Commuters try to get LIRR tickets in Jamaica Tuesday morning. Striking Out With buses and subway trains at a standstill, the battle behind the scenes picked up later in the week as the two sides clashed in the courts and the realm of public opinion, both jockeying for position away from the bargaining table. As of press time Wednesday, neither side had sat down face-to-face since TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint walked out on talks at around 11 p.m. Monday. The strike began hours later, after a 28-10 vote by the union’s executive board authorizing the action, when Toussaint delivered a late-night speech to union workers. But both parties on Tuesday did meet independently with a mediator, Richard Curreri, director of conciliation for the State Public Employment Relations Board, according to James Edgar, executive director of the board. Edgar said he believes there would be more mediation discussion Wednesday, but could not comment on when or where the meeting would take place because he had not been officially briefed on the matter. The content of the mediation proceedings are confidential, he said. The Taylor Law, which forbids public employees from striking, outlines a mediation procedure for collective bargaining that uses both non-binding and binding arbitration when discussions reach an impasse. Although MTA officials have been open to the possibility of arbitration, union leaders have flatly rejected leaving their fate to a third party. “From the beginning, the MTA approached these negotiations in bad faith, demanding arbitration before even trying to resolve the contract,” Toussaint said during his short speech Tuesday morning. City and State lawyers have been seeking large fines for both the union and its workers to break the strike and bring the sides back into negotiations. On Tuesday, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones imposed a $1 million a day penalty on TWU Local 100 to be paid to the MTA, and another lawsuit by the city hopes to recoup lost tax dollars and police overtime. On Wednesday Jones also ordered Toussaint and two other union leaders to arrive in court Thursday to answer criminal contempt charges, which could possibly land them in jail. Union lawyer Arthur Schwartz said hauling officials before the court could halt the mediation negotiations, the Associated Press reported. In a press conference, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he encourages using fines as opposed to jail time to pressure union leaders back to the bargaining table. He strongly discourages the MTA from resuming negotiations, however, until the union ends its “illegal strike.” “The strike needs to end, and it needs to end right now,” Bloomberg said. “I’ve said this before: There are no winners in a strike.” Walking A Thin Picket Line Under the existing law, employees can be fined two days pay for every day they miss work while participating in a strike. City officials have asked for a restraining order that would make individual transit workers liable for the strike, possibly slapping them with additional fines of up to $25,000. The financial threat could be driving some transit workers to cross picket lines and return to work. Some MTA employees have received calls asking them to return to work, even if only to monitor the equipment without actually running trains, said a source familiar with the matter. As many as 800 employees reported to work Wednesday, according to the New York Daily News. Bloomberg confirmed that many employees had come back to work, without providing exact number, and encouraged more to follow suit. Many employees from the older generation, in some cases only months away from receiving their pension, are frustrated over the union’s decision to strike at their expense, the source said. A group of about six bus drivers, who stood apart from others on a picket line at the East Elmhurst bus depot on Dec. 19, said union officials were treating them “like sacrificial lambs.” The drivers, who worked for the private Triboro Bus Company, which the city will control in a month, objected to being put on strike days before regular MTA employees. Daniel Walkowitz, a labor historian at New York University, said the city would lose public support if it cracked down too hard on the rank and file. “There’s no way they are going to enforce that,” he said about the excessive fines. “It’s draconian. It would make them look like scrooge during Christmas.” If the strike continues, ultimately it will be the cry of small businesses that are losing money—especially during this time of year—that will break the deadlock, Walkowitz said. Some retail stores and restaurants are losing up to 40 percent of their business, according to the mayor’s office. The overall economic loss from the strike could be as much as $400 million a day. “The chamber of commerce will make their voices heard louder than the picketers,” Walkowitz said. Karlene Hamilton and Liz Goff contributed to this story.

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