What Do We Want? Strontract!

The front page of the Times today says it’s unlikely transit workers will go on strike — while adding a big “but . . .”:

It almost seems scripted.

Thousands of transit workers resoundingly authorize a strike, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority talks tough in demanding concessions.

Then the two sides move into the Grand Hyatt hotel for round-the-clock bargaining. And once again millions of subway and bus riders are wondering whether a strike will shut down the nation’s largest transit system when the union’s contract expires at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

It’s as if a whole city of opera lovers were watching “Tosca,” transfixed by the drama, even though they know what happens in each act, and how it all ends.

But.

So what does everyone actually want? It seems to come down to the union wanting a raise of 8 percent a year, with the authority proposing raises of 3 percent the first year and 2 percent the second. With pensions, the union is demanding that the age to collect full pension benefits be lowered to 50 from 55, with the authority seeking for it be raised to 62. Hmm.

Then there’s always the possibility that a strike could occur by accident, as some suggest happened in 1980:

“You understand that there are going to be compromises because I don’t think anyone wants a strike,” said Richard Ravitch, who served as the authority’s chairman in 1980, when it took an 11-day transit strike.

Mr. Ravitch said he thought he had choreographed a deal with John E. Lawe, the union’s president. They had agreed that Mr. Lawe would take the authority’s supposed final offer to the union’s board, fully expecting the board to reject it. Then Mr. Ravitch was to sweeten the “final” offer to presumably clinch a deal.

But when Mr. Lawe went to the transit workers’ board, which included many of his opponents, it was so angry that it rejected Mr. Ravitch’s offer, made no counteroffer, and called a strike.

This time, too, there are many angry union members, who complain that the last contract did not keep up with inflation, and who feel that the authority’s new wage proposal would leave them further behind.

Which makes this anecdote ominous:

Adding to the explosiveness of the mix, Roger Toussaint, president of the union representing 33,700 transit workers, is feeling a lot of pressure from dissidents to be more militant and to reject any concessions.

Perhaps it was the anger of the moment, but when Mr. Toussaint spoke to thousands of workers at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Saturday night after they authorized a strike, there was an unusual twist. Holding a megaphone, he began a well-known labor chant by yelling, “What do we want?”

But many of the workers responded not with the word he expected, “Contract,” but rather with the defiant word “Strike.”

We’ll see, I suppose . . .