N.Y. Transit Workers Threaten to Strike Amid Holiday Rush

New York City’s subways and buses carry 3.5 million riders every day. It’s a terrifying number if you consider what could happen if the system suddenly stopped.

And a transit workers’ strike all but set for Wednesday is threatening to do just that, shutting down much of the city as the holiday shopping season heads into high gear.

“Last time this happened it was a total disaster. Now we have far more people and far more tourists than then. It’s really hard to imagine,” said City Councilman Noach Dear, head of the council’s transportation committee.

The city’s subways and buses were halted by strikes in 1966 and 1980 that left New York in turmoil.

“I was here in April of ‘80, when the last strike happened, and it was a real hardship,” said Gene Russianoff, a staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign, a transit riders’ advocacy group. “And it’s one thing to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge in April. It’s another thing to do it in the middle of winter.”

Contract negotiations continued Saturday. The union, which is demanding an increase in workers’ pay, represents drivers, signal operators, station agents and janitors. The MTA has offered a 9.25% wage increase over four years. The union has asked for a 9% pay hike each year for three years.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said Saturday he would hold the Transport Workers Union responsible for a strike he called “illegal.”

The mayor also said the city would go to court Monday to seek an injunction against a strike.

The state Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s contract with the 33,000-member union expires at 12:01 a.m. EST Wednesday.