New York City war plan for transit walkout

[GaryMrMets]

This thread is for those who live in and around the New York City area:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/todays_headlines/
News Poll
The city is in the preliminary stages of preparing for a transit strike.
Are you worried this strike will happen?
I have no worries, I walk or bike to work
Yes, my commute and my holidays will be an absolute mess
Don't know, don't care

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/369629p-314519c.html

City war plan for transit walkout

BY MICHAEL SAUL and PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

The city has begun preparing for a possible transit strike that would leave millions of New Yorkers stranded in the middle of the holiday season, the Daily News has learned.

With the transit workers contract set to expire Dec. 15 and a top union leader refusing to rule out an illegal walkout, city leaders are putting together a contingency plan, expected to include:

•Banning cars without passengers from entering Manhattan.

•Creating car pool-staging areas in the Shea and Yankee stadium parking lots, among other areas.

•Allowing yellow cabs to pick up additional street hails with paying customers already onboard.

•Prohibiting truck deliveries to Manhattan during peak commuting hours.

•Urging authorities who run the ferries, PATH trains and commuter railroads to increase service.

Members of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Transportation Department, the NYPD and other city agencies have held at least two recent meetings to gear up for a walkout - which would come amid record ridership expected with the TA's holiday MetroCard discounts, sources said.

One source said the city will draw heavily on the 2002 strike plan that was assembled by the Office of Emergency Management - but was not needed after a deal was struck hours past the deadline.

"The 2002 plan was a good plan," said the source. "You always tweak them."

The meetings came as Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint last week praised Philadelphia transit workers who recently struck - and declared, "We are prepared to do what we need to do."

While the Philly transit worker strike was legal, New York's Taylor Law prohibits transit walkouts. The union and individual workers could be hit with stiff fines, potentially wiping out any financial gains secured in an eventual contract.

"While we hope that there is not a strike, the New York City Office of Emergency Management is preparing for any possible contingency," agency spokesman Jarrod Bernstein said yesterday.

Among other emergency measures expected to be included in the contingency plan:

•Reserving stretches of key Manhattan thoroughfares - including Fifth and Madison Aves. - for emergency vehicles, cabs, livery cars and buses.

•Bridge and tunnel lane reversals, increasing the number of Manhattan-bound lanes in the morning rush and outbound lanes in the evening.

•Promote bicycling to work and arranging for secure lockup areas for bikes.

Workers rail for big raises

Transit workers held a rally yesterday at Union Square - demanding big raises as they kicked off the contract negotiation protest season.

Some workers were demanding 30% pay hikes over three years as they chanted, "Ten! Ten! Ten!" The current pact expires Dec. 15.

The union has not staged a walkout since the 1980s, but there are some significant areas of conflict that will be difficult to navigate. They include:

•The Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants a percentage of workers' wages to go for health care premiums - a move workers oppose as a giveback.

•The MTA says it has budget gaps looming ahead but has a $1 billion surplus now. Workers will be enraged if the MTA "puts another zero" on the table, a reference to the pact struck in 2002. There wasn't a raise in the first year but a one-time payment of $1,000.

•The MTA wants to take conductors off some subway lines, a move transit workers vehemently oppose.

•Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint has dissenters in the ranks, including several in top elected positions. Some union observers believe Toussaint will be under more pressure to hit a home run in the negotiations and more likely to call an illegal strike.

There are, however, some big reasons to hope that a strike will be averted.

Some observers say MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow, who is expected to be replaced or resign by early 2007, would like to go out as a leader who improved conditions for workers as well as relations between the union and MTA.

The union and individual workers could get hit with crippling fines that would offset any eventual raises.

And both the MTA and the union know they risk the public's wrath if contract negotiations crumble and the city is crippled by a strike - especially during the holiday season.

Pete Donohue

Originally published on November 28, 2005

http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/61-strike.jpg
Commuters stream into city April 7, 1980, during last strike.

[GaryMrMets]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/374291p-318068c.html

Coping if there's a strike
Some will walk, others bike

Biking. Walking. Taxis. Staying home.

Nervous New Yorkers yesterday began making their Plan B for getting to work in the event of a transit strike.

