Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Calling it a “fight for dignity on the job, a concept foreign to the MTA,” Transport Workers Union Local 100 (TWU) President Roger Toussaint officially declared that its union members are now on strike, extending the job action, and bringing the subways and buses of New York City to a halt.
MTA President Peter Kalikow and Toussaint took part in last night’s negotiations, where the final offer to the TWU was made. The MTA offered a three-year contract with a 3 percent, 4 percent, and 3.5 percent pay-raise schedule and a retirement age that would stay at 55, but new employees would have to pay more in contributions to the pension and health care plan.
Toussaint had said earlier today to striking Jamaica and Triboro bus operators that he could not accept the MTA’s offer because it did not address disciplinary actions that the MTA could levy against their employees. Jamaica and Triboro busses began striking 00:01 (05:01) Monday morning. Both bus lines are privately owned and operated, but their employees are TWU members and will become part of the MTA’s bus service in 2006.
The TWU had asked the MTA to give its last, best offer by 21:00 Monday (02:00 Tuesday UTC) so that executives would be able to evaluate the terms in time to avert the Tuesday morning strike deadline. But when Toussaint and Kalikow parted last night at 23:00, any hope of preventing the incredible turned into awaiting the inevitable strike declaration.
At his 03:02 press conference, Toussaint pointed the finger squarely on the MTA.
“With a US$1B surplus, the contract between the MTA and TWU Local 100 should have been a no-brainier. Sadly that has not been the case. From the beginning, the MTA approached these negotiations in bad faith, demanding arbitration before even trying to resolve the contract. Hours before contract expiration, the MTA got rid of its US$1B surplus — a surplus which we believe continues to be understated by some US$100M. The MTA knew that reducing health and pension standards at the authority would be unacceptable to our union. They knew there was no good economic reason for their hard line on this issue – not with a US$1B surplus.”
Then, the words that no one in New York City (except maybe public school students whose classes were delayed by two hours) wanted to hear passed from Toussaint’s lips: “The Local 100 Executive Board has voted overwhelmingly to extend strike action to all MTA properties effective immediately.”
The strike was “on.”
Mayor Bloomberg lashed out at the TWU with his harshest language yet on the strike. “For their own selfish reasons, the TWU has decided that their demands are more important than the law, the City and the people they serve. 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.” His Honor concluded, “We cannot give the TWU the satisfaction of causing the havoc they desperately seek to create.”
Mayor Bloomberg estimated the cost of the strike at US$400 million per day.
This morning the Mayor crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, alongside his fellow commuters-turned-pedestrians. But the bitter wind coming from the East River only doubled the frigid mood of the already freezing New Yorkers: TWU members were picketing on the Brooklyn entrance to the bridge.