I publish today in solidarity with members of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) whose long-simmering grievances with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) finally compelled them to take strike action in NYC yesterday. I have no doubt that workers everywhere can relate to the TWU’s well-founded concerns about Pension Benefits, Fair Wages, and Health Insurance and Security (given the terrorist attacks in Madrid and London) amongst other issues.
Therefore, if you happen to be personally inconvenienced by this act of mass civil disobedience, we beg your patience and understanding. But with corporate managers raiding pension funds and cutting (earned) employee entitlements with relative impunity, this strike was the only leverage available for the TWU to force the MTA to bargain with some semblance of fairness and good faith.
However, CBS News is reporting that the TWU’s International leadership (think corporate managers masquerading as union bosses):
“…is considering taking over the local and seeking a settlement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.”
Bastards!
At any rate, here’s to a speedy resolution of this contract dispute that gurantees TWU members the financial benefits they have earned and confers upon them the dignity and respect they deserve….
The Strike in pictures:
Ironically, the NYC strike has brought a splendid desolation which, ordinarily, is devoutly to be wished
This strike against the nation’s biggest mass-transit system has forced teaming masses out in the cold to get to work
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg (C) is in an untenable position: He surely knows that the MTA is trying to screw the TWU but, since the strike violates NY state law, he cannot express solidarity with these long-suffering workers. (Although, why he has chosen to impugn the integrity of the local TWU leadership is confounding and disappointing, to say the least.) Nevertheless, he showed his true blue-collar heart by joining the ant colony of New Yorkers hoofing it to work yesterday. And, to his credit, the mayor’s walk was more than a typical photo op. Because, despite being the richest politician in America, he routinely takes the subway to work (as the picture below left shows)
Perhaps the reason Mayor Bloomberg is the richest politician in America is because he recognises good value for money. And, no one can deny the NYC mass-transit system offers the best value for money for getting around the city. All the more reason, of course, to resolve this strike in favour of TWU members
As if getting good-faith bargaining out of the MTA were not challenging enough, Local 100 President Roger Toussaint – who announced the strike – is having to contend with overweening bosses from the international TWU who probably have more sympathy for MTA corporate managers than for the transit workers Toussaint represents
Note: A NY state judge ruled late yesterday that the TWU shall be fined $1 million a day for the duration of this strike. But the city will lose $400 million a day if Bloomberg’s estimates are correct. Therefore, who do you think will blink first? This strike will be over by the day after Christmas and all of the TWU demands will have been met, more or less….
UPDATE (Dec 22, 11:45 am): Reports crossing the wires just now indicate that the strike is over! I predicted a relatively quick end but I thought it would take at least a few more days before the MTA and city officials “blink”. Of course, both sides will claim vindication. But, unless one reads the fine print in the new TWU contract, there’s really no way to tell who blinked. Let’s just hope the pro-worker principles the TWU took this action to uphold will not be ignored!
UPDATE II (Dec 24, 5:15am): In Memoriam…Organized labour in America is dead!
I was wrong about the determination of the ostensibly powerful TWU to match wits with the MTA – not only for the benefit of its members but also for the sake of laborers all over America who corporate managers today regard as all too dispensable. Because, as it turns out, the TWU blinked and abandoned this principled standoff – for naught – in the face of derisive and imperious insults from the MTA (and Mayor Bloomberg) and uninformed and misdirected scorn from the just-wanna-go shopping public!
News and Politics
Anonymous says
While I can appreciate the plight of the union members, I am also struck by the unintended victims of this transit strike. It is the contract and hourly workers who are most affected by the work stoppage. These working class people, many who reside in the outer boroughs and commute into Manhattan, are unable to reach their place of employment. While these companies are experiencing lost sales, these workers are not being paid for the lost day (unlike their salaried colleagues). During this holiday season, it is these less fortunate families who will suffer the most.
Rage…
Anonymous says
As a fellow union member I’m not at all happy about the direction that this union took.
From what I understand the MTA allows it’s employees to retire at 55 and collect a pension until they die. The amount of money contributed to the pension is minimal. The city is fighting to continue to pay out pension benefits to the people already on life long pensions. Who do you think will foot the bill once the city finds itself in dire straits monitarily? Us tax payers, us commuters, us customers.
I too recieve a pension once I retire at 67. My pension, by my calculations, will run out about seven years after I retire. I will also need to take out medical insurance, to the tune of $600.00 to $800.00 a month. Will the city come to my rescue? I operate and repair HVAC equipment for a commercial office building. Terroist bomb building’s too; is not my job as dangerous?
I’m sorry but I just don’t agree with their drastic measures. They asked for a pay increase they were offered one. They asked for Martin Luther Kings birthday off, they were offered it. The MTA wanted to revise the Pension structure for new members they went on an illeagle strike. I”m not buying it.
