Striking Down the Strike

The transit workers' strike that crip pled Manhattan last month was clearly illegal. And the Transit Authority's will ingness to end the walkout by agreeing to pay an estimated $60 million in wage boosts and fringe benefits was hardly more correct. New York's tough Condon-Wadlin Act not only forbids strikes by public employees but prohibits pay raises to strikers for three years after they go back to work. Still, most New Yorkers -- from Mayor John Lindsay to the harried commuters -- were willing to forgive and forget.

Most, that is, except Attorney George Weinstein, 33. Convinced that the "law is clear and should be en forced," Weinstein went into New York Supreme Court as a "taxpayer and voter" to ask for an injunction barring the Transit Authority from giving the transit workers their illegal raise.

Craven Servility. For a change, the Authority and the Transport Workers Union found themselves on the same side of an argument. They sought dis missal of Weinstein's suit on the ground that as a "private citizen without special or peculiar interest," he lacked "standing"; they claimed that the law was "unworkable" and the strike could not have been settled without granting the workers a raise.

Judge Irving H. Saypol was not impressed. In a blistering and verbose 19-page ruling (with three long appendixes) that cited such diverse sources as William Pitt the Elder and Saypol himself, the judge said that Weinstein's complaint must be answered. But he seemed to chafe under the need to wait the required ten days. "The case for relief for petitioner," said Judge Saypol, "is clear."

Fortunately for the Transit Authority, the final decision will probably be made by another judge of the State Supreme Court. This did not prevent Say pol from taking the Transit Authority to task for "yielding and submitting to illegally extorted demands" by the un ion and permitting it to obtain a heavy "ransom from eight million citizens" of New York City. "Submission today," the judge went on to say, "to this un lawful misconduct under the guise of civil disobedience, grinding into the dirt the civil rights and liberties of the city's millions, is craven servility and could lead to disaster for all. If responsible officials cannot stand up in firm resist ance, the court will."

Verbal Spanking. Judge Saypol, who last year upheld the constitutionality of the Condon-Wadlin Act, solemnly warned the authority not to follow "any course which would increase the compensation of the strikers in violation of the law." In Saypol's opinion, the issue at stake is nothing less than the very preservation of the rule of law. If laws that are disliked can be violated with impunity, then anarchy prevails and "liberties become useless," said the judge.

Before he was finished, he had harsh words for everyone. Not only did he denounce the Transit Authority and the union, but he also accused the city's corporation counsel of "fuzzy" thinking. Then he administered a mild verbal spanking to Attorney Weinstein as well for submitting what he regarded as an "inartistic" brief, which "leaves much to be desired."

Despite all this, the union was unintimidated. T.W.U. officials made high handed suggestions that unless the Transit Authority pays the raises called for by the new contract, the union will strike once more. The law as far as the T.W.U. is concerned seems a secondary consideration.

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