Contract talks broke off between New York transit and union negotiators last night without an agreement (just before the midnight strike deadline). 34,000 workers have gone on strike. Seven million people a day need to find another way to get around.
A friendl
y subway conductor
We lived in Manhattan during the 1980 strike. It started on April Fool's Day and lasted 12 days.
According to nycsubway.org, the absentee rate during the strike was around 15-20%. That may be true, but those of us who actually showed up for work didn't make it in until very late, and everyone left early. It was basically a circus atmosphere all over town. Employers were glad to have us show up for even a few hours a day. Even the most skinflint of employers (and that would include mine, Carl Fischer music publishers) paid people to share cabs in to work. The cab ride from the Upper West Side to the East Village took about two hours...barely faster than walking. It was a total zoo, with gridlock everywhere, and thousands of cops on traffic duty to contain the honking, chaos, and (literally) millions of pedestrians.
Heading to work on The Brooklyn Bridge
I don't remember road rage, or riots, or people being particularly angry. In fact, it was like anytime things went wrong: New Yorkers pulled together; they griped and kavetched, and they lived with it, and had a pretty good time doing it. I remember the endless commutes, schlepping back and forth from uptown to downstown. I remember sharing cab rides with Arthur Cohn (the cranky, funny composer and conductor known for his books on contemporary music, The Collector's 20th-Century Music in the Western Hemisphere and 20th-Century Music in Europe), Susan Lurie, a friend and excellent flautist, and at least one other person, possibly Pinky Rawsthorne. . .although if she was in the cab I think I would have remembered it, because there would have been a lot more laughter.
The New York Post Transit Survival
Guide - Click to enlarge
In 1980, the subways were dirty, dangerous, smelled, tended to catch on fire at times, had no air conditioning, and were covered with tags and graffiti. And boy, did we miss them. After returning home at night, you stayed in your neighborhood, or within walking distance anyhow. Somehow they settled it all in a couple of weeks. Good luck New York!
Kevin and Pete -- give us a report on how it is working... /jack
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I am posting this note by Kevin that was in with a different post...
ReplyDeleteFootloose. Even more disturbing than the safety of the subways in 1980 was the infrequency with which they ran once the sun fell. I remember many nights darkened with boucheron returning from W84th when I would sense through the sidewalk grates the vibration of a downtown B'way local. I bolted cuz if I missed it my journey to east 10th could be as much 90 minutes door to door. The very best you could hope for was 60 minutes if you could make an immediate connection, very unlikely, with the "Double R" at Times Square. Today that trip would almost always take less than a relaxed 40 minutes.
Anyway, today the traffic seems to be flowing w/o too much trouble at least outside my window at 59th & Lex. My commute actually got shorter. Usually I take two city buses (30-40 minutes) and read the paper. My walk was just over 20 minutes. It's a total hassle for folks in the other boros though. Jersey, LIRR & Metro North commuters have it much easier than folks in brklyn, bx, si & qns. Those folks are stuck.
As for the strike. I think the TWU and NY will be losers here. I don't see how the union achieves anything near their demands in a world of failing pension plans and increased longevity (AARP, oooh excuse, me). I think the TWU opened with 8%v annual increases and when's the last time you heard of increases like that. The word is that the average TWU bus driver makes $60K with OT. Better than the citywide average in the private sector. Sorry if most of this post appears already. I thought I passed the security test.
By kev, at December 20, 2005 11:26 AM
I thought it might not be too bad for you, being in midtown and all.
ReplyDeleteYou were in town in '80...do you remember much of that? I don't think you were 9 to 5'ing it then, so it might not have had as much an impact.
One thing I remember is people from Brooklyn going over to Staten Island and then taking the Staten Island ferry to downtown.
One thing I think contributed to the sort of festive atmosphere in that last strike: thousands of execs., and others were put up in hotels in Manhattan, which meant they had plenty of free time at night wander around and party.
/jack