NYC: WE NEED JOBS, NOT FARE HIKES; CUTBACKS CAUSED THE CRISIS -- A JOBS PROGRAM CAN SOLVE IT

December 31, 2010--The Bail Out the People Movement took to the streets yesterday in the wake of the storm crisis that paralyzed the city.

Below is some of the local coverage of our protest/press conference in front of the MTA, most of which focuses on BOPM's demand for an emergency repeal of the yesterday’s outrageous fare hikes.

We actually made a much broader call for a series of measures to address the systematic dismantling of public transportation and other agencies that turned a mid-level storm into a crisis. It was the gutting of vital services and jobs by Wall Street that which was the true cause of ambulances trapped in the snow, the breakdown of transit and the loss of income.

Most of BOPM's demands weren't reported on by the corporate media, whose main thrust yesterday was demonizing the unionized sanitation workers, who lost 400 people in 2 years due to the department's hiring freeze.

We called for an emergency response from the city and MTA that would

1. Repeal the fare hike

2. Re-hire transit workers and sanitation workers

3. Create 10,000 jobs to help dig people out of the neighborhoods and deal with other catastrophes

4. Order employers to pay workers who missed work this week

We also said it was obvious that all other cuts for 2011 -- of schools, firefighters, children's services, senior centers, etc. -- should be scrapped immediately, and that the city could use the billions of dollars that go to paying interest to the banks – or hundreds of millions from the newly discovered budget surplus – to get the city "moving again" in every sense.

Speakers included Tony Murphy and Gavrielle Gemma (BOPM), Teresa Gutierrez (May 1 Coalition), Johnnie Stevens (Parents to Improve School Transportation), Eddie Childs (UNITE/HERE) and others. In addition to addressing the media, we also leafletted the passing pedestrians, some of whom joined us.

NY1: http://brooklyn.ny1.com/content/top_stories/131447/questions-remain-about-mta-s-blizzard-preparedness

Telemundo: http://www.telemundo47.com/video/26326144/index.html

From Channel 11 website: Straphangers Demand Immediate Repeal Of Fare Hikes

New York, NY (WPIX) —

http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-fare-hike-in-effect,0,7044598.story

Customers who purchased new MetroCards on Thursday may have realized the price has gone up. In some cases, as much as a whopping 17 percent.

The new MTA fare hike went into effect on Thursday and some straphangers are pissed off. They say service is getting worse, not better.

Bail Out the People Movement is holding a press conference at the MTA headquarters on Thursday at 1:00 PM to demand an immediate repeal of the fare hikes. They will also be joined by transit union members to ask for the rehiring of laid-off workers. They claim the MTA's widespread failure this week was due the amount of laid off workers that made an emergency situation even worse. Following Sunday night's blizzard, several train lines were down for days, passengers were trapped on trains for hours, and hundreds of buses were stranded across the city.