A judge angrily struck back at the city’s transit-workers union yesterday – slapping it with at least $7 million in penalties for last year’s crippling walkout.
“It is without question that many people suffered because of the strike – the working people of the metropolitan area have taken it in the back,” fed-up Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones railed at Transport Workers Union bigs including embattled chief Roger Toussaint.
Jones formally hit the union with $2.5 million in fines – what he said was equivalent to $1 million a day for the brutal 2 1/2-day strike by subway and bus workers in late December.
He also indefinitely suspended the union’s right to automatically collect dues from its 33,000 workers’ paychecks – a crippling blow that TWU officials said will drain up to $1.5 million a month from its already red coffers.
About $500,000 of those monthly dues goes to pay for union officials’ salaries, so the penalty would likely lead to staff layoffs, TWU bigs said.
The union can return to court after three months to ask the judge to lift his automatic-collection ban – but by that time, the TWU will have already lost up to a total of another $4.5 million on top of its fine, officials said.
Toussaint – who was nailed with a 10-day jail sentence over the strike last week and nervously chewed gum throughout yesterday’s hearing – immediately blasted the purse-string penalties as “unfair and excessive.”
“The [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] engaged in provocation and yet was not held responsible,” Toussaint insisted, with civil-rights activist Jesse Jackson by his side. “We intend to appeal this matter.”
As for the union big’s upcoming romp in the pen, Toussaint defiantly added, “I’ll go in. The jail is not a problem.”
The MTA had sought $3 million in fines and the iāndefinite suspension of duź¦es collection.
Both penalties were the least that the union should suffer, given that its members’ walkout brought the city and its workers to their knees – costing an estimated $1 billion in lost revenue – at the height of the holiday season, officials said.
Even more basic is the fact that the workers simply outright violated the state’s Taylor Law, which bans strikes by public employees, the MTA said.
“The threat of a strike is not a permissible tactic, and a strike is not a permissible tactic,” snipped MTA lawyer Neil Abramson.
Two otź§hļ·½er smaller transit-workers unions also were ordered to pay the price for the strike they joined.
The bus drivers’ Local 1056 in Queens was fined $187,500, while Local 726 on Staten Island was ordered to pony up $145,000.
The Rev. Jackson, who sat in the front row of the courtroom for the packed hearing, said the judge’s ruling “is sending a message to other unions: Don’t fight back.”
The union went out on strike in tą·“he wee hours of Dec. 20 and then called oš¦©ff its walkout Dec. 22 at 3 p.m.
The workers have rejected a proposed contract by just seven votes. But Toussaint has put forth the same plan for consideration by his members again – and voting on the deal concludes today.
The āmain disputes between the union and the MTA are over salary ašnd health and pension benefits.
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Slammed
What the judge did yesterday:
* Fined TWU $2.5 million for illegal strike
* Indefinitely suspended union’s automatic dues collection – which brings in $1.5 million a month
* Fined union for Staten Islandą¼ bus workers $145,000
* Fined union for Queens bus workers $187,000
* Had hit TWU head Roger Toussaint with a $1,000 ź¦fine and a 10-day jail sentence