Talks Resume as N.Y. Transit Union Ends Strike

Most Subways Expected to Be Running Again by Today, Officials Say

A crowd moves along 33rd Street in front of Pennsylvania Station as commuters move through lines for the Long Island Railroad during the second day of a city wide transit strike. (Julie Jacobson - AP)

NEW YORK, Dec. 22 -- The long trudges over the Brooklyn Bridge in 25-mph December winds, the beeping, yelling, yo-move-ovuh! cacophony of avenues that look like parking lots have ended.

Striking subway and bus workers on Thursday ended a three-day walkout that all but paralyzed the nation's most populous city in the middle of the holiday season.

Transit Workers Union Local 100 and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority began negotiating again amid signs a contract settlement could be in the offing. Transit officials said Thursday that they hope to have "most" of the subways running by Friday morning.

New York City, by far and away, has the largest transit system in the nation, carrying 7 million passengers daily.

New Yorkers take pride in their profane unflappability, and for two days they hiked, they biked, they shared cabs and worked from home. By Day Three it got old. Harriet Jones, 39, lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. She works on 44th Street in Manhattan, which is 9.7 miles away, give or take a tortuous tenth of a mile.

"You see these?!" She pointed, emphatically, to her running shoes. "The feet inside of these are very tired. Please. Enough is enough."

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg this week had tossed a few rhetorical eggs at transit union President Roger Toussaint, decrying the chief's "thuggish" behavior in shutting down the subways and buses. The mayor reined in the descriptives Thursday, although he didn't hide his annoyance at the toll taken on the city.

"We have a lot of serious economic harm that was inflicted," Bloomberg said at a news conference. "If you go out to a restaurant next week, you won't order two meals to make up for the one you missed. . . . I stand by everything I said."

City officials placed the economic damage at about $300 million a day, including police overtime. From bodegas to Macy's to chic restaurants, business was reduced to something approximating a trickle. A few hardy shoppers walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, hauling shopping bags and wrapping paper.

"A strike? Means nothing to my kids -- they're spoiled and they want to see presents," said Mort Saltzman, an accountant, who noted that he celebrates Christmas "in a Jewish tradition" each year.

Toussaint, whose unyielding language and cool demeanor had New Yorkers hanging on his every word, acknowledged the disruption in a very brief appearance outside his union offices. "We thank the riders for their patience and forbearance," Toussaint said.

A day earlier, he had fired back at the mayor for the name-calling: "Our children turn on the TV to see the mayor denouncing their parents as 'morally reprehensible.' Have you no shame?"