This from Jeff Jarvis, via The Moderate Voice:
New York transit is on strike. I won't be able to go to work today, like millions of others, who also won't be able to shop or go to restaurants. The city will lose hundreds of millions and untold millions will lose millions in turn. And what for?
Every indsutry in the U.S. economy has had to go through radical restructuring to find new efficiencies. But not government and civil service. And that is what this strike is about.
The transit union was demanding that its workers be able to retire at 55 on pension, and the city, which wanted to raise the age for new workers to 62, buckled last night. I don't have a pension, do you? I have a 401K, one for every employer in the last 20 years; I’m sure most of you are in similar boats. Retire at 55? Ha!
At the same time, the union has been insistent about maintaining artificial, wasteful, expensive manning levels...
...The union broke the law this morning, costing New Yorkers their own pay and businesses their business and the city its tax resources so that its members could keep pensions that most Americans don't have and retire sooner than most Americans could dream of doing and keep inefficient jobs for which there is no need.
As a kid I grew up with multiple transit strikes in Los Angeles. Bus Drivers seemed to go on strike about every five years, despite being some of the most highly paid people in Los Angeles (With overtime). Invariably, the people who suffered the most were the poor. Housekeepers and manual laborers lost jobs or walked miles to work. School Children lost school time, and businesses lost money, all so some over paid bus driver could keep ridiculous benefits.
Unions served a valuable purpose in the history of this country. Without them many of the rights workers take for granted would not exist, but in recent years they have lost credibility, effectiveness and jobs for their members. This strike is just another example of a Union disconnected from the reality of the economic times we live in. It is unfortunate that practicality prevents firing them all and replacing them with people who want to work...
Posted by David A at December 20, 2005 06:41 PM
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Stupidity | 380 Words
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Tracked on December 20, 2005 09:26 PM
Comments
I can;t get over how quickly middle class America will sell itself out based on propaganda and sloganeering.
Billionaires are taking multi-million$ tax cuts from Bush, that you and your kids will be paying for, but when a union balks at being forced to take less from the corp. that runs it, many Americans begin moaning.
If you are middle-class, or want to be:
THIS IS YOUR FIGHT!
So start educating yourself.
Be aware that, while you NEVER hear it from the MSM, the TWU is on strike NOT for personal greed. They had everything they wanted PRIOR to the MTA/Pataki/Kalikow's decision to FORCE a strike.
This is a political lock out, caused by Pataki's desire to look strong to wary Conservatives that aren't enamored of Pataki's run for the Presidency.
And it's helped by bad blood between the TWU and the known-to-be-crooked International Union.
Go here and here.
In today's NY Times they publish, FOR THE FIRST TIME, the truth behind the strike.
And, it turns out that, at the very last minute, Kalikow tried to begin the process pf screwing future workers. (Same-same Bush with Social Security, Education and Medicaid.)
As the Conservatives strategy gels, you should see that by bypassing today's voters they hope to put feudalism back into play. (We'll only change SS for your kids, you'll still get checks when you retire. THEY WON'T, as we'll gamble on stocks and/or lend money to favorite corporate donors, with their retirement funds.)
I'd recommend reading both Tom Robbins and Wayne Barret in the Village Voice, but that might seem to be a bit too left leaning in the discussion. So, read the NY Times article "In Final Hours, M.T.A. Took a Big Risk on Pensions" and you'll find that, just like WMD and domestic spying, there's more you DON'T find out in today's mainstream media than you do.
,Please forgive me if I come off strident here. It's just that days of reading posts on the 'Net, from people who usually impress me with their displays of intelligence AND compassion when it comes to other Liberal causes suddenly turn ugly because they had to walk to work, or stay home, because of a battle over principle, I get upset.
And when I see these folks placing the blame on the wrong side of the battle, and siding with those who, in the end, will harm most of us, I get strident.
I've written on this at Blue Collar Politics, and will again.
But I'm starting to see that the middle-class is not only ignoring the flesh eating corporate bacteria that is intent on doing away with it, but, like in the transit strike, the middle-class is rooting for the bacteria!
--
Jack Ballinger
E-Mail = Jack.Ballinger@gmail.com
Blue Collar blog: http://bluecollarpolitics.com
Character is the result of the cultivation of the highest and noblest qualities in human nature, and putting these qualities to practical use.
-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Posted by: Jack Ballinger at December 21, 2005 08:27 AM
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