Marshall Plan Almost Ends Bus Strike; Nolan Bill Lets MTA Take Over Bus Lines

Marshall Plan Almost Ends Bus Strike; Nolan Bill Lets MTA Take Over Bus Lines

Queens BP Helen Marshall

by john toscano

Since the start of the Queens bus strike on June 17, Queens public officials have bombarded Mayor Michael Bloomberg with requests to get involved to end the bus workers' walkout over the lack of health benefits.

The mayor never did get involved but after he agreed last Friday with a plan proposed by Borough President Helen Marshall to end the month-long strike, a dispute within Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) last Sunday scuttled Marshall's plan and brought everyone back to square one in the dispute.

The next move is up to the union. But in addition to seeking health benefits, TWU members have now brought in a new demand for job security, which threatens to further harden positions on all sides.

Mayor Michaele Bloomberg.

After the union meeting on Sunday broke up under acrimonious circumstances, Michael Curran, a Local 100 official declared:

"We are not going back to work until we have employee protection, and that means they have to guarantee our wages and our health and welfare and protection plans. From day one, it was brought up quite clear that it had to do with employee protection."

That brought a sharp retort from Bloomberg and a reassertion of his position that the private bus lines, including the three being struck-Jamaica Buses, Queens Surface Transportation, and Triboro Coach-should be taken over by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

Last week, Assemblymember Catherine Nolan (D-Ridgewood) reported that her bill to implement the MTA takeover, already filed in the Assembly, would place bus drivers under the Civil Service Law. This would give them job protection and merit and seniority rights, but would bar them from striking under the Taylor Law.

Nolan has had a similar bill introduced each year since 1988, but her present bill sets a deadline of July 1, 2007 for the MTA and the city to agree on the takeover.

Since the start of the strike, negotiations had centered on increases in health benefits and whether New York City should pay for them since the bus owners said they couldn't afford to.

Marshall's proposal focused on this issue and would be based on productivity savings to internally fund an increase in the [bus owners'] health insurance contribution.

The Borough President would have the city loan the bus companies $2 million over the next six months to cover the payments to the TWU Health and Welfare Trust, which would then be repaid by the bus companies from productivity savings.

Marshall said the bus owners agreed with the plan, and so did the mayor. Bloomberg stated that Marshall's proposal, which commits the bus companies to self-fund the increased health care costs through productivity gains without additional city subsidies, would resolve the strike.

He added that the city would try to find other economies in the bus operations, and that he was pleased that the 115,000 Queens residents inconvenienced by the strike would soon have their regular bus service back.

He also profusely thanked Marshall "for her tireless work on behalf of the people of Queens to resolve this strike."

The day after Marshall's plan was announced and accepted, City Councilmember Tony Avella, who had been calling on the mayor to intercede since the strike began, issued a release stating, "As part of any private bus company bidding process the workers should be protected."

Avella, calling for a "Sense of the Council" resolution, also called for the city's first budget modification to include an appropriation of $2 million for the health and welfare benefits for the workers.

But on Sunday the union failed to agree to accept Marshall's plan. Marshall and some Queens councilmembers had held a press conference outside the union's Flushing headquarters where she outlined the plan and expressed the hope that the union would accept it.

But almost at the very moment when Marshall concluded her remarks, dozens of union members emerged from the building saying the deal was unacceptable. Observers on the scene said the source of union rift was a difference of opinion between drivers for the private buses and drivers employed by the MTA. Both groups are included in Local 100.

The sudden action by the union left Queens lawmakers disappointed. All had badgered the mayor to get involved in ending the strike after it started.

Councilmember Eric Gioia (D-Woodside), as did the others, cited the inconvenience to Queens bus riders. He also pointed out, "For many seniors, these buses are their sole source of transportation to get to the doctor, pharmacy and even the grocery store." He said he had been besieged by telephone calls from constituents imploring him to find a solution to the strike.

Avella, in his call to the mayor to end the strike, compared the situation to a snowstorm during which lack of attention from Mayor John Lindsay allowed Queens streets to remain snowbound for weeks. He also cited the negative effect of the strike on businesses.

Congressmember Joseph Crowley (D-Queens/Bronx) said the strike was causing many residents hardships because of the heat wave the city experienced. "The impasse has gone on too long," he declared, in seeking the mayor's intervention.

Assemblymember Brian McLaughlin (D-Flushing), at an end-the-strike rally at City Hall, declared, "Nobody wins with a strike. The workers want to get back on the job and the 116,000 Queens bus riders want them back even more."

McLaughlin was joined by Congressmember Gregory Meeks (D-Southeast Queens) in his remarks.

Others who issued calls to the mayor to get involved in trying to end the strike were Councilmembers James Gennaro (D-Jamaica Estates), David Weprin (D-Hollis) and Joseph Addabbo Jr. (D-Ozone Park).