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Pataki staying behind the scenes on talks

BY DAN JANISON and ERROL A. COCKFIELD JR. | STAFF WRITERS

December 21, 2005

On Day 1 of the strike, Gov. George Pataki, who in his job picks the top mass transit bosses, struck a less militant public tone than New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg even as both condemned the Transport Workers Union.

It was Bloomberg Tuesday who blasted the union's crippling shutdown as "thuggish," "cowardly" and "unconscionable." His aides gave out charts designed to show that transit workers get more pay than city employees for comparable work. The mayor called for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to refuse all talks with the TWU until workers return to their jobs.

Pataki, entering his last year in office, echoed some of those views -- but not as expansively.

"Mike Bloomberg and I are in 100 percent agreement, that the professionals at the table will resolve this," Pataki said. "The TWU has broken the law. That is wrong. They will suffer the consequences. ... I'd like to see them stop breaking the law and come to the table."

Citing the different comments of the governor and mayor, former TWU adviser Joseph Rappaport said, "Gov. Pataki is in the driver's seat. While he may not be rallying the troops, he's calling the shots. Nothing is happening at the MTA without the governor signing off. It's sort of a classic game the governor and mayor play."

He noted that while Mayor John Lindsay is remembered for his confronting a transit strike upon taking office 1966, and Mayor Edward I. Koch for his on-camera performances during the 1980 strike, it was then-governors Nelson Rockefeller and Hugh Carey who played critical roles during those crises.

Pataki's Communications Director, David Catalfamo, said Tuesday that while the Pataki administraton has closely monitored the process, the governor has relied on his surrogates at the MTA to run the talks.

Pataki appoints most of the MTA board and tapped its chairman, real-estate heir Peter Kalikow, a longtime close ally of former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato. For its part, the city provides hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies and pays for security in the transit system.

At a midafternoon press conference at City Hall, Bloomberg insisted Tuesday that his ally Pataki has been involved. He declined to provide details of the governor's strategy to draw the union back to work.

"The governor, I think, is doing exactly what he should do. He's been talking to the MTA, and to Peter Kalikow and to the city and offering his help," the mayor said. "To say we've talked five, six times a day is probably fair."