NYC Union: 'We Are Not Thugs'

Union Leaders Could Face Jail Time As Transit Strike Continues

(CBS/AP) 
In preparation for such an action, the city was making plans to serve legal papers on striking workers whenever they might be found, including picket lines and at their homes.

As the dispute played out in court and in the negotiating room, millions of New Yorkers trudged to work in another bone-chilling commute without subways and buses.

Bloomberg said the strike was taking a serious toll on the local economy — responsible for a 40 percent decline in business at restaurants and an 80 percent decline in visitors at museums.

"Working people are the ones who are being hurt," Bloomberg said. "The busboy is getting hurt, the garment industry worker is getting hurt, the owners of mom and pop businesses ... The ones getting hurt the most are the ones who can least afford it. If they don't get paid, they don't eat."

Bloomberg, who isn't directly involved in the strike talks, added, though, that he didn't think jail was appropriate.

"I would urge the judge not to put them in jail but to raise the fines," Bloomberg said. "The fines are what is going to hurt, fines don't make you a martyr and fines you don't get back.

Toussaint said he took issue with Bloomberg's earlier remarks that the union "thuggishly" turned its back on New York. He called the language "undignified and unbecoming."

"We are not thugs,'' Toussaint said. "We wake up at 3 and 4 in the morning to move the trains in this town. That's not the behavior of thugs and selfish people."

On the first day of winter, New Yorkers were out before sunrise, hoping to avoid the long lines and crushing crowds that formed at commuter rail stations during rush hour Tuesday. Outside Penn Station, several taxis had lined up by 7 a.m. to pick up passengers hoping to beat the rush.

"A nightmare, disorganized, especially going home," Aleksandra Radakovic said Wednesday in describing her morning commute.

Some of the strikers got an early start Wednesday, donning union placards and returning to their picket lines. Bill McRae, a bus driver since 1985, said he thought negotiations should have continued — but he still backed the walkout.

"The union executives called for a strike, and we have to do what we have to do," McRae said on Manhattan's West Side.

Transit officials said about 1,000 transit workers came to work Tuesday, and that they were put to work cleaning and doing paperwork. Toussaint adamantly denied that so many people had crossed the picket line.

Police say there have been no strike-related crimes, injuries or arrests with the exception of two minor incidents.

Isaac Flores, who works at a law firm in midtown, was part of a complicated, four-person car pool to get to work Wednesday morning. "They're too spoiled," Flores said of the transit workers. "They want to retire at age 55. They're making more money than a cop."

Flores traveled in a car pool with Myra Sanoguet, who saw a group of pickets in upper Manhattan as their car drove past.

"We were thinking about running them over just now," Sanoguet said.