ROGER TOUSSAINT: "We are not thugs"

[pberq]

According to Roger, the MTA made an illegal demand in the negotiations ". . .it is clearly and plainly illegal for any side to impose a pension demand as a condition for contract settlement."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/22/1521245

ROGER TOUSSAINT: To all New Yorkers, I would like to apologize for the inconvenience and beg all riders and all working people for their patience and forbearance for the inconvenience caused by our strike, a strike that we maintain that we were provoked into conducting. I just came from a meeting with state mediators, and I will be leaving from here to resume discussions with state mediators sent in from Albany to attempt to assist both parties to get out of the current stalemate in the negotiations.

Let me be very clear that we believe that the pension demands put forth by the MTA are illegal. To impose this on the negotiations is illegal and burdens the negotiations and should come off the table. We believe that if the pension demands that are illegal and a burden to the negotiations come off the table, that that would go a long way to us resuming the negotiations and resolving the strike issue. The main hold-up has been and is the pension issues. Let me explain that while you may discuss pensions in the course of negotiations, contract negotiations, it is clearly and plainly illegal for any side to impose a pension demand as a condition for contract settlement. That is what the MTA did. On Thursday night they submitted a final offer that included a new -- the creation of a new pension tier. That is illegal to submit as a final demand or final offer.

I want to also address some of the remarks that have been made characterizing our members and our leadership in the course of these negotiations by the governor and the mayor. There's been some offensive and insulting language used, such as referring to our union members and our leadership as thugs, selfish, and essentially characterizing us as being overpaid and greedy. And this is regrettable, and it is certainly unbecoming for the mayor of the City of New York to be using this type of language to the people that in New York City entrust the care of over seven million riders every single day. And maybe it is very difficult for a billionaire to understand what someone who is making a few tens of thousands of dollars are going through in meeting those bills and paying to put children through school, maybe there's that type of disconnect. But we believe that working people in New York can more better identify with transit workers and know instinctively that the thugs are not on this side of the podium. We are not thugs, we are not selfish, we are not greedy. We are hard working New Yorkers, dignified men and women, who have put in decades of service to keep the city moving 24/7. We wake up 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning to move trains and buses in this town, and we will continue to do that, and that’s not the behavior of thugs and selfish people. Thank you.