NY transit workers on Strike

[theHawk]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/20/nyc.transit/index.html

NEW YORK (CNN) -- More than 7 million passengers in New York City are having to find a new way of getting to work, do their holiday shopping and run their everyday errands.

For the first time in 25 years, New York's transit workers went on strike early Tuesday, shutting down the nation's largest public transportation system days ahead of Christmas.

The strike brings to a grinding halt Metropolitan Transit Authority buses and subways throughout all five boroughs.

"I think they all should get fired," Eddie Goncalves, a doorman trying to get home after his overnight shift, told The Associated Press. He said he'll likely spend an extra $30 per day in cab and train fares, according to the AP.

City officials have said a transit strike could cost the city as much as $400 million a day. (Read about the economic impact)

"Transit workers are tired of being underappreciated and disrespected," said Roger Toussaint, president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union.

The strike defies the Taylor Law, which forbids public employees from walking off the job. The law imposes a fine of two days' pay for each day of an illegal strike.

In addition, the union could be fined millions of dollars a day.

The union and the more than 30,000 members of Local 100 also risk contempt for defying a court injunction last week barring the strike.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the strike "illegal and morally reprehensible" and said the union faces severe consequences.

"This is not only an affront to the concept of public service, it is a cowardly attempt by Roger Toussaint and the TWU to bring the city to its knees to create leverage for their own bargaining position," Bloomberg said at a news conference Monday night. (Watch the mayor vow to hit the union hard -- 3:12)

New York Gov. George Pataki echoed those sentiments, saying union members "are also recklessly endangering the health and safety of each and every New Yorker."

The chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, Peter Kalikow, said its lawyers and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer will begin with contempt proceedings against the union.

No deal, no work
The city has implemented a strike contingency plan that requires carpooling and other travel restrictions. The city is prohibiting cars from entering most of Manhattan between 5 and 11 a.m. without at least four people in the vehicle.

Traffic was heavier than usual ahead of 5 a.m., with commuters trying to beat the deadline.

Schools also are starting two hours late.

Hours before the strike, Toussaint said transit workers were prepared to lower their wage increase demands from 8 percent to below 6 percent, if the MTA agreed to reduce the number of disciplinary actions launched against transit workers and grant other concessions.

Talks between the MTA and union leaders did not reach agreement on other key issues such as health benefits and pensions.

The vote to reject the MTA contract offer was 28-10, with five abstentions, said Ainsley Stewart, a Transport Workers Union vice president. (Watch the union leader announce the strike -- 3:55)

Toussaint called on Pataki and Bloomberg to play a constructive role in negotiations and restore state and city funds to the mass transit budget. He said that state funding has gone from 20 percent a decade ago "to zero for capital funding."

There were signs TWU workers will get support from union leaders for Metro-North railroad, the second-largest commuter railroad in the country that shuttles some 250,000 commuters in and out of Manhattan every day.

A leader of the Transportation Communications Union System Board No. 86 signaled solidarity with workers on the MTA system and complained that his members have been unsuccessful in negotiating a contract for three years.

"A similar situation is in store for the MTA's Metro-North property if a fair agreement is not reached," warned Russell Oathout, general chairman of No. 86, in a news conference.

CNN's Tom DiDonato contributed to this report.

Hurray Unions !!!

 

[Annie]

Their average salary is nearly twice that of university trained teachers and policemen over $60k per year. They pay nothing for their medical care. They can retire at 55, with a full pension.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051220/ap_on_re_us/nyc_transit_strike

Court Fines NYC Transit Strikers $1M a Day

By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer 37 minutes ago

The city's subway and bus workers went on strike Tuesday for the first time in more than 25 years, stranding millions of commuters, holiday shoppers and tourists at the height of the Christmas rush. A judge promptly slapped the union with a $1 million-a-day fine.

State Justice Theodore Jones leveled the sanction against the Transport Workers Union for violating a state law that bars public employees from going on strike.

Attorneys for the city and state had asked Jones to hit the union with a "very potent fine" for defying the law.

"This is a very, very sad day in the history of labor relations for New York City," the judge said in imposing the fine.

The union vowed to immediately appeal, calling it an excessive fine.

The heavy penalty could force the union off the picket lines and back on the job. Its 33,000 members are already facing individual fines of two days' pay for every day they are on strike.

The courtroom drama came midway through a day in which the strike fell far short of the all-out chaos that many had feared.

The nation's largest transit system ground to a halt after 3 a.m. when the 33,000-member Transport Workers Union called the strike after a late round of negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority broke down Monday night. The subways and buses provide more than 7 million rides per day.

New Yorkers car-pooled, shared taxis, rode bicycles, roller-skated or walked in the freezing cold. Early morning temperatures were in the 20s.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had said the strike would cost the city as much as $400 million a day, joined the throngs of people crossing the Brooklyn Bridge by foot.

