Opinion

A mutiny for Mike

So it transpires that the city Depart ment of Investigation has been on to reports of a snow-removal slow down all week.

Go to it, folks.

People could have died because of the mini-mutiny — and those responsible have much for which to answer.

The Post reported yesterday that sanitation employees purposely delayed plowing streets during and after the Christmas weekend blizzard.

It now seems that there was an effort to target certain politically connected neighborhoods — like Borough Park in Brookyn and Middle Village in Queens.

Why?

Because hard times are on the city, austerity looms for everyone — but unionized city employees feel they should be left untouched by the pain.

That’s nothing new.

But a slowdown in a grave emergency is astonishingly new — and Mayor Bloomberg cannot let those responsible get away with such a thing.

Already, he’s promising an “extensive review” of the city’s storm response.

But that can only be the beginning.

Let’s be frank: If sanitation wildcatters skate on this, what will other public employees do when budget constraints force the city to cut deeper elsewhere?

Or hold down salaries?

Or insist on other concessions?

As this slowdown showed, some employees couldn’t care less about the pain they inflict.

Indeed, the more, the better.

The steps reportedly taken to hamper snow-removal efforts this week are shocking: Some bosses apparently told plow operators “not to tackle the jobs quickly,” City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens) says workers told him.

The idea was to “make the mayor pay” for demoting supervisors and trimming staff (about 100 bosses are slated for demotion this week).

And maybe to squeeze more cash from taxpayers — workers get double overtime pay on Sundays — by stretching out their time on the job.

A mechanic said some drivers intentionally wrecked plows and salters.

Presto: a paralyzed New York.

And the slowdown apparently wasn’t even department-wide, but undertaken by those affected by budget trims and targeted at certain areas. Imagine if it had been a full-fledged, union-blessed strike.

Labor bosses deny that any kind of job-action took place this week.

Of course they’d say that: An intentional slowdown could amount to a criminal violation of the state’s Taylor law.

As well it should.

For his part, Bloomberg said such a job action would be an “outrage.”

Yes, it would.

But does he see it as a threat to the good order of the city — which it also is?

He needs to get to the bottom of the slowdown and deal as harshly as possible with those responsible — and with those managers who so obviously lost control of their department.

If he thinks other unions aren’t watching the outcome of this drama for clues on how to deal with their own problems, he’s very much mistaken.

Bloomberg needs to draw a line in the snow right here and now.

If he doesn’t, things are going to get much, much worse as the city’s fiscal fortunes continue to decline.