New Yorkers made the long, cold commute to work on the second day of the transit strike this morning without subways or buses, as negotiations between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the transit union remained at an impasse.þþTraffic was snarled this morning along many of the city's major roadways, including the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, as many commuters tried to get to get into Manhattan before a 5 a.m. ban on cars with fewer than four people took effect. The prohibition ends at 11 a.m.þþÿIt's really a hardship,ÿ said Bonnie Bromell, 50, who got up at 3 a.m. to drive in from Hastings, in Westchester County. ÿIt's encroaching on the Christmas season. There are other things we could be doing, but we're not.ÿþþJanine Colletta, a 21-year-old medical assistant who lives in Queens, got up at 2:45 a.m. to make sure that she made it in on time at her office in lower Manhattan. She got to work early, by 6:30 a.m., but not before getting stuck in traffic along the way.þþÿI got up three-and-a-half hours early, only so we could sit in traffic with people cursing at us,ÿ she said. ÿI didn't come in yesterday. I couldn't come in. I got a ride today. I don't know about tomorrow.ÿþþThis morning, with temperatures hovering around 25 degrees - which felt like 15 degrees when wind chill was factored in - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg again walked over the Brooklyn Bridge from the city's emergency management center to Manhattan to get to work at City Hall. þþIt appeared that he was wearing the same leather jacket and faded blue jeans he wore during Monday's walk across the bridge. Instead of sneakers, he wore a pair of black tasseled loafers. At the end of the bridge, he walked up to a Red Cross truck that was distributing free hot drinks and shook hands with the volunteers. When asked if he wanted a cocoa, he replied, ÿNah. I'd better not.ÿþþDuring a break on the bridge, the mayor told reporters that New Yorkers will have to cope as well as they can until the end of the strike.þþÿThis is not good for anybody and we're just going to have to deal with it, because saying that we should just cave in to law breakers is something that is just not tolerable,ÿ he said. þþThe conflict was poised for another round of court action today. On Tuesday, a State Supreme Court justice in Brooklyn, calling the strike illegal, ordered the union members back to work - a demand echoed by the union's parent organization. He also hit the union with a contempt order requiring a $1 million fine for each day it is on strike. And he said he would consider $1,000 daily fines of its leaders, on top of the automatic fines against individual workers. þþLater, the state's Public Employment Relations Board dismissed the union's complaint that the authority had violated state law by negotiating pensions.þþÿThis is a very sad day in the history of the labor movement in New York City,ÿ Justice Theodore T. Jones said as he issued his contempt order. þþRoger Toussaint, president of the transport Workers Union, appeared initially undaunted, calling the fine excessive and predicting that, ÿin the end, I think it will be abated.ÿþþHowever, he then took a more conciliatory tone, saying he would like to resume negotiations.þþThe strike began after talks between the union and the transportation authority - which gripped the entire city in a vise of anxiety for weeks - broke apart late Monday night, after the union rejected the authority's last offer. The authority had agreed to drop its previous demand to raise the retirement age for a full pension to 62 for new transit employees, up from 55 for current employees, but said it expected all future transit workers to pay 6 percent of their wages toward their pensions, up from the current 2 percent. þþThe offer was rejected, and at 3 a.m., officials from Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union announced the strike - even though its parent organization said it did not support the strike.þþMayor Bloomberg decried the strike as ÿthuggish,ÿ and ÿselfishÿ and declared that negotiations - in which the city does not participate - should not resume until the 33,700 subway and bus workers return to their jobs. He made his comments several hours before Mr. Toussaint suggested the union was ready to resume bargaining.þþÿThe T.W.U. has violated the laws of our land by defying an order of the court,ÿ Mr. Bloomberg said. Gary J. Dellaverson, the authority's director of labor relations, said that the authority had asked for binding arbitration, telling the Public Employment Relations Board that it believed the dispute had reached an impasse and suggesting a move toward arbitration. Mr. Toussaint has repeatedly rejected arbitration, asserting that it would deny union members the right to vote on a contract.þþNew Yorkers are concerned about being inconvenienced and being caught in between us and the M.T.A. and the governor and the mayor,ÿ Mr. Toussaint said. ÿThe reason that people are upset about this is their general sense that this need not have occurred because of the billion-dollar surplusÿ that the authority has this year. þþAs of this morning, no new negotiations had been scheduled, although Tom Kelly, an authority spokesman, said it was ready to meet at any time.