[CaseyFan]

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com TWU: 8 is enough
By PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, December 9th, 2005

Transit union leaders will call for triple eights - three straight years of approximately 8% raises - for their workers, the Daily News has learned.

The wage proposal - which would be the first by Transport Workers Union Local 100 - will be presented to the rank and file today for their approval at the Javits Center, sources told The News.

Thousands of bus and subway workers are expected to authorize their leadership to call a strike after their contract expires Thursday.

The two sides are far apart. Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have proposed a two-year deal that called for a 3% raise in the first year and even less in the second year.

Further underscoring their differences, TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint told The News he would give workers today a startling example of how the MTA allegedly treats its workers.

Lewis Moore, whom a co-worker found unconscious on a work train in the Bronx last week, could have been taken to a nearby station to the south, Toussaint said. But that maneuver, from the middle track, would have clogged subway traffic - so the train was driven seven stations to the north, Toussaint charged.

"They put service before a stricken Transit Authority worker and they wouldn't have done that to a dog," Toussaint said. "If it was a dog on the tracks, they would have stopped service ... and spent whatever time was necessary to retrieve the dog."
Moore was dead by the time the train, which carries a huge crane, arrived at the E. 180th St. station. An initial autopsy was inconclusive. It's unclear, Toussaint said, whether Moore could have been saved.

But his allegations will clearly inflame passions today.

The TA has said that, due to track configurations, the E. 180th station was the nearest depot that the work train could pull into and be safely met by an ambulance crew.
Even if Moore's co-worker might have decided to take the train north, Toussaint said the command center has the final call over train movements.

In the MTA's wage proposal, the agency would give the TWU's more than 33,000 workers a 2% raise in the second year - but only if workers reduce the number of sick days they take.

The MTA faces large deficits in future years, officials say. But it has a year-end surplus of $1 billion right now.

Meanwhile, bus drivers and subway motormen followed their safety rules to the fullest extent yesterday, slowing service. The MTA confirmed there was a spike in the number of bus drivers who called in sick but said it was not significant and wouldn't speculate on the cause.

In the next few days, transit workers are expected to turn up the heat - using protests and perhaps harsher tactics that could disrupt service. The union also may demand that the MTA reach contract agreements with bus workers from five private companies that are being folded into the newly created MTA Bus Co.

[rengerts]

What a load from all sides, as usual.


I know this sounds bad, but where do some of these guys come off thinking that they deserve a raise for doing nothing but being there for a long time?

Is it fair to expect this kind of thing? How proficient can you be at mopping a subway platform? How much experience is needed to become the Uber-Engineer?

Granted that the first few years are essential to various workers, and as they learn and become more proficient, everyone benefits, but at what point do they just become older?

The whole mindset of our workforce nowadays has lost touch with where it came from. It used to be that someone with more experience was valued on the talents they had because of it. Someone who did leatherwork for 20 years could probably do better than someone who just started. But we have taken the # of years away from the actual professions proficiency. We are rating employees not on what they can do, but merely on how long they have been there.


I know it is not far to simply cap people. Inflation is one of the things that should be taken into account, but I think it would probably be better fror everyone if the pay-tables were rethought. Low in the beginning, with a steeper rise to a capped top. Inflation slider and proficiency guidelines also being needed. Maybe like passing grades or something....



Oh, and it is kind of funny about the sick day thing. We just had ours "combined" with our vacation. WHOOPIE! Take two days away because too many people were getting "sick" on fridays... :P

[snislarne]

I know this sounds bad, but where do some of these guys come off thinking that they deserve a raise for doing nothing but being there for a long time?

Cost of living increase Ninja. If you don't get at lease 2-3% a year, you should look elsewhere, as your actual salary (adjusted for inflation) is decreasing. That said, 24% over three years is asinine hyperbole.

I personally think the union is completely out of line in rejecting MTA proposals that employees pay a portion of healthcare and that retirement age be increased to 62. They do not deserve benefits that are not typically available in the private sector. I don't see anything justifying extra benefits as provided to military employees.

[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

[Unakjyfk]

Cost of living increase Ninja. If you don't get at lease 2-3% a year, you should look elsewhere, as your actual salary (adjusted for inflation) is decreasing. That said, 24% over three years is asinine hyperbole.

I already addressed that. Why are they getting a raise OVER that when they are not providing anything more after a certain time? There is a limit to how productive an MTA worker can be. They cannot drive two trains, etc.

How is it fair in our society that the same service can be charged more for, at the same skill level, just because of the age of the employee?

