Isn't that kind of hyperbole a bit over the top? Transit workers shouldn't be able to join together and demand better pay and conditions because, uh, someone might die. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Here's why I support the transit workers: because I want a raise too. And decent health care. And I'd like to retire some day with something more than the President's proposed social security deforms.
I'm with the workers because I am a worker.
The only thing I really don't understand is why the other NYC unions aren't showing some solidarity. NYC could be a catalyst if the rest of the organized workers joined the strike - even in symbolic ways. The PD could refuse overtime. Doormen could show up 1/2 an hour late. Hotel workers could take a sick day.
What this country needs (amongst so much else) is a real discussion about the decline of the worker. All this shit about offshoring jobs pales in comparison to what we have done to the workers that get up in the morning every day, do a solid days work, and get chumped by management over and over again through the years. Workers have become conditioned to being fucked - witness the vacation story referenced above (you do the search - it's out there)...
Anyway. Count me as one more NYer that supports the strike.
And me.
I had to walk about a mile total and take the East River water taxi and the PATH train today. But the TWU are doing what they have to do.
What angers me are people who say, "I don't even have a pension. Why should the transit workers get one at age 55?"
That is the mentality of sheep -- of servants who have been conditioned to love being kicked around, and to pull down any one who tries to demand better. It's a slave mentality, frankly.
No, most of us don't have pensions. My company (a large specialty publishing and information firm) stopped giving its workers pensions a few years before I started there. So because corporate (and government) America is shafting many of its workers, all the others should get the shaft too?
Being a transit worker can involve dangerous, filthy, deafening conditions, hostile customers, and long and grueling hours. Retiring at 55 is not unreasonable.
Oh, and the MTA would have the cash to meet its pension obligations if Pataki and co. in Albany hadn't been raiding the budget for the last several years.
Wow, this really cuts to the point. Essentially, they're saying my job sucks, so everyone else's should suck, too. It's been stunning to hear such anti-union garbage from supposed progresives.
As Dave points out at Seeing the Forest, these people should join a union:
If you're so concerned about old people that could freeze, pressure the mta not the unions. They live 10 yrs less than the typical person because their jobs are so difficult. All these people who claim to care about the poor, don't care at all that the working class and poor can't afford to live in New York City anymore. Why do you think so many port authority workers were living in New Jersey on 9/11. This is a self serving complaint. "OH, my underpaid maid can't afford a cab to scrub my toilet!"
I really see no reason why they couldn't do a flash one day strike to give the NYers a taste of what's to come and then as a goodwill gesture agree to work until the weather gets bearable or enought time for the general populace to think of alternatives and then go for an indefinite strike if negotiations don't get better. I think Renee in Ohio's diary makes a good point on the fat in the MTA management. What I object to is the timing of this strike. They will still have leverage because a strike at any time will inconvenience the city. Just don't go over the top by insisting on doing it now, right during the middle of the winter. MTA management may suck, but the drivers still serve the public on its own dime and the MTA employees do get slack in their work performance. It's not like they are held to private corporation standards. So they should be a little flexible with the timing.
I worked at UPS when they had that major strike around 1997. Even after the deadline expired, the unions gave extensions to find a way to keep working while negotiating.
FWIW, I do fault the MTA management primarily for this crisis. I do find the NY law over the top. You gotta let the employees strike, otherwise you give them no leverage at all. I don't see why MTA management is not running a barebones skeletal crew to transport the really desperate passengers who are willing to bear the long wait lines for a train. UPS management did that when the drivers went on strike.
Yes, and they also need the lower prices that Wal-Mart offers.
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=URI:urn:newsml:reu ters.com:20051222:MTFH43155_2005-12-22_16-38-52_N22322324:1
Pull down the shades 'cause he's comin' Turn out the lights, 'cause he's here Running hard down the street Through the snow and the sleet On the coldest night of the year.
Beware, beware, beware, of the Naked Man.
Old Lady lean against a lamppost Starin' down at the ground on which she stands She look up and scream For in the lamplight's beam There stood the Naked Man...
He faked to the left and faked to the right. And he snatched the purse from her hand. "Someone stop me," he cried, As he faded from sight, "Won't nobody help a naked man? Won't nobody help a naked man?"
I dunno, it just seemed appropriate. Thanks, Randy.
