Listening to irate commuters on t.v. and reading Homeschooling in New York City's post makes me wonder, what is really fair?
The MTA supposedly has millions of dollars in surplus, yet MTA workers have been without a contract for over two years. Is it fair to allow those workers to go without a decent contract?
MTA workers make more money than many New Yorkers with bona fide Bachelor's degrees from bona fide universities, though. Is it fair that they make so much money without having attained higher education?
Yet MTA workers sometimes get killed in the subways in which they work. Could I ever work in a subway tunnel? Erm, no.
Some people say a fully-automated subway system looms in the near-future. Would that be fair to the real passengers who need real workers to look out for them when they get caught in subway doors?
The strike is breaking down our City's economy. Is that fair to the businesses and mom-and-pop shops that make New York City so great?
I don't have the answers to these questions.
But I do suggest that we should all go French. Yes, French. Or French-Canadian. Yes, if you must strike, just strike for a few hours. Say, from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m., no strike. Mkay? That will sufficiently ruin a commuter's day, and we will get your message loud and clear.
We will not be able to go dining or clubbing at night, but we'll be able to get to work during the day, and businesses won't shut down.
We might even do some holiday shopping during our lunch breaks.
But there will be enough bottlenecks on the road, you union folk will really have caused some chaos. Good, no?
Mr. Toussaint, you more than anyone should know about how to strike, French-style. LaMai begs you to go French.
It's just a thought.
3 comments:
A work slow down would have been more accepted. As far as a human worker looking out for riders, well let's remember that a woman was attacked and raped as a worker looked away. These guys took a civil service exam, decided to take the job offered to them and get benefits befitting government workers. Is there a surplus, yeah, but it should be managed so that riders and tax payers don't have to spend as much in the future. Retiring at 50, changing the pension layout, these are things that a strike can't warrant. I admire their pluck but frankly the city looses respect for the union in this situation.
Arguing that the existence of a surplus means the workers should get more doesn't make sense. Afterall, I don't remember the workers offering to take paycuts when there were deficits. Also, it's not as if the surplus is created by the workers. It's created by taxes. The recording tax (I believe it's 1% of the purchase price when a home is sold) goes straight to the MTA. So does a portion of the NYC sales tax.
If you are referring to the deficit of recent years, read the link I provided, as issued by the Comptroller.
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