Queens Commuters Stranded
by john toscano

Queens bus workers staged the opening act, making Monday morning’s commute chaotic. The city’s transit workers followed with a crushing blow about 24 hours later, striking the entire subway and bus system and with just three shopping days left until Christmas throwing the city into confusion and gridlock.

The strike, coming at 3 a.m. yesterday caught 7 million daily commuters by surprise as they got up for work and triggered massive gridlock in Manhattan, on the Long Island Expressway and Grand Central Parkway, at the Queensboro and Triborough Bridges, and just about everywhere else.

Queens stations of the Long Island Rail Road were jammed with stranded riders queuing up in the below-freezing cold.

At Queens Plaza in Long Island City, the usual bumper-to-bumper crawl onto the Queensboro Bridge was almost at a standstill as police checked every car to make sure drivers complied with the city’s four-passengers-to-a-car rule.

Although everyone should have been prepared for the shutdown since futile negotiations had been going on since the MTA’s contract with TWU (the Transport Workers Union) Local 100 expired last Friday morning, there were angry reactions everywhere following the strike call at 3 a.m. yesterday.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the action illegal and morally reprehensible, and said the city and MTA were pursuing legal solutions to end the work stoppage.

Governor George Pataki charged the union had endangered the city’s economy and recklessly endangered the health and safety of every New Yorker.

But Pataki himself and the MTA came under sharp attack from City Councilmember John Liu (D–Flushing), saying both were guilty of a failure of leadership.

Liu said the MTA and the state had had months to negotiate a fair and reasonable agreement with transit workers. Instead, he charged, the governor was more interested in pursuing his own political objectives.

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall urged MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow and the union to get back to the bargaining table and reopen negotiations. She also urged the LIRR to move its contingency plan into place quickly to get harried commuters onto trains more quickly.

“Many of our residents shivered in 22-degree temperatures this morning, waiting in blocks-long lines in Jamaica and Forest Hills and other locations to buy a train ticket to get to work,” she complained.

Councilmember Tony Avella (D–Bayside) also appealed to the LIRR to amend its contingency plan.

“As I understand it, LIRR trains during peak morning and evening hours will not only bypass key stations in my council district, such as Little Neck, Douglaston, Auburndale and Broadway, but will also skip the Flushing and Shea Stadium stations,” Avella said.

Failure to amend the plan had the potential to be a nightmare, Avella warned. The current plan was not helping the regular LIRR riders nor those reaching out to it in this emergency, he said.

Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussant speaking to pickets in East Elmhurst had warned on Monday, “Unless there is substantial movement by the authority [the MTA], trains and buses will come to a halt as of midnight tonight.”

Toussant had also addressed Jamaica Bus Lines workers at the company’s South Jamaica depot before rallying Triboro Coach workers in East Elmhurst near La Guardia Airport.

In all, 707 workers from the two companies went out on strike, affecting about 57,000 riders, some of whom were totally surprised as they left night jobs and found no buses running.

Meanwhile, bargaining negotiations had gone on since last Friday when the contract expired.

The main obstacle to an agreement had been the MTA’s demand that the 33,700-member bus and subway workers union, agree to a pension plan change that would raise the retirement age for future members from 55 to 62.

The MTA argued it had to bring pension costs under control, but the union countered that they would not reduce the benefit for future workers.

Earlier on Monday, Toussant hinted that the union would reduce its wage demands slightly to try to bring about an agreement. He said they would reduce its wage demands to a six percent increase every year for three years from eight percent a year. The TWU had been offering a three percent wage increase for three years.

Both sides met for 12 hours straight on Monday, with Kalikow and Toussant in face-to-face talks at times. But shortly before the midnight deadline that the union had set, its bargainers left the Grand Hyatt Hotel where the negotiating was going on and headed back to their headquarters for a board meeting. At 3 a.m. Tuesday, December 20, the union officials announced the board had voted to strike.

Under the Taylor Law, which prohibits strikes by government workers, individuals can be fined two days’ pay for every day they’re out, and the union can also be fined.

The Triboro routes run through East Elmhurst, Corona and Jackson Heights to the terminal at Broadway and Roosevelt Avenue. Jamaica Bus Lines covers routes in Southeast Queens. Both offer express service to Manhattan.

The Queens strike started at 12:01 a.m. Monday and was designed by Toussant to put a scare into the MTA and force the agency to alter its strategy at the bargaining table. The plan didn’t appear to work.

Marshall urged stranded riders to find alternative ways of traveling and to familiarize themselves with the city’s contingency plan.

Under that plan, car pool staging areas have been set up at the following locations:

•Little Bay Park at Little Bay and Utopia Parkways in Bayside.

•Crocheron Park, 33rd Avenue and 215th Place, Bayside.

•Alley Pond Park, Winchester Boulevard and Union Turnpike.

•Cunningham Park, Union Turnpike and Francis Lewis Boulevard.

•Belmont Park Racetrack, Cross Island Parkway and Hempstead Avenue, Queens Village.

•Astoria Park, Hoyt and 19th Avenues, Astoria.

•Kissena Park in Flushing.

•Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, at Exit 7P, Grand Central Parkway.

•Shea Stadium, where at press time a connection could be made to the LIRR.

The city has also asked private ferry operators to extend peak service to accommodate staggered work schedules and additional riders. Private ferries will provide service along the East River with stops at Hunters Point in Long Island City.

During the strike, alternate side of the street parking rules will be suspended in Queens and the other boroughs. Also “No Standing” and “No Parking” rules will be extended on main roads throughout the boroughs from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. Designated No Standing and No Parking areas will be marked.

Rush hour lane reversals will be implemented on the Queensboro, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges, and the Queens Midtown, Holland and Lincoln Tunnels to accommodate extra traffic flow.

Meanwhile, the strike coming with four days left in the holiday shopping schedule, will have a sobering effect on shopping and will blunt various promotional programs intended to attract last-minute shoppers. These final days are especially critical for any retailers that got off to a slow start.

According to Bloomberg News Service, major stores are reporting holiday sales profits of between two and four percent. Many stores planned on staying open until midnight and are cutting prices by up to 50 percent to attract last-minute shoppers.

If the strike continues until Christmas Eve on Saturday, it could ruin all the promotion plans and hurt the final holiday sales profits.