Transit ‘Fish-ing’ Hole: Food for Thought Is Catch of the Day

Transit 'Fish-ing' Hole
Food for Thought Is Catch of the Day

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

As Transport Workers' Union Local 100 filed its contract demands Feb. 23 with the Public Employment Relations Board, moving the union one step closer to binding arbitration, a bevy of Bus Operators gathered in a favorite uptown watering hole to blow off some steam.

The Chief-Leader/Ginger Adams Otis NO HEARTBURN ON EITHER FRONT: Bus Operator Darryl Walters, enjoying a plate of chicken wings in an Upper East Side restaurant that's popular with transit workers, said he has no regrets about opposing the Transport Workers' Union Local 100 tentative contract in January, calling it 'a vote of conscience.' "Don't talk to me about Roger Toussaint - Toussaint doesn't have anything to do with this," Darryl Walters said emphatically over a plate of chicken wings. "The contract stands on its own merits - we voted and reacted to that alone. Nothing good is going to come from arbitration, but we had to make a point about that contract - it had too many variables for my liking. I'm a working-class man: tell me what my monthly fees are and I'll cut you a check. But I can't be dealing with variables."

The veteran Bus Operator has been coming to One Fish Two Fish almost as long as he's been on the job (17 years), and the cozy bar and restaurant on East 97th St. and Madison Ave. caters almost exclusively to public servants.

J.C., the young bartender, can mix a martini with one hand and use the other to emphasize the finer points of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's contract deal with Local 100 that was rejected Jan. 20 by seven votes, while the waitresses measure their days by the shift changes at nearby Mount Sinai Hospital and surrounding police precincts. It's a late-hour operation, serving its specialty plates - fried catfish and shrimp - well past midnight.

The Chief-Leader/Ginger Adams Otis WHERE THEY'RE ALWAYS WELCOME: Transit workers congregate in One Fish Two Fish, a restaurant popular with public servants, knowing it's one place they won't take heat over the three-day strike in December. Bus Operator Ed Yates, center, said that when union members enter some other establishments while in uniform, 'A lot of merchants make it clear they don't want us in there.' "We get all sorts of transit workers in here - big names too, the guys you see on TV. I know them all, " said J.C. "But most of the time we're just talking with the workers. They come in from all over, sometimes on Wednesdays but more often on Thursdays when it's payday."

Ed Yates, a Bus Operator who usually works in The Bronx, came to One Fish Two Fish on his day off to hang with friends and talk about the latest contract developments.

"They're real good to us in here, and it's a comfortable place for us. We can even wear our uniforms and not get hassled," he noted.

Both Mr. Yates and Mr. Walters said the three-day strike in December, which stretched straphangers' pocketbooks and patience, had a negative impact on transit workers' public image.

"A lot of merchants, if we come in with the uniforms, they make it clear they don't want us in there," said Mr. Yates.

'No' to 1.5%

Both men voted against the tentative contract deal that Local 100 hammered out with the MTA after the strike, citing the cost of the 1.5-percent health-care premium for members as the main issue.

They might have reacted differently, they said, had the 1.5 percent been calculated on base earnings without including overtime, and if a rider clause hadn't left the door open for further increases down the line if the MTA's expenditures increased above a certain point.

"I don't know if we are going to be able to get anything better," said Mr. Walters. "But I voted my conscience. I don't know, if I could do it over, if I would vote no again. But whatever happens, we'll just have to deal with the outcome - and we can always come to 'The Fish' to feel better."