New York's subway and buses were up and running again early yesterday after a three-day public-transit strike that left New Yorkers walking and biking across the metropolis in bitter cold.
The subway began running at midnight along New York's nearly 1,000km of train lines, and buses had begun servicing their routes again on Thursday night.
The strike had affected 7 million New York workers, students and tourists as well as commuters living outside the city.
PHOTO: AFP
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the end of the strike on Thursday after the union for 33,700 subway and bus workers agreed to end the work stoppage without a deal on a new contract to resume formal negotiations with transit officials. They had faced substantial pressure to stop the strike, including massive fines and the threat of jail for the union's top three leaders.
"Everything will go back to normal at midnight," Bloomberg said at a news conference.
Bloomberg praised Transport Workers Union leader Roger Toussaint for "acting right" by calling off the strike before negotiations were to restart with Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which runs the vast transit system.
Earlier, Bloomberg had called union leaders' behavior "thuggish."
Toussaint and MTA officials earlier reached agreement with New York state mediator Richard Curreri that the strike be ended so talks could begin again.
Curreri said he had held "fruitful," albeit separate, discussions with both sides during the strike.
"Both parties have a genuine desire to resolve their differences," he said.
Transit workers, who make US$35,000 dollars to US$55,000 a year, demanded a 24 percent pay increase in a new three-year contract while the MTA offered 9 percent. Pension and health were the other contentious issues.
News that the strike had ended caught New Yorkers by surprise as offices were closing on Thursday. Streams of people walked from midtown Manhattan toward the Brooklyn Bridge to their homes in the Brooklyn borough, some having to walk 8km each way since the strike begun.
Others shared livery cabs or taxis four or five at a time as required by the city's contingency plans.
Attendance at schools was higher on Thursday after dropping to 71 percent on Wednesday because of the strike. Restaurant business was down to 40 percent and the economic toll for department stores, museum and Broadway shows was higher.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS