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Roger Toussaint is in jail. This means nothing. It is an empty act that serves no one, least of all the Union cause.
Now, with the contract going to binding arbitration, there is little chance that the TWU will gain anything at all from their strike, and in fact will lose what they might have kept earlier.
Like the current American president, Toussaint is attempting to re-spin the strike, changing the rhetoric from “fighting for our unborn” to “repealing the Taylor law”. So now, after his Union was not solidly behind him and after the strike gained nothing and after the MTA refused to accept the same terms that they had previously offered, Toussaint is claiming that the strike was about an unfair law. It is hard to believe that his union, barely squeaking by on the strike vote, would take such a serious and legalistic stance on the abstraction of law.
Who can test this law, anyway? What cases have come up through the courts and brought with them a possible impact on the Taylor law? Thus far, none. They only way to repeal a law like this is through legislation, not the courts. Thus the Martyrdom of Toussaint has no long-lasting impact except upon his self-aggrandizement. A chronic problem here in the US, the trend toward self-serving behavior and fifteen minutes of fame that has dumbed-down virtually every aspect of American culture.
Rather than use the strength of the union to drive home the realities of the wage and hour laws, of the future of healthcare and pensions, of internal corruption and Byzantine hiring and development practices, Toussaint is taking the low road to spin master, and like Bush is trying to re-write motive to suit outcome.
Tags:
martyrdom, mta, taylor law, twu
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Posted on 4/27/2006
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