[ Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From:
T1:
Category: Northwest News
Date: 20 Dec 2005
Time: 16:56:08 -0500
Remote Name: 211.18.199.251
Updated: 4:11 p.m. ET Dec. 20, 2005 NEW YORK - A New York state judge on Tuesday slapped a $1 million-a-day fine on a New York City transit union for violating a state law barring public employees from going on strike. The judge acted shortly after Mayor Michael Bloomberg blasted the walkout as “selfish and illegal" and said it had produced a morning commute “unlike anything this city has experienced in 25 years.” State Justice Theodore Jones leveled the sanction after attorneys for the city and state had asked him to hit the union with a “very potent fine” for defying the law. The judge's action came about 12 hours after transit workers walked off the job and shut down subway and bus service in the nation's largest city, stranding more than 7 million daily riders and threatening the city with a financial hit of $400 million a day Jones acted shortly after Bloomberg held a news conference in which he accused leaders of the Transport Workers Union of acting “thuggishly” and turning their backs on the city. After joining the throngs of people crossing the Brooklyn Bridge as he walked from a Brooklyn emergency headquarters to City Hall, Bloomberg urged workers to go back to their jobs to get buses and subways running again before resuming negotiations for a new contract. Bloomberg said the strike’s economic effects range “from severe to devastating, depending on the business.” He says retail stores in lower Manhattan were among the hardest hit. Many are simply closed. It’s illegal for transit workers to strike in New York. They can be fined two days’ wages for each day on strike. Subway, bus stations locked up Authorities began locking turnstiles and shuttering subway entrances shortly after the Transport Workers Union ordered the strike at 3 a.m., and commuters struggled through a rush hour filled with disorder. At one subway booth, a handwritten sign read, "Strike in Effect. Station Closed. Happy Holidays!!!!" Commuters in New York City were forced to find alternate means of transportation as MTA workers go on strike for the first time in 25 years. Commuters, scrounging for ways to get to work, lined up for cabs outside Penn Station and gathered in clusters on designated spots throughout the city for company vans and buses to shuttle them to their offices. There were carpools, and bicyclists, and hundreds of people trudging across the Brooklyn Bridge — including Bloomberg. The weather, with temperatures in the low 20s, added to their woes. Yvette Vigo, a Citibank employee, was waiting for a company-run shuttle bus that would bring her from Wall Street to 42nd Street. Her teeth were chattering despite a hooded parka and gloves. "I'm not happy about this," said Vigo, who had walked a couple of miles downtown from her home on the Lower East Side. "It's too cold to walk this far." Kathy Ko took a water taxi from Fort Lee, N.J., to Lower Manhattan rather than her usual bus and subway ride. "It's just a mess," she said. "Absolutely a mess." At Penn Station, hundreds of people waited for cabs. Driver Angel Aponte said frantic riders were "pulling doors left and right. I had to make four stops." The cost: $10 per person, rather than the usual metered ride. The city instituted a sweeping emergency plan to reduce gridlock and keep certain streets open for emergency vehicles. "It will be difficult, but people are following our rules," the mayor said on the bridge. City schools opened two hours late, and city police were dispatched to guard subway stations abandoned by the workers. Huge lines formed at ticket booths for the commuter railroads that stayed in operation, and traffic backed up for up to six miles at bridges and tunnels leading into Manhattan as police inspected cars to make sure they followed a four-passenger minimum rule in effect at most crossings. Picket lines All the while, transit workers took to the picket lines with signs that read "We Move NY. Respect Us!" as they forced the 24-hour-a-day bus and subway system to shut down. The nation's largest mass transit system counts each fare as a rider, giving it more than 7 million riders each day — although many customers take a daily round trip. The union and Metropolitan Transportation Authority had worked furiously to reach a new contract, hoping to avoid the first citywide transit strike since an 11-day walkout in 1980. The union called the strike after a late round of negotiations broke down Monday night. Union President Roger Toussaint said the union board voted overwhelmingly to call the strike. “This is a fight over dignity and respect on the job, a concept that is very alien to the MTA,” Toussaint said in announcing the strike. “Transit workers are tired of being underappreciated and disrespected.” 'A slap in the face' The news drew an angry response from the mayor, governor and head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow called the strike “a slap in the face” to all New Yorkers and said state lawyers will immediately head to court in seeking to block the walkout. “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,” said Bloomberg at a news conference. "They have broken the trust of the people of New York," Gov. George Pataki said. "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." MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said the agency "put a fair offer" on the table before talks broke down. "Unfortunately, that offer has been Sticking points The union said the latest MTA offer included annual raises of 3 percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent; the previous proposal included 3 percent raises each year. MTA workers earn between $47,000 and $55,000 annually. Pension issues have been a major sticking point in the talks. The MTA wants to raise the age at which new employees become eligible for full pension from 55 to 62, which the union says is unfair. But Toussaint said the union wanted a better offer from the MTA, especially when the agency has a $1 billion surplus this year. “With a $1 billion surplus, this contract between the MTA and the Transport Workers Union should have been a no-brainer,” Toussaint said. “Sadly, that has not been the case.” The down-to-the-wire negotiations came as workers at two private bus lines in Queens walked off the job, a move meant to step up pressure on the MTA. The contract expired Friday at midnight, but the two sides agreed to keep talking through the weekend and the union set a new deadline for Tuesday. Angry commuters Commuter frustration was evident both before the strike and after it was called. Darryl Padilla, a 20-year-old club promoter, was trying to get on the train at Penn Station when he found out that the strike had begun. He didn’t have enough cash to take a cab to his home on the northern tip of Manhattan. “I didn’t think they were going to shut down. I can’t take a cab,” he said. “Enough is enough,” said Craig DeRosa, who relies on the subway to get to work. “Their benefits are as rich as you see anywhere in this country and they are still complaining. I don’t get it.” Matthew Higgs arrived in Manhattan just before midnight to avoid traffic and make it to early meetings. "I'm disappointed that it's happening, but I try to put myself in their shoes," he said. "The only way you can get what you want is to take a stand. "These guys work every day," Higgs said. "Why shouldn't their kids have good health care? Why shouldn't their kids be able to go to college?" Walkers made their way across the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges Tuesday morning, and cyclists weaved through lines of cars backed up at bridge entrances. Some taxi and livery drivers said that business was proving difficult, especially with car pool restrictions allowing cars only with four or more people into parts of Manhattan. "I can't find more people," said Atiq Ahmed, a limousine driver looking for commuters leaving their cars at Shea Stadium's parking lot. "I have one going uptown, but then the other goes downtown. I have to get a combination of three people going to the same place. So I am just sitting here. This strike is no good for anybody." But not all commuters were pessimistic. "This is part of New York, part of the culture here," said Chris Reed, 37, an insurance executive, waiting in line for a taxi in front of Penn Station. "New Yorkers always try to find a way to deal with things like this. New Yorkers always find a way to overcome."