NYC Survives Without Transit

The city's subway and bus workers went on strike Tuesday for the first time in more than 25 years, stranding millions of commuters, holiday shoppers and tourists at the height of the Christmas rush. A judge promptly slapped a $1 million-a-day fine on the union.

State Justice Theodore Jones leveled the sanction against the Transport Workers Union for violating a state law that bars public employees from going on strike.

Attorneys for the city and state had asked Jones to hit the union with a "very potent fine" for defying the law.

The city survived the morning rush without the anticipated gridlock and widespread chaos as many commuters adapted to the absence of mass transit — some by just staying home. The city's streets were unusually quiet.

Meanwhile, WCBS-AM's Irene Cornell reports two units of the Transport Workers Union have told a judge they did not sanction the strike by Local 100.

The city moved quickly to serve restraining orders on the union. Strikes by public employees are against the law in New York State, and the workers can be docked two days' pay for each day on strike.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg angrily admonished the union during an afternoon press conference, saying the strike had caused severe to devastating harm to city businesses, as food service business were not receiving deliveries, tourists were canceling at hotels, and many stores remained closed.

Bloomberg said that until the union returns to work, he does not think negotiations should continue because the union had broken the law.

"You don't have the right to decide which laws you want to obey and which ones you don't," he said.

But TWU attorney Arthur Schwartz accused the MTA of provoking the strike — a charge that Gov. George Pataki disputed.

"The TWU has broken the law," Pataki told a Manhattan news conference. "That is wrong, and they will suffer the consequences. They should end this illegal strike and come back to the table."

Video Archive Of Strike Coverage

The city's first transit strike in 25 years forced millions of commuters and city residents to think on their feet Tuesday, to find alternatives to mass transit buses and subways that stopped running in the early morning hours.

They got around any way they could. Perfect strangers shared cabs, people who normally use subways and buses hopped on to commuter trains, water taxis or even walked in the chilling cold — anything to get where they were going.

Pay raises and pension and health benefits for new hires were main sticking points.

The union said the latest MTA offer included annual raises of 3 percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent; the previous proposal included 3 percent raises each year. MTA workers typically earn from $35,000 as a starting salary to about $55,000 annually.

Local 100 president Roger Toussaint said the union wanted a better offer from the MTA, especially when the agency has a $1 billion surplus this year. The contract expired Friday, but the sides had negotiated until the union's strike deadline of Tuesday.

The city activated emergency plans by the city, limiting travel by vehicles with less than four people and barring commercial vehicles between the hours of 5 and 11 a.m. Roadblocks at the bridges and tunnels into Manhattan turned back vehicles not meeting those requirements and jammed up others that did.

WCBS-AM reports as many as 75 percent of the cars trying to enter the borough may have been turned away Tuesday morning.

More than 7 million daily riders normally rely on the city's buses and subways — the largest mass transit system in the United States, and fifth largest in the world.

Some, like CBS News' Constance Lloyd, walked across bridges into Manhattan.

"Most of the people are just trying to get to work, serious, walking fast, a quick, brisk pace," she reported from the 59th Street Bridge, made famous by a Simon & Garfunkel song. "There are definitely people that haven't done this in awhile and are huffing and puffing as they're going." Others tried to drive in.

At the 96th Street barricades, below which cars with fewer than four drivers could not go, commuters tried to find rides.

The strike couldn't come at a worse time, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi. A city full of holiday tourists who can't get around could cost New York millions of dollars.

The union rejected a contract offer at 11 p.m. and did not announce its strike decision until just after 3 a.m. Tuesday. Shortly afterward, lawyers representing management and the city began drafting a request to a judge to declare the workers in contempt of court for calling an illegal strike.

Toussaint, announcing the decision to strike, said that at a time when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has a surplus of $1 billion, "this contract ... should have been a no-brainer."

"Make no mistake, these are bullying tactics and we will not accept them," said MTA chairman Peter Kalikow of the TWU's strike decision, adding that the walkout is "a slap in the face of all MTA customers and all New Yorkers."

Toussaint says he does not understand why the MTA, in his view, has taken "a hard line" on health benefits and pension. Addressing the people of New York, Toussaint cast the union's strike as "a fight over whether hard work will be rewarded... a fight over dignity and respect on the job."

Bloomberg was swift to respond to the strike announcement, calling the union's action "selfish" and a "cowardly attempt … to bring the city to its knees."

"We cannot give them the satisfaction," said Bloomberg, calling on New Yorkers to walk, bicycle and find other ways to get around to avoid shutting down businesses and schools and the "havoc" he says the union is intent on creating. The mayor — wearing an "I love New York" sweatshirt to underscore his message — went on to say that New Yorkers have a habit of getting through tough times and will once again prove that this is a city that works — "even when our buses and subways don't."

He later walked across the Brooklyn Bridge from the city's emergency center to his office.

Bloomberg has said that a transit strike could cost the city as much as $400 million a day — a figure that includes police overtime and lost business and productivity. It would be particularly harsh at the height of the holiday shopping rush.

The transit workers' old contract expired early Friday, but the union and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to keep talking through the weekend.