Noel
Anonymous says
no wonder corporate america is getting away with exploiting workers left and right. even union workers who got theirs don’t care about other workers coming behind. the twu is not just looking out for today’s workers. they are also concerned about what managment will do to the workers of tomorrow.
and noel, since you know so much about us, i suppose you know the mta big shots are sitting on over 1 billion in cash just waiting to dole it out in cushy ritirement packages for their managers.
and hey, who knows, maybe if unions can regain some respect then companies like ford won’t be layin-off 30,000 workers as their christmas present. and you guys are bitching about a little walk in the cold or hassles doing your holiday shopping. c’mon. union man!
by the way, have you ever heard any mayor describe a corporate board “thugish”, “selfish” “greedy”for doing what ford did everyday? yet you support bloomberg spewing this this hateful, arrogant damn near racist tirade at the black leadership of the twu.
wake up people! corporations thrive on dividing and conquering the working class. and union busting has always been their most leathal weapon. but if union leaders like brother toussant did not fight for health benefits and fair wages and better working conditions decades ago, many of you middle class employees wouldn’t be so sanctimonious today.
Anonymous says
I agree with anon 3. It takes a really unselfish worker to appreciate what the TWU are bargaining for. Most workers today are only concerned about their next paycheck. They have no respect for the fights union leaders fought to get them what they now take for granted.
Talk about selfish and greedy, have these people been reading about outrageous corporate salaries and perks lately that these fat cats get from firing workers and outsourcing their jobs to make rich shareholder richer. And to top it off so many of them are turning out to be crooks too!
Anonymous says
check out the cover of today’s post and tell me the anger at the african american twu president in not racism. if he was white, i don’t think bloomberg would be calling him selfish and thugish and other racist code words like “lazy” and “ungrateful”
ALH ipinions says
I appreciate all comments on this rather contentious issue.
As Rage attempts to do, I think a willingness to consider the bargaining position and arguments of both parties would be helpful. And, in this spirit, since I happened to have read the NY Post article referenced by anon above, I offer the following quote from it with this admonition:- hate the messenger if you must, but don’t ignore the message:
“These are hardworking people,” Sharpton said yesterday of members of the predominantly African-American union. “They get up at 3 o’clock in the morning to drive buses and trains . . . and now they’re thugs?”
He then drew a parallel between the transit workers union and Martin Luther King Jr.
When he was assassinated, “Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis, Tenn., defying a court order, supporting the sanitation union strike,” Sharpton said.
“No one calls Martin Luther King a thug.”
Anonymous says
No one called the workers of the MTA thugs. Read into what ever you want but the thug moniker was directed at Mr. Toussaint for ordering an illeagal strike.
I too saw the interviews of the MTA Workers the day they were ordered off the job and the response was not as enthusiastic as everyone likes to believe. When asked if he felt that his union should be on strike one worker said, “You got to do what you got to do. If they order me to strike I have to strike,”
Come on! I’m all for the common man getting ahead. But you have to know that somewhere in Queens there’s a guy with five kids who depend on his bringing home his salary after bussing dishes all day long and he can’t make it to work. What about that common man. Seems no one gives a rats ass about him! He’ll never have a pension or annuity fund. Benefits are non existant for that poor guy.
Corporations are screwing hard working Americans by taking away their pensions. That is a fact! But no one is talking about taking away the MTA’s pension they’re talking about increasing the amount of money contributed by members to the pension fund. My union, the carpenters union, the electricians union, the masons union have all had to take pretty much the same tack because there’s not enough money in the fund. And that’s the reality. It’s not about racism! It’s about money.
MTA workers have an endless supply of pension money while most other unions have what ever is contributed my the members and the employers. How is it that the MTA workers have an endless supply of funds? Ask the riders and the tax payers.
Noel
Anonymous says
Noel is right on target. The issue is all about money. TWU union members are not going to die at age 60, which is what was expected when the pension system was set up. With today’s advances in medicine and technology, the average blue collar worker will soon live to be 90 years old. Many will live to be over 100.Instead of calling for the minimum retirement age to be 62, MTA directors should mandate that ALL workers (not just future ones) be required to work until age 75 IN ORDER TO RECEIVE FULL BENEFITS. If somebody wants to begin drawing benefits at age 65, they receive only 10% of their full pension, assuming they put in at least 30 years on the job. If they begin drawing benefits at age 70, they receive 50% of their full pension. If retire at age 74, they receive 90% of full pension benefits. If benefits are not drawn until the age of 75, then the recipient receives a full pension, equivalent to 50% of the salary of persons working in the same job at present dollar values.
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