New York grinds into motion after transport strike

Faced with mounting fines and the rising wrath of millions of commuters, the New York’s public transport union sent its members back to work without a new contract and ended a crippling, three-day strike that brought underground trains and buses to a standstill.

Union members were told yesterday to return to their jobs and start preparing to restore service. Buses were expected to roll around midnight, and most trains were expected to be running by today’s morning rush-hour, just two days before Christmas.

The breakthrough came after an all-night session with a mediator. Around midday, leaders of the 33,000-member Transport Workers Union overwhelmingly voted to return to work and resume negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on a new three-year contract.

“We thank our riders for their patience and forbearance,” said union local president Roger Toussaint.

While the deal put the nation’s largest mass transit system back in operation, it did not resolve the underlying dispute – pension contributions were the main sticking point – meaning there could be another walkout if the negotiations fail.

The strike cost the city untold millions in police overtime and lost business and productivity at the very height of the Christmas rush, and forced millions of commuters, holiday shoppers and tourists to carpool, take taxis, ride bicycles or trudge through the freezing cold.

But the strike did not cause the utter chaos that many had feared, and traffic in many parts of town was surprisingly light.

“In the end, cooler heads prevailed,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “We passed the test with flying colours. We did what we had to do to keep the city running, and running safely.”

The walkout, which began early on Tuesday, was New York’s first city-wide transit strike in more than 25 years. The workers left their jobs in violation of a state law prohibiting public employees from striking.

The return to work was announced just minutes before Toussaint and two of his top deputies were due in a Brooklyn courtroom to answer criminal contempt charges that could have landed them in jail.

Earlier this week, state Justice Theodore Jones fined the union $1m (€841,000) a day for striking. And under the state no-strike law, the rank-and-file members were automatically docked two days’ pay for each day they stayed off the job.

Governor George Pataki warned there was no possibility of amnesty for the striking workers who were penalised financially. The fines “cannot be waived. They’re not going to be waived,” he said.

Just before the deal was announced, an off-duty firefighter was critically injured when he was struck by a private bus while riding his bicycle to work. It was the first serious strike-related injury.

A chief sticking point in the talks was a transit authority proposal to require newly hired employees to contribute 6% proposal remained on the table despite the end of the walkout.