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Strike shuts down NYC transit system
« on: Dec 20th, 2005, 7:38am » |
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Strike shuts down NYC transit system
More than 7 million commuters affected
From Tom DiDonato
CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Under threat of legal action, more than 30,000 New York City transit workers went on strike early Tuesday, shutting down the nation's largest public transportation system just days ahead of Christmas.
"Transit workers are tired of being underappreciated and disrespected," said TWU President Roger Toussaint. "The Local 100 executive board has voted overwhelmingly to extend strike action to all MTA properties immediately."
According to Ainsley Stewart, a Transit Workers Union vice president, the walkout was called after the executive board for the TWU rejected an offer made late Monday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The vote was 28 to 10 with five abstentions, Stewart said. (Watch the union leader announce the strike -- 3:55)
MTA President Peter Kalikow responded quickly and forcefully, threatening the union with legal action under the Taylor Law, which forbids public employees from walking off the job.
"The TWU's action today is illegal and irresponsible," he said. "This blatant violation of the Taylor Law and the judge's injunction is slap in the face to all MTA customers and all New Yorkers."
A New York judge last week issued a preliminary injunction barring the transit union from staging a strike.
The Taylor Law allows for a fine of two days pay' for each day of a illegal strike.
Kalikow said New York's attorney general and MTA lawyers would begin contempt proceedings against the union.
With the strike announcement, members of the Transit Workers Union (TWU) began shutting down the city's trains, buses and subways, affecting more than 7 million people who use the system on a typical day.
"As always, Local 100 members will meet our responsibility for the safety of our riders, for the safety of all transit workers, and for the safe maintenance of the equipment we will use when we get a fair contract and return to work," a statement on Web site for TWU Local 100 said.
"Local 100 members shall make sure that the subways are buses are shut down safely and efficiently at the beginning of the strike. Local 100 members shall then make sure that the system stays shut down for the duration of the strike."
'Illegal and morally reprehensible '
City officials have said a transit strike could cost the city as much as $400 million a day.
The union's strike announcement angered New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"Tonight, Roger Toussaint and the TWU have taken the illegal and morally reprehensible action of ordering a citywide strike of our mass transit system," Bloomberg said.
"For their own selfish reasons, the TWU has decided that their demands are more important than the law, the city and the people they serve," the mayor added. (Watch the mayor vow to hit the union hard -- 3:12)
Bloomberg said a previously drawn-up contingency plan would be in effect for Tuesday morning's rush hour. That plan calls for the designation of HOV lanes, the establishment of police checkpoints and the adoption of a new fare structure for taxis.
The mayor also said the city would be joining the MTA in requesting an emergency hearing in front of Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones.
"We will seek to show that the TWU is in contempt of the court's earlier injunction and ask the court to impose severe fines on the union and its members," Bloomberg said.
New York Gov. George Pataki echoed Bloomberg's sentiments, saying the union has "broken the trust of the people of New York."
"They have not only endangered our city and state's economy, but they are also recklessly endangering the health and safety of each and every New Yorker," he said.
Issues: Wages, pensions, benefits
A partial strike began Monday -- more than 700 workers at a pair of private New York bus lines walked out, impacting some 50,000 commuters in Queens.
Hours before the strike, Toussaint said transit workers were prepared to lower their wage increase demands to below 6 percent if the MTA agreed to reduce the number of disciplinary actions launched against transit workers and grant other concessions.
The workers had been asking for an 8 percent annual wage increase.
Toussaint also chastised Pataki for threatening transit workers on television.
Pataki has pointed out that state law forbids strikes by public employees and that a transit walkout would be illegal.
"We do not appreciate being threatened on public television nonetheless and in front of our children, " Toussaint said. "Even if the governor needs this to appear to be tough to the nation for his own political ambitions, it's inappropriate."
Toussaint called on Pataki and Bloomberg to play a constructive role in the negotiations and restore state and city funds to the mass transit budget.
"If Gov. Pataki wants to play a constructive role he should get involved in these negotiations, and he should restore money to mass transit because ... the state government has taken out funds from mass transit ... (state funding) has gone down from 20 percent 10 to 15 years ago, to zero for capital funding," Toussaint said.
There were also signs that TWU workers will get the support of union leaders for Metro-North railroad, the second-largest commuter railroad in the country which shuttles some 250,000 commuters in and out of Manhattan every day.
The leaders of the TCU System Board No. 86 signaled their solidarity with workers on the MTA system but stopped short of threatening to strike in concert with them.
Russell Oathout, general chairman of No. 86, complained that his members also have been unsuccessful in negotiating a contract for its members for three years.
"A similar situation is in store for the MTA's Metro-North property if a fair agreement is not reached," Oathout warned in a news conference.
Union leaders and the MTA negotiated Sunday but those talks did not produce any agreement with key issues such as health benefits, pensions and wages remaining on the table.
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