UASD strike over. Financial Effects?

[gringosabroso]

Nobody asked me, but . . .

According to DR1, the UASD strike is over, after 27 days? Calenadar days? Working days? The strike was declared ended on 25 April 06. My questions:

1. did any or all of the striking faculty members & other striking employees receive compensation during or after the strike for the period of the strike? How much? Why? Penalties for striking?

2. When did / will the employees physically actually return to actual work?

3. Do / will the paying parents of the students recevie any refund[s] for the days of the strike when nothing was taught to the students? Why not?

4. Would the public, esp. including students, be well served by a national law that every striking public employee must by law lose 3 days' pay for every day of non - work, ie strike? New York State has had such a law for years; actually loss of 2 days' pay for each day of strike. It seems to do wonders in reducing public inconvenience caused by public employee strikes. But, . . it's not fool proof. Witness the Xmas 2005 NYC subway strike.

5. Did any of the public media, inc. papers, radio, &/or TV ask any of these questions?

Noboby asked me, but . . . . .

[Dolores]

Post a link to this bill. Maybe we can find a connection with new congressmen and get someone to draw it up to start people at least thinking.

[gringosabroso]

from: The New York Times, 29apr06:

Roger Toussaint served less than four full days of what was supposed to be a 10-day sentence for leading an illegal strike in December.
Wearing a black T-shirt that read, "It's about respect," he criticized the judge who sentenced him, the state law that his union violated and the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
"We are not backing down," Mr. Toussaint said, vowing to defend transit workers' pensions, the issue that drove his union to a 60-hour strike in December. "The labor movement will not be broken."
After leaving the Bernard B. Kerik Complex in Lower Manhattan, he walked across the street and greeted 50 supporters at an encampment called Camp Roger. Since Mr. Toussaint went to jail on Monday, union supporters have maintained a round-the-clock vigil at the encampment, which had a tent, a folding table, cots and a portable toilet.
Mr. Toussaint, president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, was released yesterday because his 10-day sentence was reduced to 7 days for good behavior. Because the seventh day fell on the weekend, he was released yesterday.
In his first public remarks after being freed, Mr. Toussaint, in his grave and gravelly voice, thanked the correction officers and called for greater resources for the jail.
Then he turned to union matters.
He criticized the judge who sentenced him, Justice Theodore T. Jones of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, saying he had been handpicked to "crush our organization" to "send a message to everyone thinking about standing up and defending their benefits and pensions."
Then he attacked the Taylor Law, which governs public employee unions and prohibits them from striking. "It's an unjust law and it needs to be fixed," he said.
In an interview yesterday afternoon, Mr. Toussaint asserted that the Taylor Law was unfair because his union suffered large penalties for its strike, including a $2.5 million fine and a loss of the ability to automatically collect dues from members' paychecks.
But he complained that the Taylor Law, which bars employers and unions from insisting on pension changes during negotiations, has no provisions that would punish the transportation authority for insisting that the union agree to less generous pensions for new employees.
"The law doesn't have any consequences for employers who negotiate in bad faith.

* my comments: Toussaint is from Jamaica; he is a naturalized citizen. This New York State Law is polularly know as the "Taylor Law'; I can't locate the text not a citation. Any help? Thank you.

[La Profe_1]

The Taylor Law basically prohibits strikes by any public employee in New York State, for whatever reason.

The Taylor Law penalties include a two for one fine. That is, for every day on strike, the State of New York fines the striker the equivalent of one day's pay. So the striker loses two days pay for each day on strike. The fines are withheld from wages after the strike is settled.

Also, as noted, dues checkoff is lost.

Employers CAN be penalized for negotiating in bad faith. In one fairly well-known case, the Buffalo Board of Education negotiated an agreement with the Buffalo Teacher's Federation to avoid a strike. After the strike was averted, the board refused to sign the contract.

It was in the courts for years, but eventually the board was forced to sign, and to pay the back wages.

More information here:

http://www.goer.state.ny.us/cna/bucenter/taylor.html