I personally think the union is completely out of line in rejecting MTA proposals that employees pay a portion of healthcare and that retirement age be increased to 62. They do not deserve benefits that are not typically available in the private sector. I don't see anything justifying extra benefits as provided to military employees.
This is the thing that gets me. I know that they deserve to be paid, but when you look at government benefits such as retirement pensions and health care, and then compare that to the private sector you get a better idea of what is up. It is basically just another form of social security.

And the fact that they can wage a walkout that hurts other people? Screw that! Very frustrating.

All they are doing is hastening the implimentation of the automated systems.

[alecoplesosse]

And the fact that they can wage a walkout that hurts other people?

Isn't a walkout illegal?

Wonder if Bloomberg will pull a Reagan by firing all the employees who walk (ala Air Traffic Controllers back in '81) ?

[Injurnerona]

Isn't a walkout illegal?

Wonder if Bloomberg will pull a Reagan by firing all the employees who walk (ala Air Traffic Controllers back in '81) ?

That wouldn't surprise me, considering Bloomberg is no longer up for re-election and can't run for a third term. Also, isn't that Pataki's job, since isn't the MTA is a state agency?
...Anyway, I think that both sides are making unreasonable demands, and I really hope that they do not strike. A city of 8 million people will NOT do well if this occurs at the end of the week.

[tinamasak]

I really hope that they do not strike. A city of 8 million people will NOT do well if this occurs at the end of the week.

Especially with the temperature in the 20's ... brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[twiffatticy]

The 11 day subway and bus strike in April, 1980 was the biggest factor in women no longer commuting to work in high-heels, and the explosion of the athletic-shoe market.

[Fksxneng]

Isn't a walkout illegal?

Wonder if Bloomberg will pull a Reagan by firing all the employees who walk (ala Air Traffic Controllers back in '81) ?

Yep, but that only gets a daily fine to the labor unions. If they are ready to put up with that, they can afford a few days of hell for the city.


One stupid thing, announcing that they may go on strike the day it runs out. On a Friday.

Why don't they just wait to go on strike at Christmas! i am sure that will REALLY hurt NYC and get them what they want!!!


Oh, this also reminds me of the sanitation workers strike in the summer about 7 years ago. That (literally) stank.


But then you get things like teachers strikes, which do hurt the people, but coming from people that have not gotten anything good in a long time!

Lumping all unions together as if they all stand for the same thing and have the same values to society is wrong, but that is how we think about things as humans. If it is a Union, it must be the same no matter who they represent!

[Aswdwdfg]

I already addressed that.

I apologize, you're right. Has anyone heard the Unions's logic behind the 24% pay increase? Have they gone a few years without a cost of living increase? Otherwise, I have to agree with Ninja that any job has a salary cap. In the real world supply and demand sets that price, so again, why should the MTA be treated better than they would be in the private sector?

[Foucceedo]

I have a feeling it would wind up being more than 24% as the 8% would more than likely be compounded annually. I also think they want to strike on Friday as a slap in the face for the current weekend discounts.

[PRengine]

December 13, 2005
The Man in the Middle

By SEWELL CHAN
His is the voice you hear over the loudspeaker, if it is working. His is the blue uniform you look for when the subway pulls into the station if you are confused about which train to take. His is the head that pops out of the conductor's cab, scanning the length of the platform as the train pulls out.
William Bailon, 28, is a conductor on the F, G and R lines and can list all their stations from memory, even while half asleep, but he is more excited when he tells you about his wife, Sandra, a legal secretary a few credits shy of her bachelor's degree; their two children, Adalee, 8, and Willie, 4; and the challenge of paying nearly $4,000 a year in Catholic school tuitions.

To speak to Mr. Bailon is to glimpse through the eyes of one subway conductor the concerns of 33,700 union members at New York City Transit, one of the city's largest civil-service work forces. Those concerns, while varying somewhat from worker to worker, share an essential core of issues like wages, health care and pensions and could determine whether the busiest transit system in the nation is shut down by a strike after the current three-year contract runs out Friday at 12:01 a.m.

The rising cost of living is the dominant concern for Mr. Bailon, who considers himself fortunate because his wife's family owns a six-unit building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, allowing the couple to pay just $600 a month for their cramped two-bedroom apartment. "It's so expensive to live in New York," he said. "Everything is going up: the rent, the gas, the milk."

A Brooklyn native and a high school graduate, Mr. Bailon was hired in 2001 amid changes that have transformed the transit work force in recent decades: the shift from Irish and other European groups to blacks and Latinos, diminished opportunities for advancement in a bureaucracy that once routinely granted promotions chiefly by seniority, and growing anxiety as managers seek to eliminate the jobs of many of the 2,700 conductors and 3,300 station agents.

