NYC Transit Strike Day Two (748 hits)
Category: PoliticsRating: 1.38 on 18 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by <m0ke34> (View user info) at 2005-12-21 13:54:47 EST
I am off to the Upper West Side this evening for some antics at Dive 75 (75th @ Columbus....great bar..$5 24oz. Becks...board games) Normally, I would walk out of my office, turn left, get on the 2 or 3 train and be there in 20 minutes. But HA! No subways. Here is a list of things that I will miss since I have to take an alternate route:
1) The fat eyes-glazed over black woman in the little glass box at the Wall St. 2-3 station who has twice given me a monthly metro-card when I clearly asked for a pay as you go metrocard. Before I ever used the card, immediately, actually, I informed her of her error. Her response was to slip a postage-paid envelope to the MTA offices, with a form that one fills out explaining the incident.
I say, "you can't just give me a pay as you go and take this back?"
"No."
"Ummm. Why not?"
"Can't."
"OK. So, why don't you just give me a pay as you go card. Since you KNOW I haven't used this one yet, give it to the next person that wants a monthly."
"Can't."
"Wha? Why?"
"Can't. Please step aside sir, there's a line."
"So, what do I do in the meantime?"
- I have something called transit check that is nothing more than cash-denominated vouchers used only at the MTA and Port Authority. The value of the Transit Checks is deducted from my gross pay. Hence, tax-free. I get them once a month. Otherwise, I would have only been pissed off about the stupidity. This situation ended up costing me money. Tax money that the goddamned liberals in this city used for some meth clinic or to subsidize this fat bitch behind the glass' 4000 square foot apartment.
"Mail it in. They will send you a replacement."
"How long does that take."
"I don't know."
-blank stare-
"grrr."
2) Over the sound system inside the train:
"Bing!" "Attensh Pleaz. tention pleaz. There'saservicehangeforthisnumba2 traaain. Thitrain wolieja afdsloi adslfjbn[a das nmdfl;ans. If you need ajdfojaioj ahjdfklajdfioj you must fjdf aijdf."
I truly hope they garble on purpose.
3) The transit "worker" in the little glass box at 23rd and Park (on the downtown side). Behind her, there is a whiteboard. On it is the answer to every question she has ever been asked about the subway system. If you ask her any question, she (without looking up from her fashion magazine) points her freshly manicured, often still wet with polish, thumb over her shoulder towards this board. She's a personal favorite.
4) The late-night trash train. This is the kiss of death at 2 am. You are officially never getting where you are going when you see this beauty. I know this isn't really a transit-workers fault, but damnit people, in the age of moonmen, yogurt in a tube and google, we can do better!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REPOST:
-I apologize for my lack of paragraph spacing yesterday. I got some nice -2 flak for it. I am reposting below with spacing for anyone who wants to read it without getting dizzy:
Due to the Transit Worker's Union striking early this am, I have to do the jobs of 8 people today. You see, I made it to work by taking the PATH train, another NYC area train that is not a part of the MTA system. -bonus points for anyone who knows the PATH acronym- However, my co-workers are walking over bridges and down avenues to get here, undoubtedly at their leisure.
Normally, I would tolerate striking workers. It is understandable that one would strike in the face of huge executive bonus' and shrinking pensions. However, in this scenario, the striking workers work for the public, in a tax-payer purchased system. They make a modestly livable wage doing mostly modestly challenging work. The kicker for the Transit Workers Union is the benefits and pension plan. They are currently able to retire at age 55 or after 25 years with a fully vested pension.
I am willing to go out on the proverbial limb and assert that the difficulty and nature of their work does not justify their complaints about compensation. I'd be closer to the tree-trunk in saying it doesn't justify their shutting down a public system that millions (many who are working harder for less compensation) rely on to get to work because they want a raise.
Yes, yes, I understand that everyone wants a raise. I understand that everyone thinks they are underpaid. I am no exception. However, the Transit Workers need to realize that their demands are very unrealistic in 2005. Recently employees have been making accommodations when it comes to pension and benefit plans. The 401k has almost completely replaced the defined benefit plans in the private sector. The exceptions being legacy airlines (bankrupt), legacy carmakers (close to bankrupt), legacy steelmakers (bankrupt, reorganized, bankrupt again) etc. --This is all a result of the bloodsucking lawyers and the corrupt insurance industry, but that is a rant for another day--
Those are only the industry-specific problems with these workers' demands. The other side of the argument against them is macroeconomic. The fact is: labor has become a commodity. In the US, it is becoming a cheaper and cheaper commodity. People without skills are making relatively less money. This is understandable since unskilled people are competing for entry-level positions with the over-educated who can't get a job "in their field." The only way that the person without the degree or related experience is getting the job (save outside factors such as nepotism) is if they will accept less compensation. There are enough unskilled people floating in the job market that employers benefit from supply/demand.
This leaves the transit workers, who (from what I have gathered in my interactions) are undeniably unskilled. Of course one can argue that they have been through extensive training programs and the like, however, those training programs were all provided by the their employers: the MTA, New York City Transit and the taxpayers.
The final element of this abominable strike is that it doesn't hurt the MTA. It hurts the taxpayers and people of the NY metropolitan area. The MTA is an umbrella governmental agency full of politically appointed bureaucrats who get paid regardless of whether or not the subways are running. There is no bottom line. There are no stockholders to answer to. As these officials are appointed rather than elected, they don't even have to answer to voters. They should feel an obligation to answer to the taxpayers who built the tunnels and platforms that are "their" system. They obviously don't.
I hope the MTA breaks the union and replaces some of them with my overeducated friends. $15 an hour is probably a lot better than the Urban Outfitters gigs they have now.
