New York Rolls Again

Now the city must pay for the transit strike

Wednesday did it. More than three inches of rain soaked pedestrians, bicyclists and roller skaters on the streets of New York City. They sloshed to work in the morning through ankle-deep puddles and returned home that evening in a tropical downpour. Cars and school buses clogged the streets. At one point, police in Manhattan narrowly averted a "grid lock," the ultimate traffic jam, in which no motor vehicle can move in any direction. An angry bicyclist bit a policeman; an upset motorist tried to run down a policewoman. It was the ninth day of the transit strike, and the elan that New Yorkers had shown in the first week of the walkout had washed away.

The sour mood was shared by the 33,000 striking transit workers. A judge fined them $1 million and, under the state's Taylor Law, they were being docked two days' pay for each day that they stayed out. This meant that the workers had lost about half the raises that they could hope to get in the first year of a new contract. The pressure was on union leaders to settle the dispute, and on Friday it ended, at least temporarily. Union Leader John Lawe ordered his members back to work. In the meantime, the workers, who earn an average of $18,500 a year with overtime, will vote by mail on whether to accept the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's final offer. It was for a 9% wage increase in the first year of the contract and 8% in the second year --roughly the same pay increase that the union probably could have obtained without a strike. In addition, the M.T.A.'s package contains several cost-saving provisions, including cutting down on overtime. Complained David Rubinstein, a conductor and dissident union member: "Something is wrong here, and something stinks."

The final cost of the settlement was not yet known, nor was the fate of the 50-c- bus and subway fare, which may have to be raised by 10-c- or 15-c-. In any event, New Yorkers have already paid dearly.

Mayor Edward Koch's aides estimated that firms lost about $100 million each day. The walkout cost the city about $3 million a day in lost sales taxes and other revenue, as well as overtime pay for police and firemen. Some of that loss, however, will be offset by the daily savings of $2 million from not operating the transit system and by the Taylor Law penalties.

But the biggest toll was paid by the elderly and the poor who lived too far from their jobs to walk and could not afford cabs. Anna Mack, 53, drove to her job as a cleaning woman in Rockefeller Center and had to pay parking fees of $8.50 a night, equal to about one-fourth of her take-home pay. A quarter of the city's garment workers, most of them non white and poor, could not get to their jobs.

Koch denounced the settlement as too costly. "The city won the battle in the streets," he said. "The M.T.A. lost it at the bargaining table." He fears that the municipal unions--firemen, police, sanitation men and teachers--will make even greater demands of the hard-pressed city when they begin contract negotiations in June. By his feisty leadership, Koch rallied the public behind him during the transit strike. He will need that support in the labor battles ahead.

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