Local 100 of the Transport
Workers Union, which represents 33,700 subway and bus workers, announced its
first strike in 25 years after feverish last-minute negotiations faltered over
the transportation authority's demands for concessions on pension and health
benefits for future employees.
The state's Taylor Law bars
strikes by public employees and carries penalties of two days' pay for each day
on strike, but the transit union decided it was worth risking the substantial
fines to continue the fight for what it regards as an acceptable contract.
Across the city this
morning, New York City Transit began to safely shut down the subways and buses,
line by line. About 5,000 managers and supervisors, a fraction of the 47,000
workers, will remain on the job to maintain the system during the strike.
Yesterday, work trains,
including trains that collect trash and transport money and normally begin
their runs between 8 and 10 p.m., were ordered out of service. General orders,
which alter service so that tracks can be used for construction work, were
suspended.
The transit agency plans to
store the majority of the 6,300 subway cars underground, one next to another,
to protect them from the elements. Supervisors will run empty trains over the
rails to keep them polished and prevent rust.
The agency's Rail Control
Center, in Downtown Brooklyn, was filled with managers and supervisors last
night and this morning, continuously monitoring service. Starting in the late
evening, the agency tried to place a supervisor on each train to ensure the
train was safely operated until the completion of its run.
From the time the strike
was declared at 3 a.m., it would take more than 2 hours for all the trains to
complete their runs.
The bus system is
relatively easier to shut down. The 4,600 buses were being returned to their 18
depots this morning, where they will be stored and guarded for the duration of
the strike.
The union's executive board
voted 28 to 10, with 5 members abstaining, to start the strike, but Michael T.
O'Brien, the president of the Transport Workers Union of America, Local 100's
parent union, warned the board that he could not support a strike because he
believed the authority's most recent offer represented real progress.
Roger Toussaint, president
of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, rejected that argument, and at a 3
a.m. news conference tried to portray the strike as part of a broader effort
for social justice and workplace rights.
"New Yorkers, this is
a fight over whether hard work will be rewarded with a decent retirement,"
he said. "This is a fight over the erosion, or the eventual elimination,
of health-benefits coverage for working people in New York. This is a fight
over dignity and respect on the job, a concept that is very alien to the
M.T.A."
He appealed for public
support, acknowledging the tremendous inconvenience to millions of commuters
and tourists. "To our riders, we ask for your understanding and
forbearance. We stood with you to keep token booths open, to keep conductors on
the trains, to oppose fare hikes," he said. "We now ask that you
stand with us. We did not want a strike, but evidently the M.T.A., the governor
and the mayor did."
At 3:25 a.m., Peter S.
Kalikow, the chairman of the transportation authority, appeared before
reporters to condemn the strike.
"The T.W.U.'s action
today is illegal and irresponsible," he said, calling the walkout "a
slap in the face to all M.T.A. customers and New Yorkers."
Mr. Kalikow said the
authority and the state attorney general would go to state court to seek a
contempt citation against the union. Last week, a state judge issued an
injunction barring the transit workers from striking under the Taylor Law.
"I regret the enormous
inconvenience this will impact on our customers," he said. "The
M.T.A. has made every effort to resolve this dispute."
He said the authority had
changed its offer so that it no longer demanded an increase in the retirement
age. But he said the union rejected that proposal and never made a counteroffer.
Mr. Kalikow said he would
guarantee the public that the authority would take every step "to bring
this illegal action to an end as quickly as possible."
Shortly afterward, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said he would ask the city's
Corporation Counsel, Michael A. Cardozo, to join the transportation authority
and the state attorney general in an emergency court hearing to hold the union
in contempt and order severe fines against the union.
"The union must
understand there are real and significant consequences to their action,"
he said. "For their own selfish reasons, the T.W.U. has decided that their
demands are more important than the law, the city, and the people they serve. This
is not only an affront to the concept of public service, it is a cowardly
attempt by Roger Toussaint and the T.W.U. to bring the city to its knees to
create leverage for its own bargaining positions."
He said the city must not
let the inconveniences created by the strike stop the city's economy from
running and stop its schools from functioning.
"I have no doubt by
working together we can and will get through this," he saidThe vote by the
union board came after a 12-hour round of intense negotiations between the two
pivotal figures in the talks - Mr. Kalikow and Mr. Toussaint - who bargained
face-to-face yesterday for the first time since Friday.
But with just an hour to go
before the deadline, Tom Kelly, an authority spokesman, said that efforts to
settle the dispute had faltered after the union turned down what he called
"a fair offer."
"Unfortunately, that
offer has been rejected by the Transport Workers Union, and they have advised
us that they were going - that they are going - to leave the building, and
going to the union hall," Mr. Kelly said. "The M.T.A. remains ready
to continue negotiations." Union officials would not discuss the
developments as they headed into their private strategy session.