User Reviews
Submitted by dubya (user info) at 2005-12-22 00:57:28 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"Bing!" "Attensh Pleaz. tention pleaz. There'saservicehangeforthisnumba2 traaain. Thitrain wolieja afdsloi adslfjbn[a das nmdfl;ans. If you need ajdfojaioj ahjdfklajdfioj you must fjdf aijdf."
I loathe the 2+3 trains,
but that was the most accurrate depiction of their garbled speach I have ever seen.
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2005-12-21 19:59:25 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
A couple of levels down in the Port Authority building at
3:00 AM. There is the scum of the Earth.
Grand Central Station. What's that smell?
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2005-12-21 19:56:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by el_em_en_oh (user info) at 2005-12-21 15:41:11 (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2005-12-21 15:31:35 (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by el_em_en_oh (user info) at 2005-12-21 15:19:26 (#)
Ranking: 2
Move down here to Houston. We all ride horses to work. Not to mention the free gasoline due to us all having oil wells in our back yard...
---------------------
I thought you rode mexicans into work.
---------------------
What's a Mexican? All we've got down here are Wetbacks and Spicks.
_____________________________________________________________________
There are no more wetbacks. The river dried up, so they are now sandbellies...
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2005-12-21 18:56:52 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
You live in New York. New York sucks. There are good and great things about New York, but those things are over 50 years old now, and in general New York just sucks. I used to live there, I know. I moved out because it sucked to live there. New York has always sucked, it always will suck.
Why are New Yorkers continually surprised that New York is always proving it's vitality by finding new ways to suck? Why do New Yorkers think anyone outside their Suckopolis cares about how long it takes them to get from their shithole apartment to their shithole office? Don't like it? Move out. If you stay, you agree to live in Suckopolis and endure all the suckitude that your fellow Suckopolites can throw at you until it's your turn to make them complain about how much everything sucks in Suckopolis and how it's [this new group]'s fault.
If I were God, I'd reach down and grab Long Island and just tear the the whole state of New York off the planet like the crusty scab it is. I'd then get a good swing with it and fucking clobber France because France sucks too.
Sorry, forgot my meds. Nevermind. I'm not God. You can relax.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2005-12-21 16:25:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I love getting personal perspective from uber users on current events.
Submitted by el_em_en_oh (user info) at 2005-12-21 15:41:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2005-12-21 15:31:35 (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by el_em_en_oh (user info) at 2005-12-21 15:19:26 (#)
Ranking: 2
Move down here to Houston. We all ride horses to work. Not to mention the free gasoline due to us all having oil wells in our back yard...
---------------------
I thought you rode mexicans into work.
---------------------
What's a Mexican? All we've got down here are Wetbacks and Spicks.
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2005-12-21 15:31:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by el_em_en_oh (user info) at 2005-12-21 15:19:26 (#)
Ranking: 2
Move down here to Houston. We all ride horses to work. Not to mention the free gasoline due to us all having oil wells in our back yard...
---------------------
I thought you rode mexicans into work.
Submitted by randomhero83 (user info) at 2005-12-21 15:20:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The Metro workers in DC are just as shitty and rude.
Fuck them all in the ear.
Submitted by el_em_en_oh (user info) at 2005-12-21 15:19:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Move down here to Houston. We all ride horses to work. Not to mention the free gasoline due to us all having oil wells in our back yard...
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2005-12-21 14:56:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Oh boo hoo, this is America, you all should be driving your own cars.
(I'm kidding)
Submitted by Method (user info) at 2005-12-21 14:50:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I personally love the strike, I get to work and home in 15 minutes now, where it took me an hour before. There's a lot less traffic now.
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2005-12-21 14:38:20 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
NEW YORK - The city and state stepped up their pressure on striking transit workers Wednesday in hopes of forcing them back to work, and a judge said sending union leaders to jail was a "distinct possibility." State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones, who is hearing several legal issues related to the strike, directed attorneys from the Transport Workers Union to bring president Roger Toussaint and other top officials before the court Thursday to answer to a criminal contempt charge. He said he may sentence the union leaders to jail for refusing to end the strike, calling such a scenario a "distinct possibility."
ADVERTISEMENT
Union lawyer Arthur Schwartz said Toussaint and the other officials are in negotiations with mediators and that hauling them into court could halt the talks.
--------------------------------
Looks like they are threatening that jackass Toussaint with jail time. I don't think that will end this any sooner, it will just lend strength to their cause if we throw him in jail on christmas.
Submitted by userpete86 (user info) at 2005-12-21 14:22:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yeah... unless we impliment birth control like china...
Too much labor?
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2005-12-21 14:14:20 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Bashing the strike will get anyone an AUTO +2 from me.
STOP THE STUPID STRIKE!
Submitted by jack11058 (user info) at 2005-12-21 14:13:24 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by windowsrcold (user info) at 2005-12-21 14:04:32 (#)
Ranking: 2
Top was funny as hell the bottom was educational.
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2005-12-21 14:09:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Foolproof (user info) at 2005-12-21 14:01:21 (#)
Ranking: 0
Is anybody else that doesn't live in NYC as bored with this as I am?
----------------------------------------
I don't live there, but if these lazy fucks can stay on their asses for one more day, I get an early christmas present.
http://www.ubersite.com/m/81301
My biggest problem with the transit Union striking is that they don't want to bend on their discipline policy. These pieces of shit need more discipline, and more firings, they are all lazy and rude.
Submitted by windowsrcold (user info) at 2005-12-21 14:04:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Top was funny as hell the bottom was educational. I am strange and like learning unlike some other members. In the case of TWU striking is highly ineffective and like you said most likely going to come back like a rabbid dog bite them in the ass.
Submitted by Foolproof (user info) at 2005-12-21 14:01:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Is anybody else that doesn't live in NYC as bored with this as I am?