After a three-day strike, the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 in New York City plans to restore service to New York's buses and subways; the strike has afftected some 7 million daily commuters.
The TWU and the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) are resuming negotiations while the union is mobilizing its 33,000 members to return to work. Unfortunately, though, there is no timetable as to when transportation service will be restored--it could take as long as 12 to 24 hours to get bus and subway equipment and personnel ready to go. An TWU executive board meeting is scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. today to confirm the back-to-work order.
Yesterday, TWU President Roger Toussaint raised the possibility of ending the stalemate when he said negotiations could resume if the MTA took its current pension-funding proposal off the table. Richard Curreri, head of a three-member state mediation panel, said that the MTA has not pulled its pension-funding offer off the table, but said both sides were willing to address cost saving opportunities in the area of health-care benefits.
The strike began on Tuesday at 3 a.m., forcing commuters to wake up that morning and prepare for long waits for suburban commuter trains, as well as ride-sharing, biking, rollerblading, walking, and even using foot-powered scooters in the 25-degree weather. Since Tuesday, both Penn Station and Grand Central Station had to periodically close their doors due to the huge crush of commuters trying to board trains.
According to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the strike is responsible for a 40-percent decline in business at Manhattan restaurants, an 80-percent decline in visitors at museums, and a 90-percent decline in customers at one of the biggest shopping centers in the city--the Fulton Mall in Brooklyn. Tourism and holiday shopping have been hit hard, and officials say the strike has cost the city nearly $400 million per day in lost revenues and additional costs.
The TWU Local 100 has been fined by the city $1 million a day and individual members have been fined two days' pay per strike day, as the strike is illegal under the state's Taylor Act governing municipal unions. This morning, a judge ordered Toussaint and other top officials to appear in court, warning them of possible jail time.