Union Prepares to Shut Subways

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The New York Sun

The transit union has begun instructing members how to shut down the subway system and keep it locked down for the duration of a possible strike.


If officials of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union call a strike when their contract expires at midnight, the system’s 33,700 workers have been instructed to “make sure the entire mass transit system is shut down safely and efficiently” and to “document the safe shutdown to prevent any possible management sabotage and any attempts to blame transit workers for management misconduct or carelessness,” according to a three-page document handed out to union members yesterday.


[Also yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg laid out detailed plans for how travel in the city will be handled should the union strike. A story is on page 2.]


In their effort to avoid a shutdown, officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority yesterday met with union officials for the third day in a row at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Midtown.


Negotiators for the union said talks had not moved at the pace they would like and that many issues – including the central concerns over wages, health benefits, and pensions – were wholly unresolved. The union’s recording secretary, Darlyne Lawson, complained of “outside influence from the mayor’s office” that had hindered progress. “We’re just spinning our wheels,” Ms. Lawson said. “Negotiations are not going so well.”


A member of the union’s executive board, John Samuelsen, said, “We’re mobilizing members and preparing for the worst.”


Much of the brinkmanship between the two sides in a run-up to a possible strike has been a repeat of actions taken in past years, from rallies and threats to lawsuits and contingency plans. The same is true of the union’s strike plan: It appears to have been written in a previous era, as it informs station agents that the transit authority “will be warned not to send additional reserves of tokens.” Tokens were phased out completely in April 2003.


According to the strike document handed out yesterday to workers, no buses or subways would leave the depot after 12:01 a.m. tonight. All trips scheduled to begin before 12:01 a.m. would be completed. Buses and subways would return to their depots with their lights off. Passengers would not be stranded and bus drivers have been told not to abandon any buses on the street. Subway train operators and conductors have been told to refuse to work on trains that may be rerouted by supervisors.


The document says that after all trains and buses are “laid up” and the tower operators set track signals to flash red, workers would report to their designated picket lines. Station agents would chain and lock turnstiles at 12:01 a.m. Subway riders would leave stations through high turnstiles. Emergency lights would be left on.


A strike is illegal under the state’s Taylor law, and workers can be docked two days’ pay for every day off the job.


In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the city is seeking stiffer fines: $25,000 a day for every worker and millions of dollars against the union. The fines would double every day of a strike. Lawyers representing the city returned to court briefly yesterday to pursue the lawsuit seeking additional fines against the union and workers should they strike.


The MTA won a preliminary injunction Tuesday from a judge in Supreme Court in Brooklyn warning workers and union officials not to incite or engage in a strike. A similar injunction was issued during contract talks in 1999 and 2002.


Union members said police had delivered the court ordered injunctions on behalf of the MTA to their homes.


Under state law, workers can be fired for striking, though a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Tom Kelly, said that it would be impossible to replace in any timely way the thousands of workers who might walk off the job. He also said each member is allowed due process before being fired, a time-consuming process.


A former MTA chairman, Richard Ravitch, who led the authority during the last strike, in 1980, said: “You can’t imagine what the transit system would be like if you had to train 40,000 people.”


He said the impact of a strike on the city’s economy would indeed be dreadful, but that heavy-handed fines do not replace diplomacy.


“If they bankrupt the union, you’re going to get the Teamsters union,” he said. “You think 40,000 employees are going to go unrepresented?”


While the mayor presented a detailed contingency plan, the MTA added to its plan to deal with a possible transit shutdown. Riders would have to pay a $4 fare to take the Long Island Rail Road or Metro-North Railroad between stations located within the city. The City Ticket pilot program would be suspended. Revenue would be collected manually, using tickets. The $4 fare represents a reduction of the normal fee for using the commuter railroads to travel within the city.


The New York Sun

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