I love that they waited til I moved to the City to have their first strike in 25 years.
I mean, fine and all, because I live in downtown Manhattan, and so I can get just about anywhere I'd want to go for the next couple days. But if I lived in the outer boroughs, I think I'd be pissed. Also, extremely claustrophobic and freaked out. But then, I feel that way when I'm visiting friends in Park Slope and the F train is slow. So take that into consideration: I am weak, etc.
Anyway, inconvenience aside, I sympathize with these guys. Give them what they want, I say. They only work underground in a stinky tunnel with New York's worst collection of panhandlers, winos and pissed off yuppies. In fact, I'll chip in five bucks myself. Who's with me?
Tags: NYC | transit strike
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dood, now we can't do Day 2 of The New Hotness :(
ReplyDeletetime to think big in the big apple. even the atlanta airport has an automated subway. what, you guys OK with being out-done by the "chicago of the south"?
ReplyDeletehint: electric carts with max 10 mph, bicycles, sleds. no internal combustion or large trucks at any time on manhattan. use airport-style luggage carts.
automate the underground, clean the buses of all polluting liquids and dump them someplace to make an artificial reef
bicycle routes protected from cart traffic by jersey barriers. likewise, pedestrians protected from bicycles.
electric trolley's (no overhead wires) stop every 6 blocks for those who can't jump on/off, running on only north/south streets. covered, cross-town moving sidewalks every 6 blocks.
muggers, mobbers, pickpockets, and turnstyle jumpers put in gerbil wheels to generate electricity, on a diet of carrots and peas, with pig knuckles and asparagus once a week. Califlower-flavored candy for those who meet speed quotas.
put the rest of the money in hiring cops.
program all vehicles to electrocute the driver when running a red light.
One bright side of the strike is that any given pair of New York calves is likely to be a bit more taut after this what with all the walking everyone has to do.
ReplyDeleteAnd what about the mini baby boom that's likely to scream its way into the world nine months from now. Heard alot of folks aren't goin' to work: chances are they're stirrin' the baby batter a bit more than usual.
Now who doesn't like a nice set of yams and new born babes?
I know I do...
This is for the best...
The thing that is really disgusting to me is why these folks are on strike. Their new contract guaranteed them a 4% a year raise as well as a new holiday (MLK Day). How many of you non-governmental working stiffs get MLK day off? I don't even get the day after Thanksgiving anymore!
ReplyDeleteSo the reason they are on strike? New workers have to pay a whopping 6% into the pension fund instead of 2%. Well boo hoo subway driver, most working peeps are not offered ANY pension fund these days so count your blessings. Get the hell back to work so that the millions of innocent commuters who have jobs to do and families to feed are not pawns to your petty greed.
Speaking of a baby boom...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gawker.com/news/mta-strike/on-the-bright-side-how-about-some-strike-sex-144209.php
anon:
ReplyDeletethe last mgnt offer is 3%, 4%, 3.5% and they already have MLK day off, but it was removed from earlier proposals by the city.
the pension stuff they are asking for is way out of step with current private company packages, but, then, I don't have to work with rats... other than the occassional client who accidentally displays that digusting naked tail
Pa Smash,
ReplyDeleteI empathize with them on the rats, but crippling the largest city in the country over a few percent points at the intro of their otherwise generous retirement plan is, in my opinion, a thoroughly petty, selfish and greedy maneuver.
Nothing like biting the hand of the taxpayer that feeds you!
-anon
On the issue of public-sector strikes, I'm completely with you, despite my commie rat sympathies.
ReplyDeleteBesides, 55 is way too early to retire on full salary unless you sling a pick-ax for a living.
Having said that, the city was clearly grandstanding with this confrontation, trying to off-set the bad PR from doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in response to 911 (no coordination of communications, almost no updated scanning, no street corner cameras, inconvenient but ineffective airport security, elimination of ability to react to another hijacking by having USAF facilities operating near every major city...)
Otherwise why would they have presented such an agressive position in benefit rollbacks? 55 to 62? 6% employee contribution to retirement fund? No union could survive such a concession.
Retirement at 62 for new hires?
ReplyDeleteTaken off the table.
Health care premium sharing with new workers?
Taken off the table.
The MTA has effectively signed their own death warrant, and should know that they can't afford to do this.
These guys, with no more than a high school diploma, make more than policemen, firefighters, sanitation workers etc.
$42000/yr average for the station cleaners?
$52000/yr average for the conductors?
60-something average or more per year for the motormen?
NO SYMPATHY FROM THIS DYED IN THE WOOL LIBERAL. Not a goddamn bit. Let them rot, and freeze and go broke, and then come skulking back for a worse offer.
Yep, the city has back-tracked on much of the more expensive issues. It's the price one pays whenever one puts up a position as a negotiation starter that just ticks everyone off.
ReplyDeleteWoW! 42k for a entry level broom pusher? I had no idea! That's what I pay for an entry level Civil Engineer in Boston who can't retire until age 68.
This is what the internet has led us to... an informed conversation between two members of the public on a subject that neither the union nor the city really wants us to know the facts without the spin.
I thought the internet was just for goat porn.
ReplyDeleteDamn intellectuals.
Jennie Smash's great grandfather pushed a broom for the BMT for 10 bucks a week. Or at least he got paid to do it, as I don't think he really had to actually had to show up for work. It was some kind of political thing, as the story goes, he was actually a professional ethnic. No one really knows anymore because he is not favorably remembered.
ReplyDeleteMaybe his son, Grampy Taggart, should have eschewed Shakespeare and the Marines, stayed in Brooklyn, keeping the family in the transit system. All this book learnin' ain't THAT profitable.
Goats? There are goats?
ReplyDeleteat least with all that walking your ass won't get fat, so that means you can drink more
ReplyDeleteElegantly put, Enrico.
ReplyDelete