatically each paycheck, would ruin them. The MTA says that the TWU's 80 West End Avenue headquarters are worth $39 million - and TWU treasurer Ed Watt said that there was an offer on it for $60 million! The MTA's lawyer also suggested that union members pay their dues by PayPal, but TWU President and soon-to-be jailbird (lest he appeals) Roger Toussaint says that it's unlikely all of the union's members would voluntarily pay dues. Yeah, no one really likes dues. The judge is expect to rule on Monday.

Damn - Transport Workers Union president Roger Toussaint has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for last December's transit strike. He was also fined $1,000. The TWU's Ed Watt and Darlyne Lawson were each fined $500 only. Other fines are still being determined (like whether or not the union itself will be reprimanded). We're sure some anti-TWU folks - and some of the TWU opposition faction - are happy with the ruling (remember all those "Jail Toussaint" opinion pieces?).

It's been three months since the transit strike and still the MTA and Transit Workers Union Local 100 don't have a new contract. So nobody should be too surprised that the New York State Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) decided today that the two have to go into binding arbitration where "a three-member panel will essentially dictate the terms of a new contract."

- The other bouncer at The Falls will talk.

The MTA is seeking binding arbitration for its contract with the Transport Workers Union, making the mess between the TWU's union members and the TWU executive management a Bermuda triangle of rhetoric but not too much action. Okay, we exaggerate, but we should have known it was too good to be true that the MTA and TWU agreed on a contract last month. The TWU's members, who rejected the contract that the executive management agreed to, says it won't strike again. Gothamist thinks the failure of the contract means the end of Roger Toussaint as the TWU President - he spent tons of money to get the contract passed and that failed miserably. The TWU doesn't want binding arbitration, so we'll see how fast their internal talks go.

MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow is offering a not-really-but-sorta mea culpa about wanting the transit union to put their pensions on the line during contract negotiations. As you may remember, pensions were the reason why transit workers went ahead with a 60 hour transit strike (new workers would have to contribute more to their pension funds), and it was when Kalikow took the pension out of the contract that the MTA and Transport Workers Union started talking. In various, Kalikow says he misjudged how passionate transit workers would be about their pensions, but doesn't completely apologize for the third ring of hell he helped create, noting that even big companies like GM are being undone by employee pensions. Plus, he says he's still not sure if he's going to recommend that the MTA's executive board ratify the contract. The TWU's members need to approve the contract as well - or else it's back to strapping on the mukluks and trudging to work!

The strike mediator Richard Curreri is on television right now, saying that the parties have come back to the table and the union is commiting to do what it needs to do to end the strike. The TWU is taking it to the executive board; looks like they are thinking about going back to work.

Will New Yorkers be celebrating the holidays at home, stuck and stranded from their loved ones across the city? Will we be ringing in the New Year's by watching the ball drop on Times Square filled with tourists? Wait, we already watch on TV. Anyway, how long can both sides go? the MTA has already declared an impasse in negotiations, which could eventually lead to binding arbitration. The TWU opposes arbitration as its members can't vote on it.

Oh, yes, it's on. After 3AM this morning, the Transport Workers Union announced they would strike a couple hours after rejecting the MTA's latest offer. Thousands of subway and bus workers walked off the job, leaving millions of New Yorkers to find new ways to go to work (sneakers, meet 60 blocks of walking). Now, New York City is in a state of emergency, in its special "contingency plan," with restrictions on vehicles (only cars with at least four people inside) for most of the morning, people trying to hail cabs, and Fifth and Madison Avenues closed to traffic. Transit workers, though, did finish their routes and close up stations carefully, at the union instructed; one station's sign read, "Strike in Effect. Station Closed. Happy Holidays!!!!" The city is trying to convene an emergency court session to stop the strike, but who know, this could go on for days.

After round-the-clock negotiations, the MTA and Transit Workers Union contract negotiations haven't progressed much - in fact, the TWU rejected the MTA's latest offer. But there is subway and (mostly) bus service! Why? The TWU announced they would start "series of strikes," beginning with the private bus lines run by the MTA. Which means Queens residents who rely on select private buses are out of luck, but everyone else will be able to take the subway or regular bus. The TWU agreed to withhold all of its workers from striking across the whole MTA network until midnight on Monday night, so the TWU and MTA will continue to negotiate through the weekend. Yay, a couple more days of this (we updated our countdown clock in the left column)!

While the Transit Workers Union and MTA still hash out contract negotiation, the City Comptroller revealed the city could lose $1.6 billion in the first week of a strike, due to lost revenue from holiday shopping and events - not to mention the regular work. The MTA offered a 27 month contract: A 3% raise for the first 15 months, then 2% for the next 12. But the TWU is still holding out for 8% for each of three years, so the MTA is looking to see if the courts can uphold the Taylor Law, which would requires transit workers to keep working.

- It's been twenty five years since John Lennon was shot in front of the Dakota.

Negotiations between the MTA and the transit workers union continue to trudge on as today marks the two week mark before the current contract expires on December 15. The main issue seems to be what the role of conductors and token booth clerks will be as trains modernize and the token booths close. There's some interesting dissesion within the Transit Workers Union itself, with one faction rallying for 10% wage increases every year for three years, which TWU president Roger Touissant says is too much (that's the wage the TWU tried to get in 2002 but failed); Touissant says that 10% faction head Martin Goodman actually scheduled vacation for himself after December 15, which means that if the transit workers strike, Goodman wouldn't have to face fines from the Taylor Law.