NEW YORK: New York City subways and buses rolled again on Friday as the system’s 34,000 employees ended a three-day strike that inflicted winter misery on millions of commuters and cost an estimated one billion dollars. “NYC Transit has resumed full overnight subway and bus service,” the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) said.
The service said the city’s 6,200 subway cars and 4,900 buses would gradually resume operations after transit workers backed down and decided to end their strike without having secured a new contract. The end of the strike was greeted with relief by the seven million commuters that rely on the largest public transit service in the US. For three days, New Yorkers had endured below-freezing weather and congested roads as they made their way to work by foot, bicycle, carpools, roller skates or other novel means of transport.
After the end of the strike was announced on Thursday afternoon, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city’s public transport system would take 10 to 18 hours to be fully operational. Earlier on Thursday, the TWU executive voted to end the strike and to resume negotiations with the transit system management. Facing the threat of jail for what has been ruled an illegal strike, union leaders dropped a demand that authorities scrap proposed changes to pension benefits.
New York had passed a difficult test with “flying colours” Bloomberg said, but added that the strike had taken a financial toll on the city. “It wasn’t easy. Certainly serious economic harm was inflicted. But we did what we had to do to keep the city running and running safely,” Bloomberg said.
New York state governor George Pataki said the strike’s end was “very positive for all New Yorkers,” saying the stoppage had caused “an enormous inconvenience and hardship”. “There’s a reason why it’s illegal for public employees to strike in New York. It doesn’t just negatively impact our economy. It threatens the health and safety of every single New Yorker,” Pataki said.
City authorities estimated the strike cost New York almost one billion dollars, with shops, theatres and restaurants deprived of annual Christmas holiday business. The city’s blood bank also suffered because of the strike, with authorities urging people to donate to bolster supplies.
New York authorities had insisted there could be no talks until the strike was called off and they prevailed in the end. The TWU originally had demanded that changes to the pension rights of nearly 34,000 subway and bus workers be withdrawn, but it backed off as the stakes rose.
By Thursday afternoon, with hefty fines piling up and a judge due to consider possible jail time for union leaders, the TWU chose to call off the strike. A NY judge, citing a state law, had ruled the strike illegal and fined the union one million dollars for each day of the action. The judge, however, also adjourned the city and state lawsuits against the unions until January 20, hoping both sides could work out an agreement by then.
