If you've been following the political football game our elected "leaders" have been playing with the CTA this year, then you heard Rick Harris, President of ATU Local 308 talking tough the other day about Doomsday 3. "Maybe we have to show exactly what a ‘Doomsday' looks like,” he announced in front of the press after Daley and Madigan "declined" Blagojevich's invitation to discuss an agreement on transit funding.
With 26 separate unions on the CTA, pulling off any kind of job action a la New York would be near impossible. Not that it can't be done, but TWU Local 100 didn't just pull that strike off over night. More importantly, however, is the fact that the unions of the CTA haven't gone on strike since 1979 (when Jane Byrne was mayor), and probably haven't done much organizing in those nearly thirty years since. Back in New York, nearly three years later, local 100 is still dealing with the fall out and political retribution from that three-day strike.
So when Daley backed up Harris on Friday, you'd think that he would lay low for a news cycle and let Da Mare work his magic. "Wouldn't you get frustrated if I tell you to do things and you did it and then all the sudden you come to me and say, 'I can't help you'?" Daley said. "This union has done a tremendous job. . . . No pay increase, reorganization of their pensions. Did everything legislators -- both Democrats and Republicans -- asked them to do. They came together with a historical agreement about public transportation." Instead, Harris started shooting his mouth off to the press again. "It might be a situation where I ask everybody to follow all standard operating procedures. If we followed every one of those rules to the letter, it would slow things down considerably," Harris said. "Another option is one day, we decide that everybody is just gonna call in sick."
The head of a public-sector union can be forgiven for saying something obtuse to the media under stress. Most public-sector union leaders don't have finely honed political chops. And why should they? They don't usually have to go to fight to the death for their membership. Not the way their private-sector counterparts do. I'm not advocating that a union leader let the boss call the shots for him. That's bad for the membership, it's bad politics, and it makes Harris look weak. But when you start writing checks your ass can't cash and the mayor of Chicago floats you a loan, it's shrewd to play your cards close to your chest.
Image via TheeErin
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