Negotiators return to talks in effort to avert NYC transit strike
NEW YORK (AP) – Millions of New Yorkers dropped their emergency plans and took their usual buses and subways to work Monday as the union representing transit workers suspended its strike threat and kept negotiating. The union and transit agency are at odds over pay raises, health benefits and disciplinary and sick leave policies. The union’s original strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. passed without a walkout – at least temporarily averting a strike that could paralyze the nation’s largest city during the busy holiday season.
The continued talks meant Chris Cavanagh didn’t have to hike to his Brooklyn office from lower Manhattan, where a bus takes him from his home in Hazlett, N.J.
“I would have walked across the Brooklyn Bridge,” Cavanagh said of the 1.13-mile span over the East River. “Everyone says it’s a beautiful walk. I was going to find out.”
Transport Workers Union chief Roger Toussaint and Metropolitan Transportation Authority negotiator Gary Dellaverson continued talks into the early morning. The two men took a break around 4 a.m. while lower-level talks continued and then they resumed negotiations, focusing on the issue of wages.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said a strike – which would violate state law – could cost the city up to $350 million a day in police overtime costs and lost business and taxes. Others warn a strike would create chaos in the streets, stranding travelers and endangering lives.
The union said the two sides were making progress on noneconomic issues, but not on wages – potentially a significant obstacle to a settlement. Management is offering no raise in the first year of the contract.
“We stopped the clock. But despite this measure of good faith, management continues to insist on a zero (raise) in the first year of your contract,” Toussaint said in a recorded message to union members Monday.
The extension of talks meant the New Yorkers who depend on the nation’s largest mass transit system were spared an enormous headache – at least temporarily. City buses and subways provide 7 million rides a day.
“I thought they would keep talking. It makes no sense to shut down the city at this time of year,” said Kevin Godfrey, a token booth operator, after learning that a strike wasn’t ordered after the deadline passed.
Brian Ellis, who works overnight as a video editor for Fox News, said a strike would have forced him to remain at his office for hours after his shift ended just so he could catch a special bus home to Brooklyn.
“It would have been really horrible,” Ellis said Monday.
The union’s 34,000 members had authorized their leaders to call a strike any time after the old contract expired.
Earlier Sunday, Bloomberg warned New Yorkers to plan for a strike and declared “we are all in this together.” Gov. George Pataki rejected demands that he intervene, saying “There is no person capable of riding in on a white horse with a bag of money to resolve this contract.”
Across the city, businesses prepared by reserving hotel rooms for employees and chartering buses, while residents flooded city stores to buy holiday gifts and food.
Officials had urged people to walk or bike to work if the transit system had shut down. Taxis would be asked to pick up multiple fares and cars entering many crossings into Manhattan would have to carry at least four people.
Transit workers at the busy Times Square subway station followed the talks on the radio throughout Sunday night, fielding questions from concerned straphangers.
“It’s so great because without the strike I can do what I normally do: get to work on time and go to school on time,” said Sebastian Hernandez, 26, a City College student who was waiting for an uptown train.
But, he added, “I’m still waiting for the final decision.”
The union was seeking raises of 6 percent for each of three years. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs a subway and bus system, has offered no raise the first year and linked subsequent raises to productivity increases.
Union members also are angry about health benefits they say will cost more over the years and disciplinary and sick leave policies they called demeaning and excessive. The MTA has offered to reduce the number of citations it issues.
The starting salary for transit workers is about $33,000 a year, while senior workers earn as much as $47,000.
A 12-day transit strike in 1966 prompted enactment of the state law against such walkouts. The union also staged an 11-day strike in 1980, and wound up with stiff fines.
The city and state went to court last week to obtain injunctions that could subject striking workers to jail time and heavy fines.
The union has appealed a judge’s order that would hold workers in contempt if they went on strike.
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On the Net:
City contingency plan: http://www.nyc.gov/transitstrike
MTA: http://www.mta.info
Transport Workers Union: http://www.twulocal100.org