"I'm either gonna have to get a bicycle or I'm gonna have to car-pool," said hair-products salesman Jason Wyatt, 41, who uses the subway to sell his wares throughout Brooklyn.

Neither option, the Bedford-Stuyvesant resident said, would work as well as the trains. "It's gonna hurt," said Wyatt. "I'm gonna lose a lot" of time and money.

At Brooklyn's Hoyt-Schermerhorn station yesterday, most commuters said a strike wouldn't stop them from getting to work.

"It'll upset me big-time, it will, but I have to get to where I have to go," said Verna DeSouza, 30, who plans to drive from her home in Bedford-Stuyvesant to her job at Radio Shack in lower Manhattan.

DeSouza's plan could be complicated by the city's plan to enforce car pooling. But DeSouza sympathizes with the union for good reason: Her father is a transit worker.

"They need their benefits," she said. "You have to see beyond yourself."

Flushing social worker Eric Anderson, 48, has a costly two-step plan for getting to his job in Long Island City, Queens, if there's a strike. The Long Island Rail Road and car service would set him back at least $10 a day, he said. That's "way more expensive" than the $24 MetroCard that Anderson buys every week, but he does have to get to work. "I just hope it doesn't happen," Anderson said. "If it does happen, I hope it's very short. From what I heard, though, they're very far apart."

If the strike would be a disaster for most New Yorkers, it could be Christmas for bike store owners.

Al Cabbad, manager of R & A Cycles in Park Slope, Brooklyn, said he expected a spike in sales, but so far bikes weren't flying out of his shop.

"We've had bluffs in the past, so I guess people are waiting to see if it really happens or not," he said. "Then they'll buy the bikes and the strike will be over a day later."

Some commuters, though, had a simpler response to the threatened strike: Stay home.

"I'm gonna freak out and I'm not gonna go to work," said security guard Uchenna Aguoji, 22, who takes the A train from Cambria Heights, Queens, to his job in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Home attendant Florence Groce, 69, will have no way to get from Brownsville, Brooklyn, to her job in Red Hook if the transit workers go on strike.

"I'll be sitting at home," she said. "Ain't nothing else I can do."

Originally published on December 12, 2005

[GaryMrMets]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/374379p-318197c.html

Some other ways of getting around

BY BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

As the clock ticks down toward a possible transit strike, New Yorkers already are thinking about how to survive a potentially chaotic commute.

Here are a few tips to get along without our MetroCards:

•BICYCLING: Steve Leibowitz of A Bicycle Shop NYC on W. 14th St. was busy yesterday sending 24 bicycle racks to a company on Broadway. "If there's a strike come Friday morning, they wanted to set the racks up in the freight area so employees could bike to work," Leibowitz said.

People bent on pedaling to work will find 200 miles of bike lanes and paths throughout the city, including the Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges. The group Transportation Alternatives (www.transalt.org) estimates that most subway trips are 5 miles or less, a bikeable distance.

Leibowitz suggests that bicycles be equipped with a bell and a light and that riders wear reflective clothing and a helmet.

•DRIVING: Anticipating massive gridlock, officials plan to bar passenger-free cars from coming into Manhattan. Cars entering Manhattan will be required to have at least four people from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. Commercial traffic also will be forbidden south of 96th St. during the morning rush hours.

To help drivers looking for passengers, plans call for the opening of car pool staging areas throughout the city.

•TAXIS: The city contingency plan allows cabbies to pick up more than one fare at a time, meaning a potentially big payday for cabbies. But Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, advised drivers not to do that — saying that cabbies are "not going to scab for the city."

•OTHER PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: Although the city's trains and buses might screech to a halt, Metro-North, Long Island Rail Road, NJTransit and PATH train service will keep rolling.

Officials plan to open park-and-ride lots close to Metro-North and LIRR stations and ferry terminals. Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium and Belmont Park all will be designated park-and-ride locations.

Metro-North also is planning to build a temporary platform near Yankee Stadium to shuttle passengers to Grand Central Terminal.

•WALKING: Mayor Bloomberg, who took heat for bracing for a 2002 strike that never happened by buying a $663 27-speed bike, has said he might be hoofing it with the masses. The mayor said he plans to sleep on a cot at the city emergency management office in Brooklyn and get to work by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall.