Mr. Bailon supports but is not active in his union, Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, and he did not attend the union's strike-authorization vote on Saturday because he was working. A Democrat, he did not bother to vote in the mayoral election. Most of what he knows about the Metropolitan Transportation Authority comes from tabloid newspapers left behind on the trains.

Mr. Bailon's base pay is $22.54 an hour, or about $47,000 a year. With overtime, he expects to make about $54,000 this year before taxes. More than a third of his paycheck goes to taxes, a pension contribution, union dues and a health-care co-payment.

New York City Transit pays for a standard health benefit package. Under a preferred-provider organization, G.H.I., Mr. Bailon pays a $15 co-payment for office visits and diagnostic tests. (Workers who select a health-maintenance organization generally have no co-payment.) He also pays $26.34 every two weeks for coverage for his wife, who is 27, and the two children.

Since 1994, nearly all transit workers with 25 years of experience have been eligible to collect a pension equal to half their pay at age 55. Mr. Bailon, who started at age 23, would be 48 after 25 years' service, and would have to wait 7 years for his pension. Sometimes, he thinks about trying to become a police officer. "It would mean taking a big pay cut," at least at first, he said.

He does not want to go on strike, but said, "If we have to, we will."
He could be affected if the authority expands one-person train operation, a disputed program that began in 1996. On one-person trains there is no conductor, only an operator who opens and shuts the doors and makes announcements. Mr. Bailon works on the G line every Thursday and Friday, 7:48 a.m. to 4:34 p.m. - a line the authority wants to make conductorless at all times.

He also has heard about the authority's proposal to have conductors stay on the train but leave their booths and instead walk through the cars, answering questions from passengers and looking for suspicious activity. He does not like the idea.

Mr. Bailon's mother came to New York from Puerto Rico, his father from Ecuador. After graduating from high school, he worked for two years for a livery car company, then took an $11-an-hour job with an air-conditioning equipment supplier.

In June 1999, he paid a $10 application fee and took a conductor's test, a civil service exam. The requirements included a high school diploma and passing a physical.

He did not get called back until early 2001. By that point, he had also taken the exam to become a police officer. Because he lacked enough college credits, he was offered a job as a school safety officer, which paid less than the starting pay for a conductor, around $14 an hour.

So, on April 16, 2001, he joined the authority and began conductor school, learning how circuit breakers work, what to do if a train door is jammed, and how to make a proper announcement. He learned the codes train crews use to summon assistance: 12-2 for smoke or fire, 12-6 for a derailment, 12-8 for an armed passenger, 12-9 for a body under the train, 12-11 for serious vandalism. He received on-the-job instruction at the Coney Island train yard.

He was assigned to the B Division, which includes all the train lines designated by a letter, except for the 42nd Street shuttle. His first assignment was as an "extra-extra," who floats among train lines and shifts.

Most hourly transit workers select their assignments about every six months, based on seniority. The most desirable assignments include a Saturday or Sunday as one of the two regular, consecutive days off.
Mr. Bailon's current assignment involves "R.D.O. relief," or filling in for colleagues during their regular days off.

Of New York City Transit's 48,000 employees, 70 percent are black, Hispanic, Asian-American or Native American and 17 percent are women. While Local 100 is the largest union, other unions represent employees like bus workers in Queens and Staten Island and engineers.

Asked to assess the job, Mr. Bailon said: "It makes your day go by fast. You don't have a boss right over you, looking every step of the way at what you're doing. You have time to yourself on the train."

The job can also be tedious, so Mr. Bailon has considered taking a test to become a train operator. "It can be boring sometimes," he said. "It's very repetitious: making announcements, turning keys, opening the doors. Every day for 25 years? That gets tiring. Maybe as a train operator it would be a little different."

• Copyright 2005The New York Times Company

[tobaccoman]

This is ridiculously cheap healthcare.

[socialkiiii]

This week would seem like a good time to invest in a bicycle, were there not a freezing rain storm coming Thursday night / Friday morning. Delightful.

Maybe we'll all be skating around? Envying the Lincoln Townsleighs on the UES?

[ecosportpol_ru]

I cant believe I will have to walk to work with this cold! I have to walk about 33 blocks. Oh well... lets hope there is no strike.

[HagsPusia]

The 1980 Transit Strike:


During the city's last transit strike, in 1980, pedestrians and bicyclists trekked across the Brooklyn Bridge.


Joseph K. Keegan, a concourse transit officer at the 42nd Street station, stands near a closed concession.


