Word: quills
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...public life have ever endured more concentrated public abuse than Lindsay took, with remarkable restraint, from Mike Quill. At one time or another, Quill branded Lindsay "a common, ordinary coward," a "pip-squeak," "a boy in short pants" and "an ass." He accused the mayor of reaching the "heights of stupidity," purposely and consistently mispronounced his name as Lindsley...
...rule rather than the exception. In ways that some thought naive and others admirable, John Lindsay quickly made it clear that he intended to go by the book, like the good trial lawyer he was before entering Congress. He refused to inject himself as a private manipulator between Quill and the Transit Authority, insisted that the three-man team of mediators be the only go-between. He made it clear that labor would no longer be able to make any sub rosa deals with the mayor...
...Quill's original demands on the Transit Authority were so outlandish that few people took them seriously. In a 76-point package, which he blandly labeled "very modest requests," Quill demanded that the Authority increase the T.W.U.'s contract for 1966-67 by nearly 2,000% over the old one-including an increase of more than $2 per hour, a 32-hour week, and six weeks of vacation after one year on the job (present vacation: five weeks after 25 years). The Transit Authority figured that the package would cost $680 million, or one-fifth of the entire...
Both Lindsay and the Transit Authority agreed that New York's subway and bus workers needed a raise to bring them more nearly into line with city workers of equivalent talent and status, but nothing on the order of what Mike Quill asked for. Top wage for T.W.U. members working for the Transit Authority is $3.57 an hour, for work that includes everything from driving the underground trains (a job that requires 280 hours of schooling) to repairing buses. Even though New York's T.W.U. men lead their union in nationwide pay, they lag behind many municipal workers...
When negotiations had gone four days without any progress, the Transit Authority got a ruling from the New York Supreme Court that the strike was illegal, and that Mike Quill and eight other T.W.U. officials should be jailed. Said Quill: "The judge can drop dead in his black robes and we would not call off the strike. Personally, I don't care if I rot in jail...