Manhattan podiatrist Dr. Robert Maccabee advises fleet-footed commuters to invest in sensible shoes. "Pack the shoes, wear the sneakers," he said. "I think anything that's soft, comfortable and gives you some support."

The transit strike of 1980 began the trend of women commuting in sneakers and stowing their office heels in bags.

Originally published on December 12, 2005

[Jade Sabre]

They can't do that!! Not everyone's got a car, and dammit, walking/biking isn't always an option (distance/weather). Really, are you supposed to spend $40 a day on cab far to get to work? Yeah, that'll be great, spend $200 a week to earn $300-400ish? (I dunno, whateva ppl make)... Be spending more to get to work than you'll be taking home at the end of the damn week.

[GaryMrMets]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/374569p-318312c.html

Four to a car the way to go if strike hits

BY MICHAEL WHITE
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Do you have three friends at the office?

You'd better, because if city transit workers strike Friday, you'll need them to cross the East River by car.

As a transit work stoppage looms like approaching storm clouds, New York City officials have announced that if a strike occurs, civilian motorists would have to carry four or more passengers to enter Manhattan by car during the morning rush.

In response, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi has designated several sites across the county as carpooling staging areas where morning drivers could meet.

"Don't try to drive into the city between 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. using your car unless you've got four or more people in that car," Suozzi warned yesterday,

In addition, Long Island Rail Road and Long Island Bus have coordinated to provide unique mass transit options, which include shuttling commuters from the Nassau Coliseum parking lot in Uniondale to nearby Hempstead railroad station.

"The Nassau Coliseum is the main location that we are encouraging people to use," Suozzi said of train riders who will certainly need the giant parking lot in Uniondale.

A transit strike would stress Long Island's transit system even further, he said, adding, "Long Island's railroad stations are usually crowded under normal circumstances."

Because commuters in Queens and Brooklyn will inevitably board LIRR cars instead of subways, the LIRR will redirect about seven cars from eastern branches into the city.

The added cars in the city and western Nassau will shuttle commuters from Great Neck and Jamaica stations, providing needed relief in western Long Island, LIRR officials said.

Visit www.mta.info, or call (516) 822-LIRR for information about railroad changes.

There will be carpool staging areas across Nassau: one each at Jones Beach and Bethpage state parks, Eisenhower and Cantiague parks, Nickerson Beach in Lido Beach, the Nassau Coliseum parking lot and Macy's parking lot at Community Drive and Northern Boulevard in Manhasset.

Also, carpoolers can call 877-4COMMUTE to locate other drivers.

Originally published on December 14, 2005

[GaryMrMets]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/374720p-318429c.html

We'll all feel pinch
Nightmare for city economy

BY DAVID SALTONSTALL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

We're all scrooged.

A threatened transit strike won't just shut down city subways and buses, it'll deal a devastating economic blow to the city just as the holiday season usually hits full swing, experts warned yesterday.

"It's a nightmare," conceded Joseph Spinnato, president of the Hotel Association of New York City, whose hotels already were fielding calls yesterday from panicked commuters looking to book rooms in the event of a walkout.

With transit workers threatening to stage an illegal strike starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday, city officials said the bill for even a one-day shutdown could cost the city and its businesses $400 million to $700 million.

And the biggest losers could well be members of Transport Workers Union Local 100, who under state law stand to forfeit three days' pay for every day they strike, not to mention additional fines on their union.

The TWU learned that the hard way in 1980, when its 11-day walkout earned the union $1.25 million in penalties.

But there will be plenty of other victims - starting with the 7 million straphangers and 600,000 schoolchildren who depend on city subways and buses every day.

From Wall Street firms to Broadway theaters to tiny corner bodegas, all likely will pay a hefty economic toll in lost revenues if the city is ground to a halt, experts predicted.

Consider retail shops alone. For many store owners, the weekend before Christmas is a make-or-break event.

But with many workers unable to get to work, and many suburban day-trippers worried about getting stranded in the city, a strike could spell disaster for the city's storied boutiques and department stores.

