[InsManKV]

Transit Strike Would Mean Four to a Car


By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and THOMAS J. LUECK
December 13, 2005

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, warning that a transit strike would seriously hurt the city's economy, announced yesterday that only cars with at least four people would be allowed to enter Manhattan south of 96th Street on weekday mornings if bus and subway workers walk off the job on Friday.

Starting times for city schools would be delayed by two hours to allow children time to get to school, and several streets, including much of Fifth and Madison Avenues, would be closed to all but emergency vehicles, according to an affidavit the city filed in court yesterday.

Wading forcefully into the labor dispute, Mr. Bloomberg said he hoped that a walkout would be averted and urged transit workers to follow the example of many municipal unions by exchanging productivity increases for bigger raises.

"A strike would not be good for the city, a strike would not be good for the union," Mr. Bloomberg said during an appearance in Manhattan. "It will cost an enormous amount of money in economic activity. There will be a lot of people who would lose their jobs during a strike."

In court papers filed in support of an injunction against a strike, slowdown or sickout, the Bloomberg administration estimated that the city's businesses would lose $440 million to $660 million per day in business activity during a transit strike.

Roger Toussaint, president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, representing 33,700 subway and bus workers, said the mayor should not interfere in his union's talks with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state-controlled agency.

"Mayor Bloomberg is not part of these negotiations, and it should stay that way," Mr. Toussaint said as he entered the Grand Hyatt hotel for another negotiating session.

Last night, the authority altered its earlier proposal of a 3 percent increase one year and 2 percent the second, proposing instead a 27-month contract with a wage increase of 3 percent in the first year and another 3 percent effective March 16, 2007. In addition, instead of linking the second year of wage increases to reductions in sick leave use, as it proposed last week, it would impose new restrictions on sick leave unless workers reduce their use of sick leave to 2002 levels. The union did not immediately respond to the offer.

Earlier in the evening, Mr. Toussaint had restated his demand for an 8 percent wage increase in each of the next three years.

Local 100 has threatened to shut down the transit system if the two sides fail to reach a settlement by 12:01 a.m. Friday, when its contract expires.

"I'd still say there is a 50-50 possibility" of a strike, Mr. Toussaint said, "but there is still plenty of time to work things out."

In an appearance at Parsons the New School for Design, Mr. Bloomberg told reporters that the city would be firm in barring cars with fewer than four people from entering Manhattan south of 96th Street from 5 to 11 a.m. weekdays. He said the city had not completed enforcement details. "When we say cars coming in, we mean every car," he said. "One of the things we learned out of 9/11 was if you start making exceptions, it becomes unfair and unenforceable. And you're going to have four in a car the same way I'm going to have to."

After 9/11, cars carrying only one person were barred from entering Midtown or Lower Manhattan during weekday mornings to ease traffic jams caused by security checkpoints. The next year, when negotiations over the previous transit contract stalled, the city proposed the same ban on cars with fewer than four occupants, but it was not imposed.

Mr. Bloomberg said taxis would be allowed to carry multiple fares during a strike. He also urged New Yorkers who live far from their place of work to arrange to sleep closer.

"I would try to find somebody that's a friend that will let you use their couch," he said. "That would be the easiest thing to do."

As outlined in the affidavit, the contingency plan calls for closing a number of streets to all but emergency vehicles, including Fifth and Madison Avenues from 23rd to 96th Streets as well as 26th, 29th, 49th and 50th Streets from 1st to 12th Avenues. In Lower Manhattan, portions of Nassau, Rector and Vesey Streets and Maiden Lane would be closed.

Giving the two sides negotiating advice, Mr. Bloomberg said: "We've managed to come to good settlements with many of the city's unions based on productivity savings that got them significant increases in their compensation. I see no reason why the union and the M.T.A. couldn't do exactly the same thing."

As the deadline approaches, some commuter lines are making emergency plans. For example, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plans to run PATH trains from the World Trade Center stop to 33rd Street in Midtown.

Although city schools would open later than usual, dismissal times would remain the same, the affidavit said.

Keith Kalb, a spokesman for Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, said all school employees were expected to work.

"The school buses will continue to run, we will have supplies of food and fuel," he said. "We have plans to notify parents should circumstances change."

Randi Weingarten, president of the teachers' union, the United Federation of Teachers, criticized the chancellor's decision. "If there's a strike on Friday, they should close the schools," she said. "It's going to be chaos."

The union and the transportation authority are at loggerheads over wages and the authority's demand for a less generous pension and health plan for new workers. Union members' base pay averages $47,000 a year.

The authority says it needs concessions because it faces a $1 billion deficit beginning in 2009. The union insists that no concessions are warranted because the authority has a $1 billion surplus this year.

Yesterday, Justice Theodore T. Jones Jr. of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. today on a motion by lawyers for the state seeking a preliminary injunction against a strike or any attempt to disrupt transit service.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office is seeking the injunction under the Taylor Law, which prohibits strikes by public employees. Lawyers for the city and the authority joined his effort.

Michael A. Cardozo, the city's corporation counsel, said the injunction was being sought to make it clear that "severe consequences would follow" if the transit workers went on strike.

Joseph F. Bruno, the city's commissioner of emergency management, said that in addition to business losses in the event of a strike, the city would lose $8 million to $12 million per day in tax revenue and would incur $10.1 million a day for police overtime. Separately, City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. estimated that the city would suffer $1.6 billion in economic losses during the first week of a strike.

Outside the courtroom, Arthur Z. Schwartz, a lawyer for the transit workers, said the attorney general should not be seeking an injunction until a strike was under way or imminent. He said there was no evidence that a walkout was imminent.

Mr. Toussaint said he was also concerned about the economic losses: "That would be even more reason to resolve this contract."

Preliminary injunctions or temporary restraining orders have been issued routinely during previous transit negotiations even though the Taylor Law imposes stiff financial penalties on striking workers.


Copyright 2005The New York Times Company