Comments on: New Yorkers: Let’s Sue the Transit Workers Union!

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 20:41:53 +0000

That’s why the ideal recourse would have been to fire, or threaten to fire them. I’d like to know if the city could have simply declared the union in violation of the law and thus no longer recognized by the city.

I’d be really pissed at Bloomberg if I were still living there (well, I’m pissed enough as it is). This is PRECISELY the type situation that was supposed be the great benefit of having a mayor who’s rich enough to be free from special interests. For all this arrogance on other issues I can’t believe he would not have gone above and beyond to crush this thing.

How about coming straight out and declaring the union invalid, telling workers they have a choice between their rouge union and their jobs, and then declaring that the city will simply not issue paychecks for the deadbeats who don’t show. What will they say? He doesn’t have the authority? Fine, then they can take the issue to court – but find a new job in the meantime. Meanwhile, I’m the mayor of this city and I’m doing what needs to be done. It’s a safety issue…like second hand smoke.

By: Philip

Philip — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 18:49:16 +0000

Thanks for clarifying that.

By: Ben T.

Ben T. — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 17:22:06 +0000

I’m pretty sure this would be impossible, though I haven’t researched every angle of this. As a common law tort action, I don’t think transit workers owe any duty to New York citizens to report to work. This duty comes from the Taylor Law (NY Civil Service Law, Article 14, Ã?Â?Ã?Â§ 210), which clearly does not provide for a private cause of action. And I’m pretty sure the statute would preempt the common law tort action. The only other cause of action I can think of is intentional inteference with contractual relations, but this also seems like a stretch.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/nycodes/c18/a33.html