NY Transit talks and the "unborn"

What article was I reading again? The NYTimes report this morning on transit union negotiations in New York city (written before anything was decided) had a strange pair of quotes:

"The M.T.A.'s long-term financial outlook, like every business and government in this country, is seriously clouded by the extraordinary growth in pensions and health-care costs," Mr. Kalikow said. "It might be easy to ignore this fact, but that would be a disservice to both our riders and the city, now and still unborn."

Mr. Toussaint portrayed the authority's proposals as repugnant because they would make life worse for future generations of workers.

"They have to get away from the notion that in this round of bargaining the T.W.U. will give up its young, will give up its unborn," he said.

Kalikow is chairman of the transportation authority; Toussaint is the union president. I want to know: when did all this language about "the unborn" trickle down into union talks? What message are they trying to get across? To a certain extent, I expect rhetoric about "the unborn" when at work or talking about abortion issues. But unborn subway riders? Unborn transit workers? C'mon, people.