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1966 New York City transit strike

From Wikipedia, in a visual modern way
NYC transit workers strike
DateJan 1st, 1996 - Jan 13th, 1966
Location
NYC, New York
Parties to the civil conflict
Number
33,000 transit workers[3]

In 1966, the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) and Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) called a strike action in New York City after the expiration of their contract with the New York City Transit Authority (TA). It was the first strike against the TA; pre-TWU transit strikes in 1905, 1910, 1916, and 1919 against the then-private transit companies had all failed. There had also been some partial TWU strikes in the 1930s but no citywide actions.[1] The strike led to the passage of the Taylor Law, which redefined the rights and limitations of unions for public employees in New York.[2]

The strikers were led initially by the Irish-born Mike Quill, the TWU's founder, who had been the union's president since its founding. The strike effectively ended all service on the subway and buses in the city, affecting millions of commuters. It was an ominous beginning for the mayoralty of John V. Lindsay, but is perhaps better remembered for the jailing of Quill and for his death only weeks afterwards.

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Transport Workers Union of America

Transport Workers Union of America

Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. This article discusses the parent union and its largest local, Local 100, which represents the transport workers of New York City. TWU is a member of the AFL–CIO.

Amalgamated Transit Union

Amalgamated Transit Union

The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) is a labor organization in the United States and Canada that represents employees in the public transit industry. Established in 1892 as the Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees of America, the union was centered primarily in the Eastern United States; today, ATU has over 200,000 members throughout the United States and Canada.

Strike action

Strike action

Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became common during the Industrial Revolution, when mass labor became important in factories and mines. As striking became a more common practice, governments were often pushed to act. When government intervention occurred, it was rarely neutral or amicable. Early strikes were often deemed unlawful conspiracies or anti-competitive cartel action and many were subject to massive legal repression by state police, federal military power, and federal courts. Many Western nations legalized striking under certain conditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

New York City

New York City

New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km2), New York City is the most densely populated major city in the United States and more than twice as populous as Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest city. New York City is located at the southern tip of New York State. It constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. by both population and urban area. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous megacities, and over 58 million people live within 250 mi (400 km) of the city. New York City is a global cultural, financial, entertainment, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, health care and life sciences, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, dining, art, fashion, and sports. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy, and is sometimes described as the capital of the world.

Contract

Contract

A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more mutually agreeing parties. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to transfer any of those at a future date. In the event of a breach of contract, the injured party may seek judicial remedies such as damages or rescission. A binding agreement between actors in international law is known as a treaty.

New York City Transit Authority

New York City Transit Authority

The New York City Transit Authority is a public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City. Part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the busiest and largest transit system in North America, the NYCTA has a daily ridership of 8 million trips.

Taylor Law

Taylor Law

The Public Employees Fair Employment Act, more commonly known as the Taylor Law, is Article 14 of the state Civil Service Law, which defines the rights and limitations of unions for public employees in New York.

Mike Quill

Mike Quill

Michael Joseph "Red Mike" Quill was one of the founders of the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), a union founded by subway workers in New York City that expanded to represent employees in other forms of transit. He served as the President of the TWU for most of the first thirty years of its existence. A close ally of the Communist Party USA (CP) for the first twelve years of his leadership of the union, he broke with it in 1948.

New York City Subway

New York City Subway

The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 27, 1904, the New York City Subway is one of the world's oldest public transit systems, one of the most-used, and the one with the most stations, with 472 stations in operation.

Chronology

The twelve-day strike began on New Year's Day; the last trains rolled at 8:02 am. An injunction to end the strike was issued later that day, under the 1947 Condon-Wadlin Act.[2] On January 2, the union reduced its economic demands, but the TA responded only by getting a judge's order for the arrest of Quill and eight other union leaders. (The others were Matthew Guinan, Frank Sheehan, Daniel Gilmartin, Ellis Van Riper, and Mark Kavanagh of the TWU and John Rowland, William Mangus, and Frank Kleess of the ATU). The arrests were set for 1 a.m. on January 4. Quill was obviously in ill health, but immediately before his arrest he told reporters at the Americana Hotel, "The judge can drop dead in his black robes. I don't care if I rot in jail. I will not call off the strike."

