This Strike Threat Needs a Slapdown

NEW York City’s 100,000-member United Federation of Teachers is spooling up for a strike, ostensibly over coronavirus safety issues — never mind that Gotham is reeling from the pandemic and that public-employee strikes are illegal. They were against the law the last couple of times the union struck — in 1968 and 1975, over racial tensions and fiscal issues, respectively — and that made no difference.

So why should it matter this time?

Here’s the thing: Virtually the first thing Mayor de Blasio did upon taking office was sweeten his ties to the UFT with a nine-year, multibillion contract. This came coincident with a $350,000 UFT contribution to a de Blasio political slush fund. It was never clear just who bought whom in that exchange — de Blasio or UFT president Mike Mulgrew — but for that kind of money you’d think the mayor and the union boss would be able to do business.

Not the people’s business, of course, because that’s too much to hope for from the de Blasio administration. But perhaps they could avoid the sordid spectacle that will attend the union’s prestrike kabuki dance this week.

There really is no moral high ground in this mess.

Take the teachers themselves. Coronavirus concerns are legitimate, of course, but that holds true for subway conductors, bus drivers, supermarket checkout clerks and restaurant deliverymen, too. They answer the call every day, never demanding what amounts to risk-free work environments — and so one must wonder what makes teachers feel so special.

Mulgrew has assumed the role of principled union leader — just lookin’ out for my members, folks

— which is pretty rich coming from a fellow whose heavy hand has been on Department of Education policy levers since the day he became UFT president.

Which is not to say de Blasio isn’t the author of much of his grief here. He and his race-obsessed vagabond of a schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, have had months to plan for a responsible reopening of the schools on Sept. 10, and by all appearances they’ve made a royal hash of it.

They have failed to write coherent reopening protocols; failed to incorporate school principals in strategic planning, thereby transforming potential allies into hostile outsiders with no stake in success; failed to develop useful remote-instruction plans should that once again become necessary; and failed to engage parents in the process, likely converting an army of potential supporters into confused antagonists.

And hovering overhead is Gov. Cuomo, ready as always to hurl thunderbolts at de Blasio should the opportunity arise. That’s amusing to anticipate, but it causes uncertainty and adds unnecessarily to the city’s disarray.

Whether Cuomo has it in him to play a positive — indeed, a necessary — role in this remains to be seen. Bombast and bluster are his things; courage, not at all.

But he would do well to make it clear without qualification that he will bring the full weight of his office down on any public-employee union that contributes to New York’s current agony by striking, with a particular emphasis on enforcing penalties against individual strikers.

The state Taylor Law, enacted in 1967, outlaws strikes. It has its theatrical aspects, but it also comes with sharp fangs. It allows for the jailing of striking union leaders — the theater — but also for heavy fines and loss of civil-service job tenure for individual strikers — the fangs.

Plus, it permits the cancellation of automatic union-dues checkoff, a doomsday weapon of sorts. Mulgrew likely would enjoy a few days behind bars — his martyrdom thereby certified — but having a huge hole blown in the revenue stream that underwrites his $300,000 salary and lush expense account would be another matter altogether.

Curbing the UFT now could save a lot of future grief as government struggles with massive pandemic-driven retrenchments. Other unions are watching. Conversely, if the teachers succeed in rolling the always supine de Blasio, budgetbalancing across the board is going to become just that much more difficult.

But Cuomo has the means to grab Mulgrew’s attention and bring strike-talk nonsense to an end. New York should know the governor’s intentions by the end of the week.

‘ The state Taylor Law . . . allows for heavy fines and loss of civil-service job tenure.’