January 1 - Transit Workers Push Back

On this day in labor history, the year was 1966.

That was the day 33,000 transit workers of TWU Local 100 waged a 13-day strike in New York City.

They shut down 135 miles of subway, 2200 buses and affected over 6 million daily riders.

Wages and working conditions had been sliding for years at the MTA.

By 1965, transit workers made far less than other municipal workers.

Speed up and expanded job duties increased as the Authority eliminated thousands of positions. Rank and file members held the union partially responsible.

They demanded a contract that met their needs and a walkout if necessary.

TWU President Mike Quill broke off negotiations on New Year’s Eve.

Moments later, he was televised ripping up a temporary injunction barring the strike.

The union demanded contract changes, including a 32-hour, 4-day workweek, a 30% wage increase, and better pension and vacation terms. Quill and eight other TWU leaders were jailed for defiance of the injunction.

Having been found guilty of contempt, Quill responded, “The judge can drop dead in his black robes.”

Politicians and even the President lambasted the intolerable conditions the strike had created. Editorials in the New York Times lamented that “not since the Draft Riots of the Civil War has the normal course of life in this city been more profoundly altered for so many days.”

Transit workers stood tough and won big.

Their victory include a 15% wage increase, improved pension benefits and $2 million towards improved working conditions.

The strike also resulted in the overhaul of laws governing public sector workers, granting them the right to organize and bargain collectively, thus leveling the playing field for all public employees.