The developments capped a
day in which the transit union stepped up the pressure by beginning a strike
yesterday morning against two Queens bus lines, stranding about 57,000
passengers in what the union portrayed as a prelude to a strike that would shut
down the nation's largest transit system.
The union first threatened
to shut down the whole system on Friday, but pushed back the deadline to today,
seemingly to increase its leverage by warning of a walkout the week before
Christmas, one of the busiest weeks for retailers.
As a result of all the
threats and deadlines, many New Yorkers for the second straight week felt
wildly off balance, straining to figure out how their children would get to
school and how they would get to work or to doctors' appointments.
Some New Yorkers backed the
transit workers, some saw them as greedy lawbreakers, and some said that both
sides in the negotiations deserved the public's disdain.
Warning that a strike would
be illegal, Gov. George E. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg stepped up their campaign
to pressure the union, with the mayor saying that a strike would be
"reprehensible."
"The city and state
and courts - everybody is going to enforce the law, and anybody that thinks
that they can just go break the law is sadly mistaken," Mr. Bloomberg
said. "There can be no winners in a strike - it's not going to force the
M.T.A. to make a settlement. If anything, it's going to probably dig them
in."
At rallies outside the
governor's office and in Queens alongside the striking bus workers, Mr.
Toussaint and many union members trumpeted their defiance, insisting that it
was more important to obtain what they viewed as a just contract than to obey
the law barring strikes.
"Unless there is
substantial movement by the authority, trains and buses will come to a halt as
of midnight tonight," he said at a rally for the bus workers in East
Elmhurst, Queens.
With anger in his voice, he
added, "We maintain, as we have in the past week, that threats are not
going to produce a contract and are not going to work against us." Later,
at a rally outside the governor's office in Manhattan, he sought to justify a
walkout by saying, "There's a calling that is higher than the law, and
that's the calling of justice."
City officials have
prepared an emergency plan that would increase ferry service, allow taxis to
pick up multiple fares, close several streets to traffic except for buses and
emergency vehicles, and prohibit cars with fewer than four passengers from
entering Manhattan below 96th Street during the morning rush. The city is also
deploying hundreds of police officers to secure subway entrances in the event
of a walkout.
The transportation
authority's 11th-hour offer included a 3 percent raise in the first year, 4
percent in the second year and 3.5 percent in the third year of a new contract,
representatives on both sides said. Before yesterday, it was offering 3 percent
a year for three straight years.
The authority dropped its
demand to raise the retirement age for a full pension to 62 for new employees,
up from 55 for current employees. But the authority proposed that all future
transit workers pay 6 percent of their wages toward their pensions, up from the
2 percent that current workers pay.
The transportation
authority asserts that it needs to bring its soaring pension costs under control
to stave off future deficits. But union leaders vow that they will not sell out
future transit workers by saddling them with lesser benefits.
Earlier yesterday, Mr.
Toussaint hinted at some movement in the talks at the Grand Hyatt hotel, saying
that the union would reduce its wage demands to 6 percent a year, from 8
percent a year, if the authority promised to reduce the number of disciplinary
actions brought against transit workers. The authority has offered raises of 3
percent a year for three years.
The union began its strike
against two Queens bus lines, Jamaica Buses Inc. and Triboro Coach Corporation,
in the hope of pressuring the authority to reach an overall settlement. The
walkout angered many Queens commuters and caused many to squeeze into vans and
taxis.
The 707 workers at the two
bus companies have been without a contract for 33 months. The authority is
taking control of those two companies and five others, and union officials
assert that the strike against the companies is not prohibited because the
authority has not taken full control of them.
The Public Employment
Relations Board, a state body that oversees labor relations for government
employees, did not issue a decision yesterday in response to a complaint that
the union filed on Sunday, asserting that the authority had violated state law
by including its pension demands as part of what it said was its final offer. The
union has asked the labor board to seek an injunction ordering the authority to
drop its pension demand.
At 9:15 p.m. yesterday, the
board's executive director, James R. Edgar, said the board had not yet received
the authority's legal papers replying to the union.
Many New Yorkers said a
strike would disrupt their lives. Doreen Simon, 55, who lives in Crown Heights,
Brooklyn, and works as a housekeeper in Riverdale, the Bronx, said, "I'm
going to stay home. What can I do? I can't take a cab to the Bronx. It's going
to hurt."
The union has repeatedly
urged Mr. Pataki to join the talks, trying to put the onus on him if there is a
walkout. But the governor, like the mayor, says that the professionals at the
authority should handle the talks.
Workers at the Metro-North
Railroad and Long Island Rail Road are not expected to strike in support of
transit workers. Anthony J. Bottalico, the chairman of the union that
represents Metro-North engineers, conductors and rail-traffic controllers, said
none of his members planned to strike.
However, two other unions,
which represent Metro-North ticket collectors and track workers, have vowed to
show solidarity with Local 100 by refusing to cross picket lines, and they
could conceivably delay, though not disrupt, regular train service.