Larry Reilly, president of Transportation Alternatives, directed bicycle traffic on 34th Street.


A visitor from Pennsylvania hails a cab at 33rd Street
and 8th Avenue.


Commuters walking on the Queensboro Bridge.


Mayor Edward I. Koch joined pedestrians on the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1980
strike, a gesture that Mr. Bloomberg said he would emulate.


An aerial view of the Brooklyn Bridge with commuters
walking during the 1980 transit strike.


Copyright 2005The New York Times Company

[finasteridonline]

As Negotiations Continue, City Prepares for Transit Strike



Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg outlined the city's plans in case of a transit strike Wednesday at City Hall.


By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: December 15, 2005

With a contract deadline just after midnight tonight, representatives of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the transit workers' union met intermittently yesterday to stave off a strike as the agency's top negotiator warned that "we are not in a good place."

Although there was some small movement yesterday on the key issue of wages, the negotiator, Gary J. Dellaverson, said: "We should be closer now. There should be more progress, and I can't stand here and say that I'm comfortable with the negotiations where they stand at this instant."

Then he added, "I still remain hopeful."

He spoke just moments after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced a comprehensive emergency plan to contend with a walkout. The plan would increase ferry service, restrict entry to much of Manhattan to high-occupancy vehicles, clear several major thoroughfares including Fifth Avenue of nearly all traffic but buses and emergency vehicles, and allow groups of riders to haggle with cabbies.

The union originally called for 8 percent annual raises, but late in the day it indicated that it would accept smaller increases if the authority agreed to decrease disciplinary actions against employees by 25 percent. The union did not say how much it was willing to trim its demand.

The day of stop-and-start negotiations was punctuated by the union's sharp criticism of the transportation authority, inconclusive court dealings, and last-minute efforts by suburban railroads to put their own emergency plans in place.

A strike by Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, which represents 33,700 subway and bus workers, would begin at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow. Walkouts by public employees are illegal under state law.

Besides wages, the two sides disagree over pensions, health insurance and safety. Mr. Dellaverson hinted that the authority's chairman, Peter S. Kalikow, might join the talks today; he did so at the last minute three years ago to reach a settlement.

Roger Toussaint, the president of Local 100, said in an interview last night that the authority was showing little flexibility and was forcing his union's back to the wall. He also denounced Mr. Bloomberg's efforts, including a lawsuit seeking huge fines, intended to pressure the union not to strike. He said the mayor had so angered union members that he made a strike more likely.

"He's gone way beyond the pale," he said. "It's Giuliani-like. It has all the earmarks of bullying, something that transit workers do not react well to." He said the chances of a walkout were 50-50.

"I have said that a settlement won't come from courts, injunctions or intimidation, " Mr. Toussaint said. "While we of course are mindful of the legal penalties our members face, we will not buckle in the face of these threats."

Later, after four and a half hours of off-again, on-again talks, the two sides broke for the night at 11 p.m. The union officials said the tone had improved slightly, because Lawrence G. Reuter, the president of New York City Transit, had joined the talks for the first time. Mr. Reuter pressed the union to set individual deadlines today for settling specific issues.

The city's emergency plan indicated how seriously the mayor is taking the possibility of a strike and how crippling officials believe a subway and bus stoppage would be for riders and the city's economy at the height of the holiday shopping season. "A strike would be more than just illegal and inconvenient," Mr. Bloomberg said. "It will threaten public safety and severely disrupt our city and its economy."

"There would be no winners in a strike," the mayor said. "And I speak for every New Yorker when I urge the T.W.U. to resolve the contract at the bargaining table."

Gov. George E. Pataki, before leaving for New Hampshire, made his most forceful comments yet to discourage a strike, warning of "dire consequences" and telling the union: "Don't even threaten a strike."

Arthur Z. Schwartz, a lawyer for the union, said the two sides were supposed to attend a Brooklyn court hearing on the city's request for fines; the city asked that on the first day, the union be fined $1 million and individual workers $25,000, and that the fines be doubled each successive day.

Mr. Schwartz said he was told that no hearing was warranted because the city corporation counsel's office, which filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, had not supplied the papers the judge needed to decide the matter.

"What happened yesterday in the filing of that lawsuit is simply an effort by the mayor and an effort by the corporation counsel to interfere with negotiations to try to intimidate the members of Local 100," Mr. Schwartz said. "It is an utterly baseless lawsuit designed only to gather headlines."

Michael A. Cardozo, the corporation counsel, said the city intended to go ahead with the suit, but was waiting to see the union's next moves.

