Although always a proud union man and believer in striking as a last defense, the ruthless TWU walk off is an intolerable abuse of power at which even the parent union shudders. When a local can extend its talons round eight million people trying to get to work and millions of consumers, particularly during the holiday season, whereby the strike raises havoc on the commercial infrastructure, causing hundreds of millions in loss to business, there is a need for a harsh counter force when the walk off constitutes irresponsibility and sheer greed.

The strike as a tool should only be used when union members are clearly victimized by working conditions and unfair wage. This is far from the case with New York’s TWU local, which has attained both objectives remarkably well that do not warrant punishing those millions of working people — a vast majority working for less — in the end who pay the union benefits in order to get to work. It is one thing to cry foul when exploited and quite another to spew “more than fair but not enough.”