Here we go again: Another painful labor strike in Gotham, beginning this morning — this time, by school-bus drivers, whose union hopes to strong-arm the city into guaranteeing jobs for its members.
The drivers are refusing to ferry some 152,000 kids to school, leaving them and their parents in a pickle.
No one knows when or how this will end.
The strike was prompted by the city’s effort to save taxpayers money: City Hall wants bus companies to compete for the city’s business, so it can get the best price.
But the union, Local 1181, wants job protections for drivers whose companies lose their city contracts. That, of course, would defeat the purpose, and the city, commendably, isn’t going for it. City Hall cites a 2011 court ruling that found such guarantees to be illegal.
Of course, no one should be surprised by the union hostage-taking — considering its past and present leaders’ records:
* Salvatore “Hotdogs” Battaglia was a Genovese Family associate and president of Local 1181 until 2006. He got five years in prison for racketeering and extorting bus companies and a Queens medical center.
* Julius “Spike” Bernstein was secretary-treasurer of the union and a Genovese associate who used Local 1181 as an ATM for decades. He pleaded guilty to racketeering, extortion, robbery and other crimes.
* Ann Chiarovano, pension director for Local 1181, pleaded guilty to obstructing an FBI probe of the union’s ties to the Genovese Crime Family.
* Nick and Paul Maddalone, former executive-board members of Local 1181, were each sentenced to 10 months in prison for extortion and conspiracy in 2009.
Now, the union’s current leaders may be clean as a whistle. But some of them have longstanding ties to the old regime.
As a lawsuit from union reformers makes clear, the current president, Michael Cordiello, was “employed by Local 1181 in various positions for decades during which Local 1181 was controlled by organized crime.” He benefited from that system, was tied to Battaglia and came to power when the mobsters were hauled off by the feds.
That’s the union behind the strike.
Frankly, there’s no reason to see the move as anything but another form of extortion.