Big Apple turns to winners, losers after transit strike ends
NEW YORK – If anyone came out looking good in New York’s three-day transit strike, it was the city itself.
No one looted, rioted or set anything on fire. Transit workers who crossed picket lines before the strike ended Thursday were not attacked, although they were subjected to scorn by millions of stranded commuters who normally rely on the buses and subways of the nation’s largest public transportation system.
The biggest loser? The economy, from companies that lost business to stranded workers who didn’t get paid.
The verdict is more mixed on the political figures in the spotlight. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s tough talk impressed some, while Gov. George Pataki isn’t thought to have fared quite as well. And it’s too early to tell how the union might emerge.
Bloomberg’s hands were tied as the city endured its first transit strike in 25 years: He had no official role in the negotiations between the union and the state-run transit authority.
Still, he took action on several fronts. He put in place a contingency plan that combined carpool requirements, extra ferries, commuter train lines and special taxi rules to ease the gridlock and shuttle people throughout the city. He dispatched his lawyers to put additional pressure on the union through the courts.
He embraced the power of City Hall as a bully pulpit with more force than usual, tearing into union leaders for being “selfish” lawbreakers with reckless disregard for riders and the well-being of the city.
Bloomberg’s complaint that union leaders “thuggishly turned their backs on New York City” was called racist by some, including a city councilman, because the union is predominantly black and Latino. Bloomberg aides said the comment had nothing to do with race, but they said the mayor may have to tread carefully to avoid stoking racial tensions.
Also not entirely successful was the billionaire mayor’s attempt to show a “regular guy” image, with carefully planned rush-hour walks across the Brooklyn Bridge – in stonewashed jeans and a leather jacket – amid swarms of commuters. It was a somewhat flat remake of a scene from the city’s 1980 strike, when then-Mayor Ed Koch dashed out to the bridge to greet New Yorkers as they streamed across.
Bloomberg will have to settle for overall good marks, but nothing spectacular, said Douglas Muzzio, professor of public affairs at Baruch College.
“In terms of scorekeeping, I think the mayor did well,” Muzzio said. “He was firm, feisty, aggressive, and he showed a side of him that New Yorkers might want to see more of.”
A poll this week found New Yorkers were split 45 percent to 44 percent on the mayor’s handling of the strike, but generally disapproved of the governor’s performance, 57 percent to 27 percent.
The economy suffered some blows. City officials estimated the losses ballooned into the hundreds of millions, but analysts said the figure likely was much lower. The bottom line of many small businesses suffered.
Many New Yorkers directed their scorn at Roger Toussaint, the head of the local Transport Workers Union. He was lambasted in a tabloid editorial headline that read: “Throw Roger from the train!”
But his union still could end up a winner.
Workers returned to the subways and buses without a contract, but state mediators have said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority may pull the pension-plan changes that Toussaint said were the reason workers walked off the job.