A strike involving over 34,000 subway and bus workers in New York in late December brought the nerve-centre of world capitalism to a standstill.

Despite vicious media reports calling for Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) leaders to be jailed and the threat to impose massive fines on the union, workers shut down the transport system of one of the world’s largest cities for 60 hours.

The dispute centred on pensions and health care benefits which management wanted to dismantle. The MTA (Metropolitan Transport Authority) wanted to introduce a two tier pension system where new workers would have to pay 6% of their wages to pension funds and increase the retirement age by five years. The workers’ determined mood was hardened by management bullying over the course of the last year - 16,000 TWU members were disciplined last year.

Despite the vicious media campaign and the comments of Republican mayor Bloomberg that the TWU were "greedy" and thuggish", there was enormous support for the strikers among New York’s working class. One poll showed that 70% of blacks and Latinos supported the strike. There was also significant support from New York teachers who recently had a terrible "give-back" deal forced down their throats. There were reports of teachers bringing their students to picket lines. In upstate New York, a local Central Labour Council (trades council) called on the New York state AFL-CIO (US version of ICTU) to call a general strike of all state employees.

Fearing an escalation of the dispute a deal was reached, whilst in no way perfect, is significantly better than new contracts agreed for teachers, fire fighters and other public servants recently. The existing pension system has been saved for all workers and 22,000 workers will receive reimbursements for excess pensions. No productivity concessions were made and maternity leave has been expanded. All retirees will receive full lifetime medical coverage.

In a period of intense attacks on workers’ wages and conditions by the bosses backed up by Bush & Co the outcome of the dispute is to be welcomed as it points to the direction the labour movement in the US needs to take. The level of support from the broader working class also shows the openness of whole sections of workers to the idea of militant industrial action to defend their interests.