TRANSIT ESCALATION

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

It is unfortunate that in your otherwise sound editorial on the New York transit strike you found it necessary to pay obeisance to the prevailing impertinence of the New York Times editorial page by including the usual perfunctory criticism of Michael J. Quill. Although it tiptoes around it, the Crimson ignores the fact that under any circumstances collective bargaining is essentially an adversary process, in which both sides negotiate from a position of strength.

In a situation such as that of Mr. Quill the situation is more than usually subtle. The inappropriateness of a strike against the public interest had forced the development of a whole arsenal of limited economic weapons which made possible the resolution of negotiations between adversaries. In effect what the New York Times chooses to call political deals and what Mr. Lindsay's spokesmen refer to as "dealing with the power brokers" was a limited form of collective bargaining, which allowed for the resolution of economic conflict without reliance on a strike--a confrontation based on limited economic weapons.

In effect Mayor Lindsay escalated the conflict between the Transit Authority and the Transit Workers' Union by attempting to deny to the TWU any course of action save acceptance of his egoistic statement of what they were entitled to in the public interest. The tragedy of this colossal arrogance on the Mayor's part is that in the unlimited conflict which he made inevitable, the transit workers emerged with more than they probably deserved, more than they have ever gotten before, and as the only group in the city not seriously hurt by the strike. Perhaps even more serious, the Mayor, by demonstrating how successful a strike can be, may have set a new pattern of relations with the TWU which will make a biennial strike a foregone conclusion. Unless the new Mayor learns how to make those nasty political deals pretty damn quick the City Council should get together and throw the bum out. Louis D. Beer '66