21 December 2005
The shock of the enlightened "thug"
¶ 12:06 PM 
In an age where Labor has seen its political power melt away to the margins, most of us waiting for the strike assumed the TWU would take the ball into the red zone but then settle for a field goal. For those not football-inclined, I mean most of us thought they wouldn't strike. But they did. The shock, the horror! Illegal strikers! Breaking the law in an age of terrorism! Who does that? Writing in the Daily News, Juan Gonzalez makes a good point:
All across this city, workers who have no pensions and who must pay huge premiums for health insurance hear about transit workers fighting to preserve pensions at 55 and employer-paid health insurance. They fall prey to the Bloomberg line of "greedy workers."Have the rest of us been beaten down, exploited and abused for so long by our own employers that we will allow transit workers who dare to defend their standard of living to be painted as thugs?
To hear Bloomberg talk, the Taylor Law came down with the Ten Commandments - and wasn't a modern concoction by politicians to curb the power and influence of our city's municipal unions.
Yeah, getting around this town without the subway sucks. Yeah, a lot of those guys are paid quite a bit better than your average subway rider might assume. But if their profession is so integral to our city that not performing it is illegal, surely these workers deserve the best contract that the MTA can offer. And that contract has not been offered to them.
Arbitration and other "non-violent" resolution aside, the system is built so that only by crossing the line and pulling the trigger on their "nuclear" option can the TWU show that they know what they deserve and they will not do the job for anything less. Personally, I would like to think that the people who service, maintain, and drive these trains and buses every hour of every year are happy with their jobs and their pay. I would like to think that the conductor who is supposed to be on the look out for a suspicious suitcase, rogue baby carriage, or anything else that is Al Qaeda's Next Big Thing, is indeed looking out and not slacking off.
Sure, better pay and benefits do not ensure one does a good job. But there are very strong correlations between financially stable, healthy, valued employees and good work. Not only should be remember that as our metrocards gather dust in our wallets, but also as we form our opinions of our own work situations and lives.
Workers of the World, Unite!
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A friend of mine who is on the front lines (he's a train conductor) said that he knows a lot of people who are crossing the line and going back to work today. Apparently there's a pretty big backlash against the union going on, and a lot of these workers with families cannot afford to be fined 2 day's pay for every day that they work. In fact, my friend is thinking of crossing as well because he doesn't think the Union's actions are fair to the general people of NYC. Personally, I think it's good to fight for what you believe in, however from everything I'm hearing and reading, it seems that the TWU was offered a very fair contract in the end, which they still rejected.
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: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 12:29:00 PM
: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 12:29:00 PM<< Home