"It's a form of terrorism, if you ask me," said Maria Negron, who walked across the bridge. "I hope they go back to work."

With special traffic rules in place, the city survived the morning rush without the monumental gridlock some had feared. Manhattan streets were unusually quiet; some commuters just stayed home.

Public officials carried out their threat of quick legal action, heading into a courtroom in Brooklyn to obtain sanctions against the union for violating state law. The transit employees could face fines of two days' pay for each day off the job.

The striking workers deserve a "very potent fine" for the walkout because of its economic and social cost, James Henly of the state attorney general's office said in court. But union attorney Arthur Schwartz accused the MTA of provoking the strike.

Gov. George Pataki said the union acted illegally and "will suffer the consequences."

No talks between the two sides were scheduled by Tuesday afternoon, though a union lawyer told a court hearing that his side was willing to sit down with a mediator.

It was New York's first citywide transit walkout since an 11-day strike in 1980. The main sticking points were pay raises and pension and health benefits.

"I'm not happy about this," said Yvette Vigo, whose teeth were chattering after she walked a couple of miles to pick up a company-run shuttle bus at Wall Street. "It's too cold to walk this far."

At one subway booth, a handwritten sign read: "Strike in Effect. Station Closed. Happy Holidays!!!!"

Huge lines formed at ticket booths for the commuter railroads that stayed in operation, and Manhattan-bound traffic backed up at many bridges and tunnels as police turned away cars with fewer than four people.

Transit workers took to the picket lines with signs that read: "We Move NY. Respect Us!"

"I think they all should get fired," said Eddie Goncalves, a doorman trying to get home after his overnight shift. He said he expected to spend an extra $30 per day in cab and train fares.

"It doesn't seem right to tie up the cultural and investment center of the world," said Larry Scarinzi, 72, a retired engineer from Whippany, N.J., waiting for a cab outside Penn Station. "They're breaking the law. They're tearing the heart out of the nation's economy."

The mayor put into effect a sweeping emergency plan, including the requirement that cars entering Manhattan below 96th Street have at least four occupants.

The union said the latest MTA offer included annual raises of 3 percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent. MTA workers typically earn from $35,000 as a starting salary to about $55,000 annually. The union said it wanted a better offer, especially since the MTA has a $1 billion surplus this year.

The contract expired Friday at midnight, but the two sides had continued talking through the weekend.

 

[theim]

Well they're all liberals up there. Doubtless they accept the need to go without mass transit, all for the benefit of the Worker. Good for them.

 

[manu1959]

i have always wanted to organize a stike agisnt strikers....you know their first day back no one goes to their place of work except to give them shit and prevent them from doing their job

 

[NATO AIR]

FIRE THEM ALL with no incentive or mechanism to return to work for the city of New York or state government of NY!

then computerize the system like instapundit noted.

 

[William Joyce]

NYC is such a craphole. The unionized workers there are such babies. They have it CUSHY. You'd be hoofin' it to your non-unionized job today. Don't like the pay of a subway man? Go to night school.

 

[insein]

Indeed fire them all today. Watch how many line up tommorrow to apply for those jobs at half of what they were making. Break the union. Unions are good when the power between them and management is balanced or close to it. When one side has too much power, its disaster.

 

[Mr. P]

Ahhhhh, The unions, they really know how to make friends and influence people, don’t they. IDIOTS!

 

[NATO AIR]

This is all a really nice Christmas f you to the people of NY from the unions that I hope they never forget. My friends there are all bitching because they're freezing out there with everybody else walking to work. Dumb, greedy unions, this is a god-send to efforts to bring them in line....

 

[SpidermanTuba]

Their average salary is nearly twice that of university trained teachers and policemen over $60k per year. They pay nothing for their medical care. They can retire at 55, with a full pension.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051220/ap_on_re_us/nyc_transit_strike

So you believe you should be able to decide for them if they are getting paid enough, instead of them making that decision?

 

[SpidermanTuba]

This is all a really nice Christmas f you to the people of NY from the unions that I hope they never forget. My friends there are all bitching because they're freezing out there with everybody else walking to work. Dumb, greedy unions, this is a god-send to efforts to bring them in line....

Well perhaps your friends should consider that what the transit workers are asking for would cost them less than $10/year. If they'd rather freeze than cough up an extra $10/year, well, that's their choice.

 

[Annie]

So you believe you should be able to decide for them if they are getting paid enough, instead of them making that decision?

I believe it's ridiculous for those on the public payroll to hold a city hostage by refusing to obey the law. I also think it's a travesty that a job that can be replaced with computers at lower cost has spiraling costs, borne by the taxpayers. I hope that NYC rushes to get the new tech and replace these oppressed workers, so they can find other jobs that will pay them what they are worth.