"Some shopping will stay in the suburbs, and that's where it will really hurt," said Marshal Cohen, a retail analyst for the NPD Group.

Those hurt the most will likely be lower-paid entry-level workers - the first to be let go when things go bad and the most dependent on public transportation to reach their jobs.

"So this really hurts the people who need it the most," said Cristyne Nicholas, president of NYC & Co., the city's official tourism bureau.

But Nicholas said that Broadway had no plans to dim its lights in the event of a strike and that city museums and other attractions were committed to staying open.

Hotels are expected to be full with foreign tourists and other out-of-towners through this weekend. But those crowds should thin by next week, added Nicholas, opening up room for local commuters if the strike continues.

There will be a few winners in the event of a walkout. Cabbies will do a brisk business, and some bike store owners yesterday already were referring to the potential bonanza as "Black Friday."

"A lot of people are getting new bikes just to make sure," said Mike Bleakley, a salesman at Toga Bikeshop in Manhattan. "And a lot more people are bringing in older bikes for tuneups."

Originally published on December 14, 2005

http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/118-rally.jpg
Boisterous rally for Transport Workers Union takes place yesterday across from the Grand Hyatt at 42nd St. and Park Ave.
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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/374722p-318432c.html

Chancellor urged
to shutter schools

BY ERIN EINHORN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Citing likely chaos, teachers and principals called on Schools Chancellor Joel Klein yesterday to cancel school if a transit strike begins Friday.

"It's possible that our security guards, paraprofessionals, special education aides and many other staff members might not even get here," principals union President Jill Levy said. "Kids in some cases are traveling all over the city and the conditions that will greet them might be less than safe."

Levy sent a letter to Klein yesterday outlining her concerns. She joined teachers union President Randi Weingarten, who predicted in a letter to Klein that "chaos" would compromise education and compound the city's transit woes.

Klein has ordered a two-hour delay in school start times in case of a strike but won't consider canceling classes, said spokesman Keith Kalb.

"The right thing for our children and their families is to keep our schools open and to remain flexible," Kalb said. "We trust the judgment of our parents to decide whether it is best to send their children to school. If we close the schools, we remove that option and make things harder on our families."

Tim Johnson, chairman of the chancellor's Parent Advisory Committee, predicted an early winter break for many schoolkids this year.

"A lot of parents are going to be asking, is it worth shlepping Janie 10 miles in the snow so she can sit and draw pictures all day because her teacher isn't there?" said Johnson, who lives in Washington Heights, works at 120th St. and sends his daughter to a school in Battery Park City.

Nearly a half-million public- and private-school kids use buses or subways to get to school. Thousands of teachers could be stranded by a strike.

The late start time does not apply to school employees, who will be expected to arrive on time. But, unofficially, a school official said that employees will be given a one-hour grace period.

The official also said that after-school programs would be canceled during a strike, as would morning prekindergarten classes. Parents of children who need special attention or nursing care would be urged to use discretion about sending their kids to school. School employees would be allowed to park in the schoolyard.

Originally published on December 14, 2005
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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/374721p-318430c.html

Private bus chaos
on Queens Blvd.

BY OREN YANIV
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Workers for private bus lines blocked traffic on Queens Blvd. for nearly half an hour yesterday, giving enraged drivers a taste of the congestion and chaos a transit strike could bring.

Some 100 bus operators and mechanics marched across the busy thoroughfare as their chants of "No contract, no work!" mixed with blaring horns from irked motorists.

"This is just a taste," bus driver George Jason said amid the chaos. "Imagine a big strike."

Just before noon, workers descended on the 10-lane boulevard near the Queensborough Plaza subway station, bringing traffic to a halt.

Fistfights nearly broke out. Limousine driver Shahid Aftab, 48, stepped out of his car to argue but was told to sit back down - or get punched, he said.

"You are crossing the limit," he yelled at the bus workers. "This is a crime. It's the start of lawlessness."

"I don't think they're drumming up a lot of sympathy," Jim Bolton, 44, of Lincoln Park, N.J., said of the demonstrators. "They just took 20 minutes of my time that I don't have."

