Talks Resume as N.Y. Transit Union Ends Strike

It has been a fiery trial for Toussaint, a Trinidad-born student activist-become-tunnel cleaner who has risen to leader of a union founded by radical Irish immigrants. He had taken his union out on its first strike since an 11-day stoppage in 1980. The TWU had rejected an MTA contract demand that called for new employees to contribute much of a proposed wage increase to underwrite their pension plan.

It is illegal for public employees to strike in New York state, and the union faces at least $3 million in fines. City attorneys had planned -- until the strike was ended by an agreement to resume talks -- to go into court Thursday and seek the jailing of Toussaint. That prompted the tabloid New York Post to run a front-page photo of Toussaint under the headline: "JAIL ' EM!"

Some political analysts friendly to unions have pointedly questioned whether a strike was necessary, saying Toussaint lost his grip on the theatrics of negotiation, which is all about marching to the precipice without plunging over. And television anchors and radio talk show hosts talked of a popular debacle for the union.

But many unions, from teachers to police officers, rallied round the workers, not least because they too fear demands for pension givebacks.

"Toussaint has done a good job of presenting this strike as an act of solidarity, with all unions facing attacks on pension plans," said Joshua B. Freeman, a professor at the CUNY Graduate Center and author of a history of the transit union. "He has conducted himself with a measured quality, not taking the first hit."

A poll taken by Marist College during the strike showed that New Yorkers placed blame equally on the MTA and the union. It also revealed a sharp racial divide: Just 23 percent of white New Yorkers supported the strike, compared with 63 percent of African Americans. Latinos were split nearly evenly.

On the Brooklyn Bridge Thursday, under a gray sky and in 35-degree cold, New Yorkers gave voice to these disagreements.

"The MTA? Management has been rather arrogant in its treatment of workers," said Steve Banks, an African American who is a nonunion transit supervisor. "These folks labor in the noise, in dangerous tunnels with steel dust and homeless people who throw themselves in front of trains.

"Man, I'm glad the TWU made people pay attention."

Some, too, spoke of their anger at the mayor's "thug" remark, seeing in this a racial slight. "It was very arrogant of the mayor," said Felton Frasier, a black lawyer walking into downtown Manhattan from Bedford-Stuyvesant, about seven miles.

Lisa Mills, who is white, came walking by a few minutes later. She lives in Bay Ridge, a charming, middle-income Brooklyn neighborhood that, under the current circumstances, is an unfortunate number of miles from Manhattan. She has relied on cars and friends to hopscotch around the city. Her friends are not pleased with the strikers, but she does not share their views.

"They're workers, and it's a hell of job they do," she said. "People talk about retiring at 55 years old, but you try walking around those tunnels eight hours a day."

Under their contract, transit workers retire at 55.

Gene Russianoff, director of the Straphangers Campaign, a rider advocacy group, and a lifelong subway rider, hiked across the bridge several times. Until the contract is negotiated and signed, he won't call winners and losers. But he cautions against playing taps for the labor union.

"The MTA runs a good subway, but they're about as popular as an early-20th-century factory owner," he said. "I think most New Yorkers just want their subways back."