One Miiiillion Dollars!

I’m done with thinking about the big, bad, evil strike, and more convinced than ever that it will never happen. Witness, for example, the latest bit of theater:

With three days to go before a threatened transit shutdown, the Bloomberg administration stepped into the middle of the fray yesterday, asking a judge to fine the transit workers’ union $1 million and each striker $25,000 on the first day of a strike and to double the fines successively each day after that.

The city’s request would mean that on the third day, the union would face a $4 million fine and each striker a $100,000 fine. Transit workers’ average pay is $55,000 a year, including overtime.

Obviously the City wouldn’t be threatening to fine individual workers tens of thousands of dollars a year if it actually thought it might have to follow through on the threat. At least I don’t think so!

For its part, the Transport Workers Union responded with similar theatricality:

The city’s lawsuit was the target of withering criticism at the rally, suggesting a sharp intensification of tensions with City Hall.

“They’re not going to force a lousy contract down our throats,” Roger Toussaint, president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, told the crowd. “We have told them from the beginning that this contract will be negotiated by bargaining in good faith and not by threats and not by intimidation.”

To end his speech, Mr. Toussaint said, “If Mayor Bloomberg wants to know what we think about this lawsuit, I’ll show you.” With that, he tore the lawsuit into little pieces, to thunderous applause from the crowd.