þþSo once again, on a cold clear morning, New Yorkers set off on foot, or wheels, to head off to work, or in some cases, head home. For Heather Barnard, a 27-year-old bartender on the Lower East Side, the problem was not getting to work this morning, but getting home from her late shift.þþÿSo far, I've asked three cabs and they won't take me because I'm going to Brooklyn,ÿ she said this morning while waiting in the 25-degree chill. ÿI just worked for 12 hours. I'm very tired,. I'm very desperate.ÿþþAfter another cab driver refused her request, she finally got a taxi to take her home. þþThroughout the day Monday, mass confusion reigned at many arteries leading into the city, where police halted all vehicles with fewer than four occupants. North of 96th Street on the Upper West Side, cars were backed up for miles as drivers begged strangers to hop into their cars. þþBusinesses remained shuttered or devoid of customers, and thousands of workers across the region stayed home, including roughly 20 percent of the workers in the city's largest companies. At Lord & Taylor, the famed Midtown department store, executives walked the sales floor, trying to sell the gloves and sweater sets themselves, mirroring the desperation of many retailers.þþPlenty of people clearly just stayed home. In large swaths of Manhattan, it seemed as if Christmas had already arrived, with icy streets silent and bathed in winter light, and taxis whizzing by, unhailed.þþMayor Bloomberg made his way, somewhat crankily and looking tired, across the Brooklyn Bridge, recalling Mayor Edward I. Koch's triumphant march in 1980, when he joined New Yorkers flowing into Manhattan during the city's last transit strike. þþJustice Jones held the union in contempt after a day of hearings, calling the standoff ÿthe ultimate breakdown in collective bargainingÿ that led the union ÿto violate the law.ÿþþThe order sets off penalties against striking members of Local 100 of one day's pay, in addition to one day of lost wages for every day they are on strike, as stipulated under the state's Taylor Law. þþDuring the hearings, the union said the authority had engaged in ÿextreme provocationÿ by demanding changes in the rules governing transit workers' pension benefits. Arthur Z. Schwartz, a lawyer for Local 100, said the Taylor Law stipulated that pension rules for the local's members were not subject to collective bargaining.þþÿThey are putting the union against the wall, demanding something that the law says we cannot be asked to agree to,ÿ Mr. Schwartz said.þþMr. Schwartz also argued that Local 100 could not afford to pay the $1 million daily fines imposed by the court, and he introduced tax records for 2004 that showed the union's assets to be about $3.6 million. ÿThis begins the process of crippling the union,ÿ he said.þþThe fines imposed under the Taylor Law are separate from those that could be sought by the city in a separate lawsuit, which it filed in Justice Jones's court last week seeking fines of up to $25,000 a day against rank-and-file transit workers who strike. The city did not ask the court to issue a preliminary injunction in that case, which would be necessary before fines could be assessed.þþMichael A. Cardozo, the city's corporation counsel, who attended yesterday's hearing but did not address the court, said afterward that the city retained the option of proceeding with its lawsuit.þþCalls to the city's 911 system increased by 15 percent yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg said, and one police officer was slightly injured during the morning rush, when the driver of a private flatbed truck made a turn into his checkpoint in Queens. The police moved 58 homeless people to shelters, up from roughly 5 a night, because they could not seek refuge in the subway system. The city's 311 line received more than 175,000 calls.þþStranded commuters in the Bronx packed Metro-North Railroad trains into the city beyond double their normal capacity yesterday morning, said a Metro-North spokeswoman, Marjorie S. Anders. ÿWe had quite an upsurge. ÿThey stood. That's basically how we did it.ÿþþFrom 5 to 11 a.m., 28,900 people rode the trains into Manhattan, compared with a normal load of 11,600, she said. The biggest squeeze was on the Harlem Line, which had more than triple its usual number.þþMs. Anders said trains bound for Grand Central Terminal this morning will not stop at stations in the Bronx. Instead, the railroad is operating special shuttle trains between Manhattan and the Bronx, including one that will begin at a temporary station at Yankee Stadium. The fare is $4 each way.þþCommuters will also be hoping for a better commute than yesterday's evening rush madness at Pennsylvania Station. Tens of thousands of confused Long Island Rail Road passengers sought entrance to the station but were directed to one of four entrances - all of them clogged with humanity - that often did not correspond to their departing train.þþÿHow do I get in?ÿ said one woman to the officer. Another passenger, a man, called out ÿLiz? I think I lost my wife.ÿþþThe Public Employment Relations Board denied the union's request for an injunction by saying that the strike ÿis neither a consequence of the M.T.A.'s bargaining demand regarding a new pension plan, nor within control of the M.T.A.ÿ þþThe panel also said that both parties still had more opportunities to resolve the dispute and that any injury to the union because of the strike would be ÿself-inflicted.ÿ þþ
Source: NY Times
