Commuters used cars, cabs, boats, trains and their own foot power to make the journey to and from work here Tuesday, the first day of a transit strike that shut down the nation’s largest bus and subway system.
With no negotiations scheduled between the regional authority that runs the system and the transit workers union, New Yorkers faced the prospect of finding alternative transport in near-freezing temperatures for the next several days. That ordeal may test the patience of millions of riders and cost the local economy hundreds of millions of dollars during the last days of the holiday shopping season.
The strike, which was called at 3 a.m. Tuesday, prompted the 33,000 members of Transport Workers Union Local 100 to walk off the job for the first time in 25 years.
“This is a fight over dignity and respect on the job,” union President Roger Toussaint said. “Transit workers are tired of being underappreciated and disrespected.”
The move, which is opposed by the national transit workers union, could prove costly for both Local 100 and its members. Under a state law, public employees, including transit workers, are prohibited from striking. The law provides for fines of up to two days’ pay for each day a worker is on strike.
And on Tuesday afternoon, a Brooklyn judge cited Local 100 for violating the law and imposed a fine of $1 million for every day the strike continues. The union said it would appeal the ruling.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who walked across the Brooklyn Bridge during the morning rush hour, condemned the strike as “selfish” and “morally reprehensible.”
In an unusually fiery statement, Bloomberg said the union leadership “has thuggishly turned their backs on New York City and disgraced the noble concept of public service.”
Although the transportation authority is a state agency, Gov. George Pataki has refused to become involved in the contract dispute. But he joined the chorus of public officials condemning the strike.
“The TWU has broken the law,” Pataki said at a news conference. “That is wrong, and they will suffer the consequences. They should end this illegal strike and come back to the table.”
New York subways and buses collect about 7 million fares daily, although the number of riders is far less than that because many passengers make daily round trips.
The union’s three-year contract expired Friday, but negotiations continued with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the bus and subway system and several suburban commuter train lines, whose workers are represented by other unions.
On Monday, workers at two private bus lines in Queens walked off the job, a move meant to show the transportation authority that the union’s strike threat was serious.
Early Tuesday, the union’s executive board rejected the authority’s final offer, which provided annual raises of 3 percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent for each year of a three-year contract. The age at which employees could retire with full pensions was another sticking point in the talks. The authority wanted to raise the age from 55 to 62 for new employees.
Toussaint said the union wanted a better offer from the MTA, especially when the agency has a $1 billion surplus this year.
Emotions about the strike ran high. A businessman from suburban Westchester County, who would give his name only as Brad, said the union had no right to strike.
“If these workers don’t like their contract, they should quit that job and get another,” he said. “That’s what people in the private sector do, and that’s what they should do.”
Diane Prymak, who works at a candy shop in Grand Central Terminal, was more supportive of the union.
“I’m sympathetic” to the strikers, she said. “Everyone wants more money, but it’s unfortunate that the people they’re hurting are people like themselves, people who are trying to get to work.”
In an indication of the economic toll that a prolonged strike could exact on the city’s economy, Prymak said business had fallen off drastically. By midmorning on Monday, the day before the strike, the shop had sold $2,000 worth of Belgian chocolates. On Tuesday morning, Prymak, who walked to work, said sales had totaled about $50.
New York City Comptroller William Thompson estimated that the first day of the strike would cost the city $400 million in lost sales and other revenues, with the total rising to $1.6 billion if the walkout lasts a week.
To handle the crush of stranded commuters trying to get to work, the city prohibited any vehicle with fewer than four occupants from entering Manhattan south of 96th Street starting at 5 a.m.
In addition, Fifth and Madison Avenues and several cross streets were closed to keep them free for emergency vehicles.
During the morning rush, traffic backed up for blocks at police checkpoints, as motorists sought to meet the four-occupant rule. Drivers motioned to nearby pedestrians to jump into their cars for a ride into midtown or lower Manhattan.
Elsewhere in the city, many suburban commuter trains filled to standing room only after making stops in the outer boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Bloomberg said the Long Island Railroad carried an extra 45,000 passengers Tuesday morning, up from 100,000 a day.
Taking a cue from an earlier mayor, Bloomberg walked across Brooklyn Bridge on Tuesday morning. On the first day of an 11-day walkout in 1980, Ed Koch did the same thing. But in 1980, the strike occurred in April; Koch wore a suit and tie. For Tuesday’s frigid hike across the windy span, Bloomberg wore jeans, a black leather bomber jacket and heavy gloves.
Once commuters reached Manhattan, they found the streets strangely quiet, a sign that many workers stayed home for the first day of the strike. Traffic at the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels was about half the usual volume.
In the evening, homeward-bound commuters lined up on the street outside Penn Station to wait for seats on commuter trains, and a heavy stream of pedestrians flowed back across Brooklyn Bridge.
Bloomberg said the city’s plans for handling the strike will likely be tested in the days ahead as more people decide to come to work and shop.
Tourist David Permuter, who arrived with his family Monday night from St. Louis, was doing his best not to let the strike dampen their trip.
“I knew the strike was possible, but it hadn’t happened in 25 years, and I really didn’t think it was going to,” said Permuter, 55, a real estate agent, who noted that the only crimp in their visit so far was the lack of maid service at their hotel due to the strike.
“We’re in good spirits now, but who knows what the snowball effects of this thing will be?” he said after touring the NBC studios at Rockefeller Center. “Ask me in five days at the end of this vacation. Right now, we’re not complaining.”
