Friday, December 16, 2005

Half-assed strike...



It’s raining I can hear it….the smell of fresh coffee fills up my room… the kids have left for school. My room is dark I’m snuggled underneath my favorite quilt. It’s my day off my dog is lying next me trying to take my pillow. I’ve got nothing to do today but go Christmas shopping with my mom I can sleep a little longer…..The phone rings crap! Who is calling this early…OMG someone must have died…I jump up and lunge for the phone knocking some stuff over on my night table…

Mia: H-hello?

Dad: Morning babe!

Mia: Pa it’s me

Dad: Jesus Christ! You and your mother sound alike…

Mia: I know pa

Dad: Pumpkin head you still asleep?

Mia: Not anymore…Pa it’s Friday, no classes, my day off remember?

Dad: where’s your mother?

Mia: Yo no se pa ( I don’t know) she’s somewhere in the house I can smell the coffee.

The phone line clicks someone’s picked up one of the other lines in the house.
Mom: What’s up?

Dad: Mia?

Mom: Wlliam! Hon it’s Maggie!

Dad: God woman you and your daughter sound just alike I can’t tell your voices apart anymore.

Mom: That’s because you’re going senile.

Pa: Ha-Ha very funny …well I hope you guys aren’t going far today it looks like they are going to strike. Turn on the news.

I leave my parents talking a reach for the remote to turn on the news….

News Anchor: New York City’s transit union called a selective strike against private bus lines Friday, after a night of bargaining failed to produce a deal involving 33,000 subway and bus workers…


I love the fact that in New York City you don’t need a car to get around everything is accessible via the mass transit system. If you know how to work the system you can even reach other states like New Jersey utilizing mass transit, 7 million of us use the subways and buses per day. Sometimes it seems they are all riding the train home with me in the same subway car.

For the past week the MTA union has been threatening to strike. The deadline was supposed to be midnight this morning. Before I went to bed last night they said that they had “stopped the clock” on the strike and were still talking. Now the Union president Roger Toussaint has announced that they are striking BUT it’s going to be phased in starting with private bus lines in Queens. WTF? What kind of half assed strike is that? Ohhhhh the private buses psshhawwww that’s going to affect absolutely no one. Those that use the private bus lines will simply hop on the train or take the regular bus lines a duhhhh.

Obviously Toussaint chose to phase in the strike by using the private bus lines first because he knows that they are not subject to the Taylor law so no penalties are faced there. Why would Toussaint be shook you ask? Because of the Taylor law, under this state law public employees are prohibited from striking and penalties for violation are levied against the union and employees involved. The workers could lose two days' pay for every day on strike, and the city is seeking much larger damages against the union and its individual members. Someone mentioned to me that the union leader could be jailed as well. Me thinks Toussaint just blew it. He is scared and just showed it, I smell blood in the water anyone else hears the theme from jaws playing?

Don’t get me wrong I don’t want them to strike heck I depend on the system too I got finals coming up! But if you’re going to do something you might as well go all the way with it and do it right none of this half assed crap. Last transit strike was in 1980, when subways and buses sat motionless for 11 days. Tens of thousands of people rode bicycles, walked, roller skated, and car pooled to get around. See that 11 days on strike now that’s the way to do it… back then the union president had balls! None of this bull crap partial strike crap.

Per usual the drama is over dinero , Here’s what they get paid now; train operators, station agents and cleaners earn between $47,000 and $55,000 a year before overtime. The MTA has offered them 6 percent raises spread over 27 months. The union, contending workers should get a share of the MTA's $1 billion surplus, asked for an increase about four times that. The workers want 8 percent annual raises over three years and contend they should get a share of the MTA's $1 billion surplus and they want terrorism training. Thursday, Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Peter Kalikow suggested that an arbitrator might be the best person to help reach a deal -- a statement that infuriated the union. I think that is exactly what they need someone not directly involved in this mess. In the meantime I’m sticking close to home tonight just in case Toussaint grows a pair and decides to go on an all out strike.



Posted by @ 9:51 AM
1 comment from:  Mia,