Bare-Bones Accord Averts Transit Strike in New York City

Averting a crippling New York City transit strike, negotiators agreed Monday on a spartan, three-year deal in which union leaders accepted a much smaller wage increase than they had demanded.

Under the settlement, subway and bus employees would get a $1,000 lump-sum bonus, but no wage increase, in the first year, and a 3% salary increase in each of the following two years. The deal must still be approved by the 34,000 members of the Transit Workers Union.

“I have every confidence that the membership will approve this overwhelmingly,” said transit union leader Roger Touissaint, who originally sought a 24% wage increase over three years. Asked whether the union had settled for too little, the labor leader said, “I don’t want to inflame the situation, so I’ll simply say good night.”

The deal was approved after four marathon days of negotiations. Although the contract officially expired at midnight Sunday, union leaders said sufficient progress had been made to “stop the clock” just before the deadline and continue talks through Monday.

During a news conference Monday night with Touissaint at a Manhattan hotel, Peter Kalikow, president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, voiced relief at the settlement. He called it “a historic turning point” in the relationship between the MTA and the transit union, one in which “confrontation would give way to cooperation.”

Kalikow and Touissaint hugged after announcing the deal, and New Yorkers who had been bracing for the city’s first transit strike in 22 years breathed a sigh of relief.

During recent days, when it seemed that the two sides were making no progress, millions of people geared up for contingency plans prepared by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Had there been a strike, those driving automobiles would have needed three or more passengers to enter Manhattan on weekdays, and one or more passengers on weekends.

Taxis were prepared to handle more than one customer at a time, and ferry services to New York were also going to be expanded.

Bloomberg estimated that the city would have lost between $100 million and $350 million daily during a strike.

Any work stoppage “would have been a catastrophe for the city, especially during the holiday season,” Kalikow added.

But it would have also been a financial disaster for the union. Strikes by public employees are illegal in New York, and the MTA had secured an injunction barring any labor action by the Transit Workers Union, despite threats to walk off the job.

The union could have been fined millions of dollars for each day of a strike. Individual members were liable for $25,000 in daily penalties under the injunction.

Given those realities, former Mayor David N. Dinkins said in an interview on New York 1 News, “there would have been a lot of pain all around. It’s a blessing that we finally got this thing settled.”

The starting salary for transit workers is $33,000 a year, while senior workers can earn up to $47,000, according to union statistics.

Although Touissaint did not get the raises he wanted, the union’s members were pleased by concessions made in the MTA’s disciplinary policies that they said would treat workers with more dignity.

The union also won funding for a child-care program.

In return, MTA officials said they had won productivity increases from workers that would allow the trains and buses to run more efficiently and save money.