Well, at this hour, the state mediators apparently got the union and MTA management together, and NY Times’ Sewell Chan and Steven Greenhouse’s article was a good read – plus, I came out feeling a lot more impressed with the power of mediation as a form of alternative dispute resolution:
Jerome Lefkowitz, a labor lawyer who helped draft a state law that provides for mediation and arbitration in contract disputes involving police, firefighters and transit workers, said he felt the law had helped people find a path of reason.
“Mediators must have the facility to listen to what the negotiators are saying and to hear priorities and demands that may not be articulated explicitly,” he said. “When they start making progress, more tradeoffs follow pretty quickly, once you can break the ice.”
Mediation as assisted negotiation is pretty helpful. When you’ve got sides that can’t exactly negotiate together, why not get someone to help with the negotiating?
At least stop the speaking badly of each other. That sure didn’t help. But, now that the strike is over, let me cross my fingers in hoping that the subway lines will be up and running by morning, with decent frequency and not too much slowness. (on the other hand, with the Xmas/Hanukah rush, there might actually be less riders anyway!). Mind you, if the N isn’t working on time in my end of Brooklyn, then I’ll really know that MTA is a screw up.
But, I do think that the Brooklyn Bridge walking has been great exercise (besides the stiffness of my muscles and other mild pain). I could see myself doing it more often in the future as exercise (so long as I know there’s a subway on the other side to get me to my end of Brooklyn). Or at least when it’s not so cold (or hot either). Umm, yeah. Sure… (excuse me as I return to the land of denial…)
Yankee fans are awaiting the arrival of Johnny Damon. But, he’s still wearing a red shirt… (still attached to the Red Sox?).
NY Observer does a profile on another NY Asian American: Fareed Zakaria – a fascinating inside look on this foreign affairs specialist. (check it out before the Observer takes the article down for something else). NY1.com had an interesting One on One taken on him too. I should link it, once NY1’s website isn’t as strike-heavy as it has been of late.
So glad tomorrow’s Friday…