By Dustin Brown
Although a wildcat bus strike forced borough commuters to scramble for transit alternatives Monday morning, by noon the same day drivers had returned to the job still lacking the contract that has eluded them for more than a year.
Union leaders had threatened to call a strike since late December, but drivers and mechanics at Queens Surface Corp., Triboro Coach and Jamaica Buses initiated Monday’s action at around 5 a.m. without union sanction.
“The members were just fed up and they called it,” said Rod Bailey, the union vice president at Queens Surface. “The union officials just rushed down here to restore order.”
Queens Surface President Myra Burke called the walkout “disappointing” in a statement Monday.
“We have been negotiating in good faith for well over a year,” Burke said. “We regret the inconvenience to our riders.”
Bailey said union members “got crazy and just walked off” after a rumor started circulating about the city deploying buses to the Queens area in the event of a strike.
But city Department of Transportation spokesman Tom Cocola said the rumor that apparently incited the strike was unfounded.
“I don’t know where that came from,” Cocola said. “Some of these bus drivers are anxious and restless. Rumors become rumors, and rumors certainly can get people going.”
Contract negotiations had last been held Friday and were scheduled to resume Wednesday at the LaGuardia Marriott between officials from the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and management at the three companies.
“At that point there should be some city officials there to hopefully iron out a contract for the members,” Bailey said.
Union members voted to give their leaders authority to call a strike in December 2000, shortly before the old contract expired at the end of the year. New contract negotiations have been ongoing for the past 18 months.
At issue is the disparity in wages between city bus drivers and drivers for the private companies — all of whom are represented by the same union.
“The last thing that the union wanted to do is strike, that’s why everything has been going the way it’s been going for the last 18 months,” Bailey said.
City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Whitestone) participated in talks at Queens Surface Monday morning that ended with the drivers agreeing to return to work by late morning.
“They need to come to some sort of agreement, so we don’t see ourselves in this situation again,” he said.
Service returned to normal by the afternoon.
But that was little consolation to Queens residents whose mornings had already been severely disrupted. Borough commuters who waited for the QM1 and the QM1A in front of the Regency Gardens Co-ops along Union Turnpike near Main Street Tuesday morning recalled trying struggles to make it into work the previous day.
“I got to work like an hour and a half late,” said Nafisa Ali, who works on Wall Street.
The strike was called so suddenly that some stood along Union Turnpike without any idea the buses were not running.
“I didn’t realize they were on strike,” said Rebecca Misher, who eventually arrived 30 minutes late to work. “I was waiting for the bus.”
After 10 minutes, a patrol car came by and passed on the news to her and a handful of other would-be passengers.
Not everyone was caught unawares. One woman said her sister phoned her shortly past 6 a.m. to tell her about the strike.
“I called in sick two seconds later,” said the woman, who works in Manhattan at 49th Street and Sixth Avenue. “Without these buses, it’s virtually impossible to get into work.”
Those who did venture out faced crowded buses and commutes that were lengthened by about a half hour as they transferred to subway stations and rode the train into Manhattan.
“It was terrible. I had to take the city bus to the train,” said Joan Jordan. “That was an awful experience.”
Many said they stood along the side of the street as a number of buses passed without any room for riders.
Others, fed up after hourlong commutes were stretched to an hour and a half, were ready to drop their allegiance to the borough entirely.
“With a commute like that, you might as well live in Jersey,” Misher said.
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
