Early Strike Casualties

Believe if there is a strike, 3 immediate casualties will be Chitty, Fiddler & Charity. SInce they are closing @ years end, they will probably close right away

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The rhetoric is getting ugly from the TWU side

One hopes common sense will prevail over the hotheads who have to prove they will not be " disrespected"

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And WHY are they striking again??

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Come to think of it, if the actors can't make it to work...

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Think positive....

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from what I was told (by those who have been living in the city much longer than I have been) the MTA has not gone on strike since 1980, and that strike lasted approximately 10 days. The popular opinion in my office this morning is that IF the MTA strikes (and it is highly likely they'll reach an 11th hour deal) it will NOT be just for the weekend. In order for them to make a statement, and because the stakes are so incredibly high (a strike being completely illegal) they will hold out until ALL their demands are met, because at that point, they have nothing to lose.

I'm SURE the actors have a contengency plan - I don't think there will be any problem with them getting to work. If where I work is getting people to walk, stay with friends, etc - they will too.

And the tourists - many of them are already here in midtown in the hotels. The trains from NJ/LI will still be running. I certainly don't think it will cause any shows to close prematurely.

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Goth, I disagree. The MTA is sitting on a surplus of $1 billion and are trying to claim they are about to go bankrupt. Just a year or so ago they raised all the fares because once again they were supposedly going broke. And about a month after the fares went up there was this surprise surplus of something like a half billion dollars. But they didn't bring the fares back down and where did that surplus go exactly? The subway system is as run down as ever, services have been cut and they are always talking about raising the fares AGAIN. The transit workers are just trying to get their fare share of all this excess money before the MTA pisses it away. I fully admit that I don't know all the details of this strike and the contract that is being negotiated. I have seen the raise the transit workers are asking for and I think its high but I've also seen what the MTA is offering and it is barely anything at all. They need to meet in the middle. Usually the mighty MTA board wins out but I think the strike is considered a real possibility this time because every once in a while the workers do have to go on with the strike to keep some negotiating power. Otherwise the threat of a strike each time the contract comes up for renewal becomes an empty threat. I travel by bus and subway extensively every day and I'm not looking forward to having to walk in this weather but knowning the few facts that I know, I'm more on the side of the workers than the MTA.

As for doing a Reagan move as I've heard suggested by someone else recently. When Reagan "cleaned house" in the mid-80s he got rid of a lot of highly trained, highly experienced controllers and replaced them with young, inexperienced workers with no one to really mentor and train them. And 15 years later I wonder if those workers had more experienced mentors to teach them would 4 planes have been allowed to drop off the radar for over an hour on September 11, 2001 without authorities being notified?

Updated On: 12/15/05 at 01:28 PM

I very much doubt any show will close if there is an MTA strike. As I said before on another thread, I would be surprised if anyone unable to attend was offered an exchange or a refund (after all, if the cast, crew, ushers etc. can make it to the theatre, so can the paying public) so it may well not have an effect at all.

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"And 15 years later I wonder if those workers had more experienced mentors to teach them would 4 planes have been allowed to drop off the radar for over an hour on September 11, 2001 without authorities being notified?"

I find this statement extremely shocking! I'm not going to get into a debate but NO ONE could have imagined what happened that day. Plain and simple....a national tragedy of that magnitude was inconcievable to anyone!

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"That's a pretty naive statement. Yeah, I'm sure all they need to do is lobby to their senators and I'm sure the law will be change right away for them."

No actually it isn't. They have a union, and unions have very strong political clout. You always hear politicians trying to court the votes of the unions.

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Yes, the MTA has a surplus this year. They're spending more than half of it on the workers' pension plans, and another chunk of it is going to the "givebacks" currently going on for the holidays. It's ironic to see the "Happy Holidays from the MTA" commercials right now.

It's too bad that the MTA can't work like any other business- they'd be able to save this surplus. They're already warning about huge deficits in 2007 and 2009, to be accompanied by fare hikes. The responsible thing would be to save that money. Unfortunately, the city and state take away the MTA's money when they don't spend it.

And given the magnitude of the deficits, it's just irresponsible to be demanding so much. I don't want to be paying $3 a ride so they can get these ridiculous raises and not pay into their own medical care!

I think that the strike will be short simply because it's December. Unlike other times of year, people can't just walk everywhere. My heart breaks for all the disabled and elderly who are in peril because of this (home workers can't make it, etc).

NYC is pulling out the 1980 contingency plan. $10 flat fare within a "zone" for a cab? Cab drivers don't like this idea at all- and many won't work, especially with all of the street closures.

I'm sure shows are making plans for their actors- every other business is. Most likely to be impacted are any matinees, if the strike goes that long during the week. The HOV-4 rules between 5 and 11 are going to make getting around horrid.

Starletta8, I complete agree about the elderly and disabled. Very sad.