NY transit strike called off

New York City subway trains are rolling again and buses are back on the streets Friday morning, following the end of a 69-hour transit strike that plunged the city into disarray. New York is America's most populous city, and this strike at the height of the holiday season may have cost the economy $1 billion.

The city's subway stations opened at midnight, with trains calling at the system's 468 stops for the first time in three days. Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials said that management personnel had been monitoring the system's infrastructure during the work stoppage to guarantee the condition of the rails, switches and signals.

Authorities said earlier that all the city's subway trains and buses would be fully functional for Friday morning's commute. Bowing to pressure from numerous parties, including mounting fines and possible jail time, the Transport Workers Union's executive board voted to end the massive strike that has frustrated commuters and tourists over three hectic days.

Although an agreement has not yet been reached between the TWU and the MTA, the union voted by a count to send their 34,000 members back to work without a new contract just three days before Christmas. The first sign of significant progress toward ending the three-day transit strike came early Thursday morning, when representatives from the union and the MTA unexpectedly returned to the Midtown Grand Hyatt to meet separately with mediators from the state Public Employment Relations Board. The breakthrough came at the end of the session when mediators suggested that the MTA drop its pension proposal in exchange for savings in another area, such as health benefits.

Although the majority of the TWU board voted to return to work, five union executives voted to continue the strike. They said they did so because a deal is still not in place. However, other board members said they believe a contract would be agreed by next week.

Meanwhile, State Supreme Court Judge Theodore Jones adjourned all legal proceedings Thursday afternoon without hearing the contempt case against TWU President Roger Toussaint and other union leaders. The leaders could face jail time for authorizing the illegal strike which violated the state's Taylor Law. Those court proceedings have now been postponed until January 20, 2006.

The walkout, which began early Tuesday, was the first citywide transit strike in 25 years.

 

 

2005 Politicians
2005国际政坛表情
Photo source: ImagineChina

	Spainish Prince vs Brazilian President 创意对白: 小样, 你到底想咋地?
	Spain's Prince Felipe of Asturias (L) speaks with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (R), February 23, 2005 in the Planalto Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil.
	Iranian President 创意对白: 兄弟, 胡子长了没?
	Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) greets another MP in the Iranian parliament on November 9, 2005. Four of Ahmadinejad ministries - cooperatives, education, oil and social security - were still without ministers at that time.
	Schroeder vs Merkel 创意对白: 来, 比试比试!
	Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (L) and former Christian Democratic Union (CDU) opposition leader Angela Merkel gesturing during their speeches to the Bundestag lower house of parliament, March 17, 2005 in Berlin.
	Chief of Russia's UES 创意独白: 哪里冒烟了?
	Anatoly Chubais, chief of Unified Energy Systems (UES), a Russian power company, visiting the site where the Komsomlskaya Thermal Power Plant is being built in Ivanovo region, Russia, February 24, 2005.

 

 

World in Words
Collected & translated by Beverly

"Every year I try to get my cards out first, but my husband's cousin always beats me. This year I feel like I won."
"每年我都努力成为送出新年祝福的第一人, 但我小叔子的动作总是比我快. 不过今年我感觉我赢了. "
Design-it-yourself stamps raise the ante on competitive greeting cards this holiday season.
--DIY邮票的出现使得这个假日的贺年片之争愈加激烈.

"Don't let this ticket spoil your Christmas. Here's ￡30 to pay it off. Merry Christmas - Parking Ticket Santa."
"别让这张罚单破坏了你过圣诞的好心情. 这里有30块钱, 拿去交罚款吧. 祝你圣诞快乐--罚单老人. "
In recent days around the English city of Birmingham, a mystery Santa has placed Christmas cards containing 30 pounds on the windscreens of drivers who have received parking tickets.
--近日, 在英国伯明翰市出现了一位神秘的圣诞老人. 他在每一辆被贴有违章停车罚单的汽车的前挡风玻璃上放置了一个装着30英镑现金的圣诞贺卡.

"If you're going to issue your child a cellphone, it had better be ultra-simple, ultra-limited and ultra-parent-controlled."
"如果你想给你的小孩配手机, 那它最好是操作特别简单, 功能特别少, 并且完全由家长控制的. "
For various reasons, some parents are thinking about buying their children a cellphone. But it should not be a normal, fully functional mobile.
--基于各种考虑, 许多家长都想给孩子买部手机. 但这手机绝对不能是传统意义上的多功能手机.

Vocabulary
transit 运输
plunge 陷入
disarray 混乱
stoppage 中止
commuter 乘车者
hectic 忙乱的
mediator 调停者
adjourn 推迟
walkout 罢工
parliament 议会