 

[CSM]

I believe it's ridiculous for those on the public payroll to hold a city hostage by refusing to obey the law. I also think it's a travesty that a job that can be replaced with computers at lower cost has spiraling costs, borne by the taxpayers. I hope that NYC rushes to get the new tech and replace these oppressed workers, so they can find other jobs that will pay them what they are worth.

Maybe, just maybe, all the fired transit workers can replace the illegal immigrants that will disappear after the wall is built.

 

[insein]

I believe it's ridiculous for those on the public payroll to hold a city hostage by refusing to obey the law. I also think it's a travesty that a job that can be replaced with computers at lower cost has spiraling costs, borne by the taxpayers. I hope that NYC rushes to get the new tech and replace these oppressed workers, so they can find other jobs that will pay them what they are worth.

Really couldnt have said it any better.

 

[SpidermanTuba]

I believe it's ridiculous for those on the public payroll to hold a city hostage by refusing to obey the law.

If the law requires them to work, then why aren't they being forced back to work at gunpoint?


They aren't holding the city hostage. The city is free to fire them, and the city is free to cough up the extra $10/year/resident that it would cost to give them what they want. Its up to them.

It would appear you don't believe that workers should be able to decide for themselves if they are getting paid enough to work. You are against free market capitalism?


We live in a free market. The employees are free to decide if they are getting paid enough to work, and the price of their work is determined by whether or not they are willing to work for it. This isn't a communist nation where government sets the prices of everything.

 

[Mr. P]

...

We live in a free market. The employees are free to decide if they are getting paid enough to work, and the price of their work is determined by whether or not they are willing to work for it. This isn't a communist nation where government sets the prices of everything.

Then explain why a union is involved, please. Kid.

 

[Annie]

If the law requires them to work, then why aren't they being forced back to work at gunpoint?


They aren't holding the city hostage. The city is free to fire them, and the city is free to cough up the extra $10/year/resident that it would cost to give them what they want. Its up to them.

It would appear you don't believe that workers should be able to decide for themselves if they are getting paid enough to work. You are against free market capitalism?


We live in a free market. The employees are free to decide if they are getting paid enough to work, and the price of their work is determined by whether or not they are willing to work for it. This isn't a communist nation where government sets the prices of everything.

Let's see, the union is being fined $1 m per day. The judge has threatened to jail the leaders. On one thing we do agree, they should fire everyone of their asses and see how many they can hire at $25k with their benefits, until they can get the tech to do without any of the 'engineers'.

 

[SpidermanTuba]

Then explain why a union is involved, please. Kid.

How does a union imply there is no free market? You are suggesting free markets involved groups of owners coming together to form a corporation, but not groups of employees coming together to form a union?

 

[Annie]

Obviously written before the strike was cancelled.

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/59234.htm

A NEW CLASS WAR

By RYAN SAGER

NEW York City is in the middle of a class war — but not the one the Trans port Workers Union expected.

As transit workers walked off the job Tuesday and stayed off the job Wednesday, the rhetoric has heated up on all sides.

Nowhere did the rhetoric get hotter than on a Web site that the TWU set up for the strike. There, as the sun came up on Tuesday, hundreds of anonymous New Yorkers logged on and sounded off about the TWU's decision to shut down the subways and buses.

The surprise (at least to the TWU): Opinions on the site ran roughly 4-to-1 against the union — which pulled the comments off the Web by Tuesday afternoon.

But the real surprise was who was against the union.

Check out a sampling of the outbursts (those, at least, suitable for printing in a family newspaper):

* "I appreciate many of your concerns regarding the contract negotiations, but striking, though [it] may prove a point, hurts more people than it helps," wrote one New Yorker. "My annual salary is less than half than the lowest paid transit worker in the system, and now I am going to lose at least one if not more days of pay due to the strike . . . Thanks for that — and happy holidays."

* Another anonymous commenter wrote in urging the TWU to "Please get back to the bargaining table!" He added: "The strike is killing me and my small business! The MTA is irresponsible, but to take it out on us is reprehensible! You need to make some concessions!"

* Yet another anonymous commenter wrote: "Wake up and get with reality, this is USA in 2005 and not communist North Korea. . . . Wow, I wish my company would give me the benefits you want to get. You break the law, you force me to stay home and lose my pay. When my kids ask me why our Xmas is miserable I will have to explain that some selfish Grinches at the [TWU] decided to mess it up for all New Yorkers . . . SHAME SHAME SHAME. I have no sympathy for ANY OF YOU and I hope that you all LOSE tons of money and go into bankruptcy."

Not the reaction the TWU was hoping for.

And also not the war of rich against poor that the unions would like New Yorkers to believe is underway.

