MTA Strike Planned: Get Ready for Fun!
The rumours around town regarding a possible strike (for December 15th) have set tongues wagging, yet there appears to be little said about the concrete reason for the MTA to strike. The function of the union is to provide a voice for laborers who risk exploitation at the hands of employers or uneccesary suffering due to the whims of the bottom line, and how accountants arrive at it. This "charla" seems more like publicity than bona fide grievance. Such situations only serve to further weaken the position of unions in this country, a position sullied by the same corruption and poor practices that unions are supposedly trying to guard against. If the MTA strikes they must offer meaningful reasons as to why and where the process of negotation fell short. Unions need to rethink their policies and practices and to behave in a way that benefits their members. HERE you can read comments from Beth Fertig and Transit Employees, then judge if you believe this strike is worth it to the people of NYC (from http://wnyc.org/news/articles/54819): Transit Workers Speak out About Contract Issues by Beth Fertig NEW YORK, NY, December 08, 2005 — The Transport Workers Union has rejected the MTA's latest offer of a 2 year contract. And it's not ruling out a strike if a deal isn't reached by the December 15th deadline. There have only been 2 transit strikes in the past 40 years. REPORTER: In 1966, Transport Workers Union president Mike Quill said he would rather go to jail than end the strike which lasted for 12 days. QUILL: Just as we promised you, the judge can drop dead in his black robes. We will not call off the strike. REPORTER: Emotions haven't reached that level yet. WNYC checked in with bus and subway workers. Here's what they said about the issues of 2005. BRECHT: I’m Edwin Brecht. I’m a cleaner what I do is take care of the maintenance of the train, make sure no debris that can hurt anybody, keep the appearance of the train looking clean and safe. For me the only concern is the pay raise. My rent went up 40 dollars, my daughter’s school went up $30, my insurance car insurance went up, oh my God it seems like everything is going up but our raises is not going up. REPORTER: Would you vote to authorize a strike? BRECHT: I would. I would vote for the strike but I wouldn’t think it would be a great idea. MAN: It’s a no win situation when you have a strike. You got the Taylor law, that takes 2 days for every day out. And transit’s not going to give us any money they don’t care about us. MAN: I’m a conductor. I open doors, close doors, 21 years here. You know they try to get the trains to work with only the train operator. And that eliminates a lot of conductor work, jobs. That’s union breaking. And it’s not safe for the customers when you have a train operator doing all the work and nobody back there to watch out what’s going on. WOMAN: I’m a car cleaner. Mainly I believe everyone is really looking for a lot of security as far as they health. You know, their health benefits and what’s going to happen to them once they retire, and what the benefit package is going to be there for them. WOMAN: I'm a bus operator. I don't want to give my name! The most important issue would be the medical, as far as medical after you retire. Cause right now we don’t have it - you have to pay into it. You work here 25 years and they only give you one year after you retire. MAN: My name is Juan Ortiz and I’m a bus operator. Under our last contract they gave us a thousand bonus at first and then 3, 3 for the next 2. So I’m hoping that they don’t go down that route again. If they’re going to do it at least give us 3 straight down the board I’ll be fine with that. They can give us I guess some decent increase at least. I’m pretty sure they can afford it. WORKERS: 2005 - payback time. 2005 – payback time! 2005 payback time! BELFIELD: The last contract they was like, OK if you all let it go this time when the coffers get a little bit in it, we’ll be willing to share. Now they got a little in the coffers they still don’t want to share. WOMAN: We’re the front line for transit. We generated that money. Why is it we’re not getting a piece of it. The surplus that they have. The surplus. BELFIELD: My name is Connie Belfield, I’m a station agent and I work at Prospect Park. When I originally came on the job a station agent’s duties were selling tokens, retrieving tokens, interacting with customers giving directions. Now a station agent’s job is making sure the system don’t get blown up cause you’ve got to look out for everything, they want to put us outside the booths which endangers my life. Also you want me to now start cleaning up the station, I wasn’t hired to be a cleaner. REPORTER: Are you willing to strike? BELFIELD: Of course, why not? I’m used to being poor, so a little bit poor - me striking isn’t going to make my situation any worse.
Tags: charla, mta, positioned sullied, strike