2005 New York City transit strike
Most New York City Transit Authority and MTA Bus Company personnel observed the strike, effectively halting all service on the subway and buses, except for routes operated from the Spring Creek Depot, where workers represented by ATU Local 1181/1061 had a contract in force after striking against the predecessor operator, Command Bus Company, the previous year.
The 37-month length was crucial, as the last contract ended on December 15, causing disruption of the New York City economy in the middle of the holiday season.
(However, the union workers rejected the new contract by 7 votes – 11,234 to 11,227 – on January 20, 2006, but overwhelmingly approved it three months later, even though the offer had been legally retracted.)
The 2005 strike, which took place during the busiest shopping week of the year, significantly affected the local economy temporarily, at an estimated total of $80 million.
On April 10, 2006, Justice Theodore T. Jones sentenced Local 100 President Roger Toussaint to ten days in jail[2] and a week later, the union was fined $2.5 million and the automatic deduction of dues from all members was suspended.
Such a resolution could have been imposed if the state's Public Employment Relations Board had declared a formal impasse between the union and the MTA.
At 1:00 a.m. EST on December 22, 2005, the TWU leadership and the MTA were both present in the Grand Hyatt hotel in Manhattan, talking individually with the state mediation panel.
A "limited strike" began on two private bus lines, (Jamaica Buses Incorporated and Triboro Coach Corporation), on Monday, December 19, 2005, when their 750 drivers walked off the job.
However, when these private lines were integrated into MTA Bus on January 9, 2006, their workers became public employees subject to the Taylor Law.
At the time, Roger Toussaint declared: "The Local 100 Executive Board has voted overwhelmingly to extend strike action to all MTA properties effective immediately."
The local union's official reason for the strike was the transit workers' grievances over the hardships that were increasingly being placed on them by the MTA, specifically the issue of pensions.
A dissident group within the TWU, the New Directions movement, promised a 20/50 pension plan, among other things, as part of its election campaign.
Each time it was vetoed by then-Governor Pataki, who had signed off on hugely expensive pension enhancements for other public employee unions.
TWU workers also raised complaints about working conditions, including hazards such as smoke, dangerous chemicals and extreme temperatures, abuse from supervisors, verbal or physical threat from passengers, and inability to access restroom facilities on the bus and subway.
Combined, the pension and health care reforms the MTA sought would cost about US$30 million over the span of the three-year contract.
[8] Emergency services response time may have been slowed significantly due to increased traffic congestion, possibly creating a danger to life.
Justice Jones had also considered imposing an additional US$1,000 per day of fines on the union leaders, as well as the possibility of jail time for them.
[11] Legal representatives for the city presented arguments before Justice Theodore T. Jones requesting individual penalties of US$25,000 per day, per public transit worker striking.
And an additional US$22 million per day for economic damages as estimated by the mayor resultant to lost tax revenue and overtime required for increased law enforcement.
Before the strike, bus drivers were instructed to finish their route and bring their buses to the depot, while subway trains finished their route, and brought their trains back to the yard.In anticipation of exceptional traffic volumes, an emergency traffic plan was put into effect shortly after the strike officially began.
[13]: 15 Weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. EST, Manhattan south of 96th Street, as well as all MTA tunnels and bridges, were subject to HOV-4 restrictions; that is, vehicles must contain a minimum of four passengers, and commercial trucks and vans were prohibited.
[15] Many commuters used the New York Water Taxi service from NY Waterway as an alternative to get to Manhattan from the Brooklyn Army Terminal, Hunts Point, South Amboy, and Jersey City.
Passengers on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad were charged a strike fare of US$4.00 for intracity travel.
Metro-North Railroad had a special East Bronx shuttle (making all Harlem Line stops from Mount Vernon West to Grand Central Terminal, but bypassing Tremont and Melrose) by December 21.
There was no service to Bellerose, Hollis, Rosedale, Locust Manor, Saint Albans, or Hunterspoint Avenue during rush hours.
[14]: 59 At a news conference the morning of December 22, 2005, it was announced that the state mediator, Richard Curreri, had reached a preliminary agreement between the MTA and a TWU team including Roger Toussaint for transit workers to return to work for a time without a contract.
In addition, they got Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a paid holiday — viewed to be very important, as the workforce is now mainly black (Caribbean, African-American) as well as Asian, or Hispanic.
On January 2, 2006, several TWU Local 100 representatives gathered up in Union Square and held a press conference, threatening to go on strike again if the MTA does not stop "keeping secrets."
On January 5, 2006, MTA chairman Peter Kalikow, a Pataki appointee, conceded that making the pension cutback demand was an error.
[20] On January 31, 2006 Local 100's executive board met to decide on its response to both the MTA latest offer and the rank and file's rejection.
