I HOPE PEOPLE START GETTING VIOLENT AND ***** OVER THIS. *****
AMERICA!!!!
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Two bus lines go on strike in New York City
Workers at private companies walk out, public transit could be hit
Tuesday
Mechanics and members of Transport Workers Union Local 100 strike
outside the bus depot of the Triboro Coach Corp. in Queens on Monday.
David Karp / AP
Updated: 9:59 a.m. ET Dec. 19, 2005
NEW YORK - Commuters who depend on two private bus lines were forced to
find their own transportation after drivers walked off the job early
Monday, a predicament that could soon paralyze the entire city if the
transit strike widens.
The walkout at the two Queens bus lines, which together serve 50,000
commuters, came as the Transport Workers Union continued to threaten a
large-scale strike beginning Tuesday. The city=E2=80=99s buses and subways,
the nation=E2=80=99s largest transit system, serve up to 7 million riders p=
er
day.
=E2=80=9CIt is a little unsettling to be the first wave,=E2=80=9D said union
officer George Jennings, representing bus maintenance workers.
=E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s going to be a rough deal. Nobody wants to go on a str=
ike on
Christmas.=E2=80=9D
Story continues below =E2=86=93
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A citywide bus and subway strike would be New York=E2=80=99s first since an
11-day walkout in 1980.
After making little progress over the weekend, the union and the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority briefly negotiated Sunday
afternoon in a midtown Manhattan hotel, but the talks were not
fruitful, the MTA said.
=E2=80=9CWe will not delay this deadline,=E2=80=9D union chief Roger Toussa=
int told
the Daily News.
$400 million a day drain?
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in his weekly radio address Sunday, called a
possible citywide strike =E2=80=9Creprehensible=E2=80=9D and said it would =
drain
$400 million a day from the economy.
The strike at Jamaica Buses Inc. and Triboro Coach Corp. began at 12:01
a=2Em. More than 100 workers from the two companies picketed Monday
morning, one holding a sign reading, =E2=80=9CWe move New York. Respect
us!=E2=80=9D
Shortly after the strike began, taxi and livery cabs circled a Jackson
Heights transit hub looking for fares.
=E2=80=9CIf I pay them $10 every night to go home, then there=E2=80=99s no =
money
left for Christmas for my children,=E2=80=9D said Bobby Chen, a chef, who w=
as
trying to get to his home more than 25 blocks away.
Construction worker George Romero held his thumb in the air as he tried
to catch a cab in Queens later in the morning.
=E2=80=9CI can=E2=80=99t afford it (cab fare),=E2=80=9D the 23-year-old sai=
d=2E =E2=80=9CBut I
need to work.=E2=80=9D
=E2=80=9CWe would not strike if there was any alternative, but there is
none,=E2=80=9D the union said in a message on its Web site. =E2=80=9CThe so=
oner the
MTA, the governor and the mayor do the right thing and negotiate a fair
deal, the sooner all of us get back to work.=E2=80=9D
Strike background
More talks were planned for Monday.
The 33,000-member union announced plans for Monday=E2=80=99s strike on
Friday. The two private bus lines, which employ about 750 union
members, are being taken over by the MTA but are not yet covered by the
state=E2=80=99s Taylor Law, which forbids strikes by public employees.
The April 1980 walkout, which forced office workers to don sneakers and
trudge over the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, eventually led to stiff
fines against the union.
The union has opposed an MTA plan to raise the age at which a new
employee becomes eligible for a full pension from 55 to 62. The MTA has
said it made its best offer to the union hours after its contract
expired. The MTA also has offered the transit workers, who make between
$47,000 and $55,000 a year, 3 percent annual raises for each of three
years.
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