Comparative Strategic Advantages: The NYC Subway Strike

It's official:

The  power of the Transit Workers to wreak economic havoc is unsurpassed—yet just this side of unthinkable.  For the police or fire departments to strike is unthinkable; but the MTA union has the unmatched tactical advantage of being able to bring the City to its knees, literally within minutes of commencing their strike, without inflicting permanent damage. 

(When I went running this morning at 5:30, cars and trucks were already backed up as far as the eye could see from the police checkpoints at 96th Street, stopping all vehicles with fewer than four passengers from proceeding further downtown—and the strike was 2-1/2 hours old.)

I view the negotiations surrounding the strike as a fascinating example of strategic considerations, because the City's legal cudgel is the flat statutory prohibition on the transit workers' striking, with fines of double their daily pay for each day they're out.   Raising the stakes for both sides is the nature of the key issue which has become the sticking point:  The City is insisting that newly hired transit workers not be eligible for retirement until age 62 (current employees are eligible at 55).  Under the slogan, "protecting the unborn," the Union is refusing to agree.

What makes this particularly problematic?  That it's not a readily "divisible" issue:  It's all or nothing.  If this strike were only about 4% vs. 6% raises, it would never have happened.  You and I both know the answer to that one is 5%.

But both sides in the end have to play to public opinion:  The union taking the stance of hard-working, under-appreciated public servants at the end of their rope, the City as guardian and savior of the working class masses from the outer boroughs.  Or, as a store owner adjacent to the busiest Brooklyn subway station (Fulton Street), put it, showing an estimable level of economic sophistication:  "I pay good money to have my store here.  Is my rent bill gonna go on strike?"

Those who must be physically at their jobs (or whose customers, patients, or students must be) are hardest hit by this.  As for people like me?  If we don't already live within walking distance of our Manhattan offices, we can telecommute.