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NYC Transit Strike Enters Third Day: Negotiations Resume,
Threats to Workers Heat Up, Public Support Remains High
NYC Transit Strike Hailed As Battle For Nation-Wide Labor
Movement By Pension Reform Advocates
Cheney Casts Tie-Breaking Senate Vote Cutting $40 Billion
to the Poor
Secret Prisons, CIA Kidnappings & Torture: A Look At
Europe’s Reaction to the Bush Administration’s
Covert Actions Overseas
NYC Transit Strike Enters Third Day: Negotiations
Resume, Threats to Workers Heat Up, Public Support Remains
High
New York City’s subway and bus system remains shut
down as 33,000 transit workers have entered their third day
on strike. On day two of the strike, a state judge threatened
to jail union leader Roger Toussaint and two union officials
for organizing the citywide strike. As we await the outcome
of continuing negotiations, we speak with Democracy Now! co-host
Juan Gonzalez about the strike. [includes rush
transcript]
Judge Theodore Jones ordered the three union officials to
appear in court today to face charges of criminal contempt.
Under the state’s Taylor Law, public employees are barred
from staging labor strikes. Meanwhile, the city of New York
has asked the courts to issue a second order directing union
members to return to work. If such an order was ignored, the
city has threatened to fine striking workers $25,000 a day
with the fines being doubled each day. The union maintains
it was provoked into the strike. Despite a one billion dollar
surplus the Metropolitan Transit Authority insisted on creating
a two-tier pension system affecting all future transit workers.
The MTA is also in violation of portions of the Taylor Law
which bars the MTA from forcing changes to the union’s
pension plan. New York Governor George Pataki, who oversees
the MTA, vowed there would be no negotiations until the union
returns to work. Despite the inconveniences caused by the
strike, public opinion polls show New York residents back
the striking workers. New York radio station WWRL found 71%
of respondents blamed the management for the strike. Only
14% blamed the transit workers. A poll by WABC TV found 52%
supported the union while only 40% backed the city and MTA.
The city’s major media outlets have been far less sympathetic.
The cover of Wednesday’s New York Post described the
striking workers as “Rats.” Today’s Post
cover read "Jail ‘Em." Meanwhile, the Daily
News ran an editorial headlined “Throw Roger From the
Train” – a reference to union leader Roger Toussaint.
Mayor Bloomberg has come under criticism for describing Toussaint
and the striking workers as “thuggish" and "selfish."
On Wednesday, the Rev. Al Sharpton said, "I do not think
the language would have been used in a union that was not
as heavily populated by people of color.” Seventy percent
of the striking transit workers are African-American, Latino
or Asian-American. Roger Toussaint was born on the Caribbean
island of Trinidad.
- Juan Gonzalez, Covering NYC Transit Strike, Co-host of
Democracy Now!
NYC Transit Strike Hailed As Battle For Nation-Wide
Labor Movement By Pension Reform Advocates
As the NYC transit workers continue to strike into day three,
they continue to push for demands including reform of a pension
plan, which labor movement activists view as important to
the nation-wide movement. We speak with Frank Emspak, director
of Workers Independent News, and Juan Gonzalez.
- Frank Emspak, Director of Workers Independent News, a
national labor news service, and a professor at the School
for Workers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Juan Gonzalez, Democracy Now! co-host
Cheney Casts Tie-Breaking Senate Vote Cutting $40
Billion to the Poor
Yesterday the senate narrowly passed a budget bill to cut
$40 billion dollars of federal spending by ending funding
for foster care, child support and student loans. The bill
would also impose new fees on Medicaid recipients and new
work restrictions on state welfare programs. We speak with
Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
about details of the bill.
The $40 billion dollars in budget cuts is dwarfed by the
$70 billion dollar cost of a Republican proposal expected
to be voted on next year that would extend previous tax cuts
enacted in 2001 and 2003. The contentious budget bill was
passed by a 50 to 51 vote. Five Senate Republicans joined
the Democrats in opposing the measure. Their combined votes
would have led to a 50-50 tie. However, Vice President Dick
Cheney cut short his trip to the Middle East in order to cast
the tie-breaking vote.
As president of the Senate, Cheney was able to break the
deadlock and pass the measure. Critics of the bill note that
the poor and middle class would bear the brunt of the cuts.
Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid called it "an ideologically
driven, extreme, radical budget. It caters to lobbyists and
an elite group of ultraconservative ideologues here in Washington,
all at the expense of middle class Americans.” The American
Council on Education announced this is the biggest cut in
the history of the federal student loan program.
Secret Prisons, CIA Kidnappings & Torture: A
Look At Europe’s Reaction to the Bush Administration’s
Covert Actions Overseas
As UK Prime Minister Tony Blair rejects calls for an inquiry
into whether the CIA secretly used British airports, Agence
France Press editor Bernard Estrade joins us in our Firehouse
studio to discuss the uproar in Europe over the CIA’s
actions.
In Britain – Prime Minister Tony Blair rejected calls
on Wednesday for an inquiry into whether the CIA used British
airports to transport detainees to secret prisons or to third
countries where they have may have been tortured. Blair said,"I
have absolutely no evidence to suggest that anything illegal
has been happening here at all." Blair added that he
didn’t want to "add fuel" to stories about
the practice of "extraordinary rendition". Human
rights groups have charged that hundreds of secret CIA flights
have passed through Britain and other European nations. The
British Association of Chief Police Officers, however, has
begun an investigation after receiving information about certain
flights that landed in British airports. Today we are going
to look at the response in Europe to the recent disclosures
that the CIA has been running a series of secret prisons overseas
and the controversial U.S. practice of extraordinary rendition.
- Bernard Estrade, a chief editor at Agence France-Presse.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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