Catherwood LibraryILR School

On strike for over three weeks now at three privately owned Queens, NY bus lines subsidized by New York City (see WIT for June 18, 2002), members of Transport Workers Union Local 100 (TWU) picketed outside Queens Borough Hall and at major bus stops in order to bring their plight to the attention of the general public. Representatives of the TWU will also be in court this morning filing a challenge to the citywide state of emergency declared by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, that allows livery cabs and dollar vans to operate along the bus routes. The TWU has accused Mayor Bloomberg of deliberately breaking his promise to extend the same improved health insurance received by NYC transit workers to its members, in order to precipitate the strike so that he will have an excuse to proceed with his long stated goal of bringing the three bus lines under direct city control.