Transport Workers Union representative Neftali Gonzalez warned, "If the MTA don't negotiate with us fairly, it's going to be inconvenience for everyone."

Cops arrived shortly after noon and restored order within 10 minutes.

Workers of the five private bus companies, which are in the process of being taken over by the MTA, have been working without a contract for almost three years.

They demand that their grievances be settled by the Friday contract deadline for city bus and subway workers, said Neil Winberry, vice president for private lines at TWU Local 100.

"We are all one. We are all gonna stick together," he said. "This is just the beginning."

Originally published on December 14, 2005
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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/374719p-318428c.html

25G fines warning
Each worker would be hit hard in event of walkout

BY TAMER EL-GHOBASHY, JOHN MARZULLI and PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

A state judge and a the city's top lawyer fired a double-barreled blast at the transit union yesterday - vowing stiff penalties if the workers wage an illegal strike.

The city filed a suit that seeks crushing fines for bus and subway workers, starting at $25,000 each and doubling daily.

But their leader was unbowed - and accused the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of playing games with its finances.

At a raucous rally outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel on E. 42nd St., where the nettlesome contract negotiations are taking place, Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint roared that an agreement "will never, ever, ever be resolved by fear and intimidation."

"If Mayor Bloomberg wants to know what we think of this lawsuit, I'll show you," he said, ripping up several pieces of paper and sending the crowd into a delirious chant of "They say give back! We say fight back!"

The local's contract with the MTA expires at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The more than 33,000 transit workers authorized their leadership to call a walkout if a deal can't be reached with the MTA - in defiance of the state's Taylor Law prohibiting them from walking off the job.

The primary talks between the union and MTA at the hotel ended at 9:30 p.m. after about an hour and a half and are to resume today.

Toussaint's bit of street theater, in front of thousands of TWU members and workers from other unions, was reminiscent of his telling Bloomberg to "shut up" during another round of contentious labor talks three years ago.

On the legal front yesterday, a state judge, responding to state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's request Monday for an injunction against the TWU, ordered the union not to strike.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones also directed the TWU and its members not to take any other type of job .action that violates the Taylor Law. Under the law, workers can lose three days' pay for each day they strike.

Jones agreed with state lawyers that a strike would have a devastating effect on the region's economy by stranding scores of workers and leaving cash registers empty at the busiest shopping time of the year.

Shortly after the ruling, City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo filed a separate lawsuit that would slam workers and the union with additional penalties if there is a walkout.

The city lawsuit seeks an escalating schedule of damages starting at $1 million per day against the union and $25,000 per day against each transit employee if there is a walkout. The fines would double each day the strike goes on.

"The way to resolve this is not on the picket line, but at the bargaining table," Cardozo said.

The union's lawyer confidently said the law clearly doesn't allow separate civil penalties beyond the Taylor Law. The union has demanded raises of 8% a year for three years, while the MTA has offered 6% over 27 months. The agency says it faces large deficits starting in 2007, even though it has a 2005 year-end surplus of $1 billion.

In July, the MTA projected that revenues from two real estate-related taxes it receives would grow by $86 million above estimates next year. But when the city revisited its expectations for similar taxes, it said it would reap hundreds of millions more than expected.

Toussaint last night accused the MTA of lowballing the revenue projections for 2006 to make its fiscal outlook more dire.

"The MTA still cannot get it right," Toussaint charged. "They are potentially hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in order to blackmail the public and our members."

MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said, "The MTA's financial plan is scrutinized by the public, city and state agencies, riders groups and private financial .institutions. In fact, Mr. Toussaint's own vice president is a .sitting member of the board of the MTA and has never raised this point. This is yet another tactic aimed at distracting the union membership from the collective bargaining process currently underway."

James Parrott, chief economist and director of the nonprofit Fiscal Policy Institute, who worked for the state controller's office in the 1990s and reviewed MTA finances, said it appears the MTA is understating the revenues it could expect to collect from the two taxes.

He estimated the MTA will collect $100 million to $200 million more than it has estimated from the taxes both this year and in 2006.

Originally published on December 14, 2005

http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/156-workers.jpg
Private bus workers give stark warning of strike chaos yesterday as they bring traffic to halt at Queensborough Plaza.
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