Blogger Samantha Moller recounts the 2005 NYC Transit Strike, which I recall as more anger than actual inconvenience. I don’t believe Translink has struck in at least 15 years, but it begs the question. What is your Plan B if they do?
I worked for an educational publisher over Penn Station at 34th Street on the west side during the 2005 New York transit strike. Most of the editorial staff made too little money to live anywhere but in the most far-flung boroughs and our reliable morning commute was about to be upended.
Our company was one of those old-fashioned places that insisted on bum-in-seat from 9 to 5 even though our wordsmith jobs could have easily adapted themselves to telecommuting. Even with the prospect of all NYC transit halting with little notice we were expected to show up at our desks on time.
Not as fun as it looks
Still not as fun
The first day of the strike was a cold December morning. We walked from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, crossed the bridge over to Long Island City into Queens for what were then new water taxis into the city — a service available only since a recent spate of bland glass development had turned a former derelict wharf district into ‘Little Toronto’.
Our hero
It was a long wait for a ferry, because it was New York. Thousands of other people had the same idea. A short ride and $15 later we walked from the east side of 34th Street to 8th Avenue.
Saved by gentrification
I did view the city differently after the strike experience. It’s one thing to be aware of all of those subways stops zooming by, and something else when you have to walk every block of your commute. The commute was over three miles one way and took about an hour. Actually, not much longer than than the 40 minutes it took me when using transit, but certainly more expensive and noteworthy.
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Does anyone (other than George Puil) have any remembrances they’d like to share of the four-month (123 days) Translink strike of 2001?
Author
Four months?! NYC’s was only two weeks. Hell, I thought the teachers’ strike was bad. I hope everyone has a Plan B, because at some point in the future, Translink will strike again.
Why would they strike ? Their wages incl. benefits are well above private sector norms. Bus drivers making over $80,000 incl. benefits and Translink cops making over $100,000. THAT is the main reason why we do not have enough $s to invest into transit, as every civil servants (at the municipal and provincial level) is overpaid by 25-30% when counting market rates for similar jobs, benefits, pensions, hours AND low risk of layoffs. That is THE Achilles heel of democracy: politicians being held hostage by monopoly employers. Therefore we have nothing left over to invest as almost all tax $s collected get drained by the civil servants’ union protected and coddled civil servants.
They are making out like bandits, see here: http://www.cfib-fcei.ca/english/article/7290-public-sector-workers-oped.html
In this monopoly employer situation politicians far too easily give in and pay them well above market rates to prevent strikes. Striking in a monopoly situation – like TransLink (or teachers or BC Hydo or police or firefighters or nurses – should be illegal.
None of this matters. These upmarket wages and benefits have kept them from striking this long, but at some point they will strike again.
The wages for bus drivers range from 21.64 to start and top out at 30.91. Even at the top wage, you still only have enough to rent a 1 bedroom apartment in Vancouver. If you want to support a family you’ll need your spouse to be earning a decent wage as well. Those wages are not high.
The 2001 strike was when I discovered that I could cycle long distances. Previously I had only used cycling for short distances. I would use transit for long distances so, I figured out what it took to do it.
Now I wish I could go even longer distances by bike.
I worked behind locked door with armed police guards for the duration of the strike due to threats made to public officials. It was grim. In addition to the usual heavy work load we all took calls all day long from the public complaining and blaming and sharing desperate stories of the impact of loss of transit. We were all transit users ourselves in the office so got a double whammy – it was just as problematic to get around for us as other members of the public and we were also listening to the complaints all day. The strike went into 5 months. I still remember some of the heartbreaking stories about the impact. The cursing of the public in emails to officials. The powerlessness of not being able to help people in need. It is the least economically flush who are the most negatively affect in these situations.
The topic of Vancouver’s 2001 transit strike is interesting because the overall impact seemed to be pretty mild. Just as “carmaggedon” is always feared when there are street closures, life for most people seemed to continue without transit.
I was working in North Vancouver at the time and just got together to carpool with three other Seabus regulars. Heck they insisted, over my vociferous protestations, to each pay me the equivalent of their monthly fare passes, so I actually came out ahead on the deal.
The one thing I remember about the Vancouver transit strike, sad to say, was how quiet it was. It didn’t really occur to me until they were gone that diesel buses are LOUD. Even the air brakes of the trolley busses make quite a bit of noise. I’m sure the air quality went down, and traffic went up, but it was markedly quieter, in my opinion.
Does anyone know of a transit strike anywhere in which the _users_ of the service organized, made demands, and then boycotted until the demands were met? (for such things as lower fares, better service, and better security)? I organized a rent strike in 1970 here in Ottawa that got the landlord to sign an agreement to make repairs and stop mistreating the tenants. Yep, effective user boycotts are rare.
The only one of these I’ve ever heard of is the Birmingham bus boycott in the early 60’s. That was more a protest of policy than technical operations, but good question.
I remember dimly living through a Toronto transit strike. I remembering walking over 1.5 hrs. to work. At that time, I had not yet returned to cycling. I didn’t have a bike at that time.