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Two New York city bus lines shut down
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-19 19:34
Commuters who depend on two private bus lines were
forced to find their own way home after drivers walked off the job early Monday,
a predicament that could soon paralyze the entire city if the transit strike
widens.
Members of Transport Workers Union Local 100
stand outside the bus depot of Triboro Coach Corp. in the Queens borough
of New York as they began a strike after no agreement was reached with the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority regarding a new contract Monday,
Dec. 19, 2005. Two private bus lines serving as many as 50,000 commuters
shut down early Monday as weekend negotiations failed to stop a strike
that could spread citywide this week. [AP] |
The walkout at the two Queens bus lines came as the Transport Workers Union
continued to threaten a large-scale strike beginning after midnight Tuesday that
could affect as many as 7 million subway and bus commuters.
"It is a little unsettling to be the first wave," said union officer George
Jennings, representing bus maintenance workers. "It's going to be a rough deal.
Nobody wants to go on a strike on Christmas."
After making little progress over the weekend, the union and the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority briefly negotiated Sunday afternoon in a midtown
Manhattan hotel, but the talks were "not in the final analysis fruitful," the
MTA's chief negotiator said.
"The MTA is quite concerned that we are now down to the last day before the
union-imposed deadline," MTA negotiator Gary Dellaverson said, referring to the
plans for a citywide strike.
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