Strike Leaves New Yorkers Out in Cold

Subways and buses ground to a halt in New York yesterday as transit workers walked off the job at the height of the holiday shopping and tourist season, forcing millions of people to find new ways to get around.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had said the strike would cost the city as much as pounds 226m a day, joined the throngs of people crossing the Brooklyn Bridge as he walked from a Brooklyn emergency headquarters to City Hall.

“It’s a form of terrorism, if you ask me,” said Maria Negron, who walked across the bridge. “I hope they go back to work.”

Other New Yorkers car-pooled or rode bicycles in the cold; early morning temperatures were below freezing.

With traffic rules in place to prevent gridlock, the city survived the morning rush without the feared chaos. Manhattan streets were unusually quiet; some commuters just stayed home.

Officials said they would seek quick court action, and about eight hours after the strike began, a closed-door meeting about the walkout was under way in a Brooklyn courtroom.

It is illegal for mass transit workers to strike in New York, and the 33,000 employees could face fines of two days’ pay for each day on strike.

It is New York’s first citywide transit walkout since an 11-day strike in 1980. Pay raises and pension and health benefits for new employees were main sticking points.

“I’m not happy about this,” said Yvette Vigo, whose teeth were chattering after she walked a couple of miles to pick up a company- run shuttle bus. “It’s too cold to walk this far.”

Authorities began locking turnstiles and shuttering subway entrances shortly after the Transport Workers Union ordered the strike. The nation’s largest mass transit system carries more than seven million people each day.