One would think that labor negotiators would realize that President Bush has more important matters to deal with than a potential municipal workers strike. Well, in New York, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Labor Relations official wants to ask President Bush to resolve a contract dispute between the MTA and workers of the commuter railway, Metro-North.
The 3,400 electricians, machinists, and other rail road specialists have been working without a contract for nearly four years. Now the workers are saying if there is no resolution to their dispute, they will consider striking.
As public employees, they not only have a moral obligation not to strike, but under New York’s Taylor law, strikes by public employees are illegal.
One is reminded of the various strikes by public employees that crippled New York City in the 1970s. Apparently the lessons of that time have not been fully understood.
If Corporate America and municipal authorities would implement effective and strategic labor relations action plans, they would not find themselves in such circumstances as exist in New York. There, a labor relations problem has been permitted to fester beyond the control of the principal participants, hence the call for intervention by the president.
