MTA labor strike of 2005 - Case Study Example

Of the four factors of production, land, labor, capital and organization, labor is important. For, capital without labor is dead! In US, the challenges did exist. The escalating retirement and health costs had the telling effect on the US economy. When about 8 percent of the gross domestic production is consumed by the healthcare and retirement benefits, such a policy is unsustainable. In early December 2005, the management of MTA offered a new contract to the TWU. The proposal offered was not favorable to the employees.

Modest increase in wages, reduction in health care benefits, and a revised pension policy-these were the highlights. This was done to counter the alarming situation that the health care costs continued to grow faster than the US economy, and its adverse effect on the budget needed correction. Discontent began to brew amongst the workers when the management withdrew these facilities, even though that was done after an agreement. Probably the workers union was driven to the wall, and signed the agreement under duress.

The new head of the MTA, Peter Kalikow, had better ideas to run the Organization. He had the double advantage and support of two other important tools of Democracy. The press and politics! He was the former owner of New York Post and an active Republican. He wished to break the unity of the workers under the banner of TWU. He proposed direct cuts in the wages of the workers and cleverly devised a system that would lead to division amongst the workers. The existing workers would pay 2 percent of their wages towards their pension, and the new workers need to pay 6 percent towards their retirement benefits.

The seeds of disunity were sown! The simmering discontent amongst the workers-testimony of past history! The TWU expected exhibition of such poor grace by the management. Way back in 2002, it was on the verge of strike. A parallel contact was ready with the TWU. The Union founded in the 1930s had Communist leanings. Mike Quill captioned the transport workers in the first citywide strike in 1966. The State Legislature responded to the threat posed by Local 100 with a tough law, known as Taylor Law that would later cause lots of embarrassment and financial loss to the workers.

This law outlawed strikes by a public employees' union. The union hit back with a strike in 1980 seeking better benefits, but it lost. The losing leadership became the target of victimization by the management. Strict rules were created for the workplace. Pushed to the wall, the workers leadership had to bow to the dictates of the management. Was it a planned move by the government' Between 1980s and the 1990s, the recruitment process saw more black and Puerto Rican workers were in the job or driving buses and trains.

They had little interest in trade