New York’s 3-Day Transit Strike Ends

12/22/2005

NEW YORK (AP) - The city’s crippling three-day transit strike ended Thursday when union leaders - facing mounting fines, possible jail terms and the wrath of millions of commuters - voted to send their 33,000 members back to work without a new contract.

Union board members said the workers would return to their job sites starting with the next shifts. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of returning to work and resuming negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on a new three-contract.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said buses should be running by evening, and most subways should be operating in time for the Friday morning rush. “It can’t be turned on and off with a flip of a switch,” he said of the nation’s largest mass transit system.

Roger Toussaint, the combative president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, had recommended that his union’s executive board accept the deal.


“We thank our riders for their patience and forbearance,” he said.

The walkout, which began early Tuesday, was New York’s first citywide transit strike in more than 25 years. The workers walked out over wages, pension contributions and health benefits, leaving their jobs in violation of a state law prohibiting public employees from striking.

“I’m ready to work the rush hour this afternoon if they let me,” bus driver Ralph Torres said from the picket line.

While the agreement ends the strike, it does not settle the underlying contract dispute, which means the city could be hit with another walkout if negotiations fail.

The breakthrough was announced just minutes before Toussaint and two of his top deputies were due in a Brooklyn courtroom to answer criminal contempt charges for continuing the strike. On Wednesday, the judge warned he might throw them in jail.


Earlier this week, the judge, State Justice Theodore Jones, fined the union $1 million a day for striking. And under the state no-strike law, the rank-and-file members were automatically docked two days’ pay for each day they stayed off the job.

The walkout sent millions of commuters from the city and its suburbs scrambling to find other ways to get to work, and inflicted a heavy toll on the city’s economy in the week before Christmas, when New York is usually packed with tourists and holiday shoppers.

The bitterness was captured in tabloid headlines. The New York Post screamed: “Jail ‘em!” in front of a composite image of Toussaint behind bars.

“I think it was all for nothing,” said commuter Lauren Caramico, 22, of Brooklyn. “Now the poor people of the TWU are out six days’ pay, and nothing gained.”

Just before the deal was announced, an off-duty firefighter was critically injured when he was struck by a private bus while riding his bicycle to work. It was the first serious strike-related injury.


Bloomberg, at a City Hall news conference, praised New Yorkers for their handling of the strike. “We passed the test with flying colors,” he said. “We did what we had to do to keep the city running, and running safely.”

A chief sticking point in the talks had been an MTA proposal to require new hires to contribute 6 percent to their pensions, up from the current 2 percent for all employees.

The vote to return to work was blasted by TWU dissidents who felt the union had caved in.

“This was a disgrace,” said TWU vice president John Mooney. “No details were provided to the executive board. (Toussaint) wants us to discuss the details after Christmas.”

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