One socialist Web site on Tuesday labeled the strike "the biggest class confrontation in the U.S. in a generation" and wrote that "The attitude taken by the city's ruling elite is akin to the reaction of a master to a slave revolt."

Not quite.

As the comments excerpted above show, there is a class confrontation of a kind going on — but it's not between rich and poor. It's between the working class and what might be called the government-worker class.

The gap between the two groups has been growing for a while.

The private sector has been groaning under rising health and pension costs for years. Retired coal miners have lost company-paid health insurance in bankruptcy proceedings. Companies like General Motors have had to lay off tens of thousands of workers because of crushing pension costs.

Yet the benefits for public-sector workers keep getting fatter and fatter.

The reason is fairly simple. While only 8 percent of private-sector workers are unionized these days, some 40 percent of public-sector workers are unionized. And while the rigors of the free market forced private companies to become more efficient, the government faces no such constraints.

Instead, pliant politicians simply give the unions whatever they want, driving up health and pension costs — and sticking taxpayers (the ones trudging over the Brooklyn Bridge this week) with the bill.

It's no wonder average working New Yorkers are ticked.

Transit workers can retire at 55. Not many private-sector workers can do that.

Transit workers don't pay a single cent toward their health-insurance premiums. Not too many private-sector workers get that deal, either.

As one commenter wrote in to the TWU: "Get with reality . . . 90+% of people in this area will never be able to retire by 55 . . . pensions across America are going to default. Sad state of America, yes, but unfortunately the rest of us are in the same boat."

Hmmm . . . a boat. Maybe that's how we'll get to work tomorrow.

I just happened to the comments, before they were closed. If anyone wants the whole thing, pm me.

Here's a sample, the last one seems prescient...

776 Comments:
At 4:08 AM, Alison said...
If you do not allow for a peaceful evolution, you make only a violent revolution possible.

At 4:19 AM, Anonymous said...
It's a shame the leaders of the city are more interested in looting the train system's coffers rather than sharing those benefits back with the very people whose labor keeps that system running.

The policies of the MTA towards its workers (and riders) are reprehensible. It takes real courage to strike against this oppressive government, to attempt to bring attention to the importance of treating the workers and all the people in a much fairer way.

This strike is a real inconvenience to all of us, but it's the city decision makers who are to blame for having run the MTA in such an unjust way.

At 4:25 AM, Anonymous said...
Two things, there's not going to be a violent revolution over mass transit employees having their healthcare cut, and secondly, if i could meet the masterminds behind this strike, i'd personally spit in each of their faces. I know fifty people at my campus who now cannot return to their families for the holiday season, and are being forced to spend their break in a hotel off campus until the transit system is running again. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves doing something this stupid this time of the year. Every single worker participating in the strike is extremely selfish and short sighted. To pull something so utterly despicable just shows how unions are corroding American society. We understand your concerns, but now is absolutlely not the time for this. Just saying that other people are being selfish for being angered by the strike is an incredibly irrisponsible way to think. One group of people halts the lives of hundreds of thousands. Who is being selfish?

At 4:25 AM, Anonymous said...
You guys really have a lot of balls. All you do is drive around in circles. Your job isn't hard at all. You get paid as much as cops and firemen, while much more as teachers. Something is wrong. You're asking for way too much here. Back down and know your roll. You guys aren't as high and as mighty as you thing.

At 4:32 AM, Anonymous said...
By going on strike, transit workers do not gather any sympathy from anyone. This strike is an extremely selfish act prompted by irresponsible union officials. I think you all probably deserve the raise but this is no way to get it! When you pledge to be a public servant you do so above your own personal needs. Get a grip! Stop this illegal strike and go back to work and then sit down and negotiate like responsible businessmen and women.

At 4:33 AM, Anonymous said...
These jerks have some nerve trying to seek pity. Nevermind the fact that these assholes average over $50,000 per year, base pay that this, never mind the fact that they make more than NYPD Cops, firemen and teachers. They are nothing more than greedy strike-happy jerkers buoyed by leaders fueled by reckless ambitions

At 4:35 AM, Anonymous said...
I am thoroughly disgusted with the TWU. Who are you to think you're above the law? Who are you to take well-paying jobs (for your education levels) serving millions of people and then hold us hostage by striking?

I have a 16 month old son who will be taken to day care today in his STROLLER. In 20 degree weather. I am paid hourly and will lose today's salary.

I hope the MTA and Mayor Bloomberg sue you to the fullest extent of the law. I hope you lose every last penny you've saved for your kids and yourselves.

You are TERRORISTS, and you are irresponsible, and you are pathetic. Welcome to life in the 21st century. EVERYONE pays a portion of their health care and retirement funds!

Get over yourselves and get back to work.

At 4:36 AM, Anonymous said...
I'll be interested to see what the comments are on this site, and how long they remain up when you're flooded with critical remarks.