"Our lawsuit is designed to protect the security of the city and to recover damages that the city would suffer in the event there is a strike," he said.

In a separate lawsuit, the state was granted an injunction on Tuesday barring a transit strike or slowdown.

Top negotiators from the two sides have bargained little in recent days - three hours on Monday and 75 minutes on Tuesday. Mr. Dellaverson said he was sure the pace would pick up.

"Have we been fully engaged? Yes," Mr. Dellaverson said. "Have there been enough meetings to adequately bridge the gap? No."

Going into yesterday, the authority had offered two raises of 3 percent in a 27-month contract. On pensions, the authority wants to raise the retirement age for newly hired employees to 62 after 30 years of service, while the union wants to lower it to age 50 after 20 years of service. At present, transit workers can retire at age 55 after 25 years of work, with a pension equal to half their annual pay; the average is $55,000, including overtime.

Many transit workers have said the authority's offer barely matches inflation in a year that the authority had a $1 billion surplus. The authority counters that it will have a $800 million deficit beginning in 2008. The authority's board voted yesterday to spend much of that surplus, angering the union because it allocated none of the surplus to wages.

Mr. Dellaverson said that the union's proposal, with its lower pension age, 8 percent raises, and improved health coverage, would cost the authority $550 million extra a year.

"The M.T.A. proposal is targeted at those long-term challenges that we and other employers are confronting," Mr. Dellaverson said. "It would be easy but wrong to ignore that."

Criticizing the authority's demand for concessions on pensions, Mr. Toussaint said, " The M.T.A. is misplaced to believe that the T.W.U. will be responsible for a historic decline or reversal for the labor movement with respect to pensions."

Complicating the talks, the union has threatened to strike unless the authority also reaches a contract for 2,200 workers at five private bus lines that the authority is taking over. Those workers have been without a contract for nearly three years.

With no control over the M.T.A., a state entity, the city can do little more than wait and plan for the worst, Mr. Bloomberg acknowledged. The city's plan was largely devised to reduce car traffic as much as possible through extensive car pooling, ride sharing, walking or bicycling.

Mr. Bloomberg said the city would close several major Midtown streets to all but emergency vehicles, private buses, commuter vans and motorcycles during workdays and would shut approaches to Manhattan south of 96th Street to all cars carrying fewer than four people during the morning rush. Car-pooling sites would be set up to allow drivers to pick up passengers to meet the limit. Taxicabs will be allowed to carry multiple fares, and will be able to charge based on a zone system. Cabdrivers will be allowed to charge up to $10 to start and up to $5 for each zone covered during the trip.

But the mayor said the best bet was to work from home if possible and, if not, to ride a bike or walk.

"All of us should be prepared to deal with significant crowding and delays, and all of us should do our best to be patient and courteous," he said. "By working together and looking out for each other we'll be able to weather the storm."


Roger Toussaint, president of
Local 100 of the Transport
Workers Union, tore up a copy of a
city lawsuit seeking stiff fines.


Copyright 2005The New York Times Company

[Dr.Hoodoba]

I belong to a number of unions; despite a lack of a finalized new contract I and my fellow union members have often continued to work when contracts expired. Once the new contract is ironed out the pay / benefits are retro-active, so things work out in the long run. Strikes (from my personal experience) in this day and age really offer no solution to workers, as time of wages lost are never made up. As a strategy the threat of strike / walk out is invaluable, but the choice to actually strike must be very well considered.

I believe and support unions, but for the TWU to walk on day one is a huge disservice to the public -- the people they serve and who pay their salaries.

While the MTA must share some blame in how this is playing out I have noticed slow-downs in subway service throughout this week.

A walk-out / slow-down could prove to be a huge PR / strategic mistake on the part of the TWU.

Finally, who is the brilliant gang of mediators / negotiators who allowed a contract to have an end date of mid-December? That just creates a recipe for disaster, as we're seeing played out now.

[dgdhgjjgj]

"I have said that a settlement won't come from courts, injunctions or intimidation, " Mr. Toussaint said.
Pardon me, but isn't the threat of a strike INTIMIDATION?

The union is looking for someone to blame the strike on so they do not bear the brunt of public distain. But i don't think they are in much of a position to avoid that, considering the individual mentioned in the other piece earning $44K a year after only a few years on the job was earning more than I was after 2 years as an engineer with a meritous Ivy League graduate degree! (It is also higher than the average in the profession for that time... so...)

I think the MTA workers union is only hastening their own demise and the increased push for automated train systems.

If I were them, I would look for a way to guarantee tenure for those currently working rather than quibbling about raises that few can see the merit in.