NYC Transit Strike Enters Second Day

The Transit Union disputes a daily fine of $1 million for ignoring injunctions barring a strike. The strike causes traffic chaos and estimates of economic damages reach $400 million per day.

1 minute read

December 21, 2005, 7:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"New Yorkers made the long, cold commute to work on the second day of the transit strike this morning without subways or buses, as negotiations between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the transit union remained at an impasse.

Traffic was snarled this morning along many of the city's major roadways, including the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, as many commuters tried to get to get into Manhattan before a 5 a.m. ban on cars with fewer than four people took effect. The prohibition ends at 11 a.m."

"...The strike began after talks between the union and the transportation authority - which gripped the entire city in a vise of anxiety for weeks - broke apart late Monday night, after the union rejected the authority's last offer. The authority had agreed to drop its previous demand to raise the retirement age for a full pension to 62 for new transit employees, up from 55 for current employees, but said it expected all future transit workers to pay 6 percent of their wages toward their pensions, up from the current 2 percent."

Wednesday, December 21, 2005 in

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