Quill spent little time in jail: his poor health soon had him transferred to Bellevue Hospital and later to Mount Sinai Medical Hospital, leaving TWU Secretary-Treasurer Doug MacMahon (a close associate of Quill's, with him since the union's founding) to lead the strike. On January 10, 15,000 workers picketed City Hall. Negotiations moved forward through mediators, with movement from both sides. At 1:37 A.M. on January 13, MacMahon announced that the union was recommending settlement.[1]

The package, worth over $60 million, included wages increases from $3.18 to $4.14 an hour, an additional paid holiday, increased pension benefits, and other gains. Gains averaged nine percent for the next eight years. Quill's health at first seemed to be improving; he was actually released from hospital January 25. He gave a speech to the victorious strikers and another press conference at the Americana, but the apparent improvement in his health was an illusion: he died on January 28.[4]

Context

Democratic Party New York City mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. granted collective bargaining rights to city employees in 1958. This led to the unions replacing Tammany Hall as the city's most powerful political force. Wagner formed a close alliance with the public-sector unions.[5] John Lindsay, a reformist within the Republican Party, won the 1965 New York City mayoral election by campaigning against the city's often corrupt political machines. With the transit contract set to expire the same day Lindsay would take office, the stage was set for confrontation.[4]

Lindsay's "Protestant rectitude"[4] proved no match for the "fiery"[6] Quill. The true sources of power in New York became clear, a point that would be further driven home by 1967 and 1968 teachers strikes and a 1968 strike by sanitation workers.[2] By the time Lindsay ran for re-election in 1969 as the candidate of the Liberal Party of New York, he had made his peace with the public sector unions, and ultimately won their support.[4] However, and partly as a result, the city's social and economic decline was rapidly intensifying.

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Democratic Party (United States)

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Founded in 1828, it was predominantly built by Martin Van Buren, who assembled politicians in every state behind war hero Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party. Its main political rival has been the Republican Party since the 1850s, with both parties being big tents of competing and often opposing viewpoints. Modern American liberalism — a variant of social liberalism — is the party's majority ideology. The party also has notable centrist, social democratic, and left-libertarian factions.

Robert F. Wagner Jr.

Robert F. Wagner Jr.

Robert Ferdinand Wagner II was an American diplomat and politician who served three terms as the mayor of New York City from 1954 through 1965. When running for his third term, he broke with the Tammany Hall leadership, ending the clubhouse's reign in city politics. He also served as United States Ambassador to Spain and in a number of other offices.

Collective bargaining

Collective bargaining

Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.

Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society. It became the main local political machine of the Democratic Party, and played a major role in controlling New York City and New York State politics and helping immigrants, most notably the Irish, rise in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. It typically controlled Democratic Party nominations and political patronage in Manhattan after the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854, and used its patronage resources to build a loyal, well-rewarded core of district and precinct leaders; after 1850 the vast majority were Irish Catholics due to mass immigration from Ireland during and after the Irish Famine.

John Lindsay

John Lindsay

John Vliet Lindsay was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular guest host of Good Morning America. Lindsay served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from January 1959 to December 1965 and as mayor of New York City from January 1966 to December 1973.

Republican Party (United States)

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. The GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories. It has been the main political rival of the Democratic Party since the mid-1850s. Like them, the Republican Party is a big tent of competing and often opposing ideologies. Presently, the Republican Party contains prominent conservative, centrist, populist, and right-libertarian factions.

1965 New York City mayoral election

1965 New York City mayoral election

The 1965 New York City mayoral election occurred on Tuesday, November 2, 1965, with Republican Congressman John Lindsay winning a close plurality victory over the Democratic candidate, New York City Comptroller Abraham Beame.

Political machine

Political machine

In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership control over member activity. The machine's power is based on the ability of the boss or group to get out the vote for their candidates on election day.

Liberal Party of New York

Liberal Party of New York

The Liberal Party of New York is a political party in New York. Its platform supports a standard set of socially liberal policies, including abortion rights, increased spending on education, and universal health care.

Source: "1966 New York City transit strike", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, February 20th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_New_York_City_transit_strike.

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Further Reading

New York City Transit Authority

Amalgamated Transit Union

Transport Workers Union of America

Mike Quill

Viva Rapid Transit

2005 New York City transit strike

2008 Toronto Transit Commission strike

Bob Kinnear

Thomas H. O'Shea

Philadelphia transit strike of 1944

William D. Mahon
See also
Notes
  1. ^ a b The History of TWU Archived 2005-12-24 at the Wayback Machine on the site of the TWU. Accessed online 26 October 2007.
  2. ^ a b c The history of the Taylor Law: How teacher strikes became illegal Archived 2012-01-14 at the Wayback Machine on the site of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). Accessed online 26 October 2007.
  3. ^ https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/04/nyregion/25-years-ago-subways-and-buses-stopped-running.html#:~:text=Twenty%2Dfive%20years%20ago%20this,million%20subway%20and%20bus%20riders.
  4. ^ a b c d McMahon and Siegel, p. 99.
  5. ^ McMahon and Siegel, p. 98–99.
  6. ^ City Hall Library Notes, March 2005; Spotlight on: Irish-American New Yorkers on the site of the New York City Government Department of Records. Accessed 24 December 2005.
References
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