RELATIONSHIP ADVICE, WITH KAROL AND DAWN
Karol: Cause you know the best way to get over someone Dawn?
Dawn: Run them over with your car.
Karol: Get under someone else.
DIVIDED WE FALL
Tonight I had dinner with six twenty/thirty (yikes) year old young professionals. They were all violently against the striking workers. In order:
1. They should have waited till after the holidays, the cops went two years without a contract.
2. We should just fire all their asses
3. Why should they get a pension for the rest of their lives
4. A fucking trained monkey could do their jobs
5. They are overpaid lazy asses.
I disengaged somewhere in the middle of three. I was in Whiteyville…what’re ya gonna do.
But as I walked home, I wondered how otherwise bright, kind, educated people (read: I still have need these people to play poker) could be so recklessly foolhardy (read: gentler thesaurus suggestion for idiotic due to the previous “read.”)
As for point one, you either work without a contract or you don’t.
For TWU 100 to say ‘eh, this sucks – we reject this offer…but fuck it, it’s Christmas,” would be bullshit.
The kind of bullshit that leads to our teachers working for three years without a new contract. Ditto for police officers.
Everyone knew this contract was up right before Christmas. The MTA agreed to the date two years ago. The MTA was also keenly aware that it was the holiday season. Just last month they announced a city-wide Holiday Bonus for commuters. Extra days on your December Metrocard. But they didn’t bother to start negotiating in good faith with the union until two nights ago?
Karol mentioned that nobody likes the MTA, but I certainly don’t understand why no one is wondering why that braintrust spent lord knows how many man hours figuring out the Metrocard bonus structure for commuters — but didn’t think to themselves…maybe we should also start hammering out a contract so that these schmancy extended Metrocards won’t just lie idle on Dawn’s dining room table as she walks two miles to work because of a strike.
I was also amazed at how “pro-law” these young professionals had *suddenly* become as they cried out “this is ILLEGAL!!!” Yeah, and the union will face the consequences: To the tune of a million dollars a day.
But I also remember the firefighters who are still fighting with the city for a new contract – the look of desperation in the Union President’s face as he reminded everyone that the firefighters asking for a contract were the same firefighters that everyone wanted to bronze in statues after September 11th. “I thought we were heroes in the city.”
Well, turns out, that’s only when they’re not asking for new equipment, radios that work or pay raises.
And because of the Taylor law, Bloomberg pretty much knows there isn’t a damn thing the firefighters union can do about it.
They could accept the city’s offer or work without a contract.
And the look in that man’s eyes betrayed that helplessness. But unless you’re willing to help yourselves, there’s nothing anyone else can do for you.
The other theme repeated ad nauseum was the “off with their heads” mantra.
Does anyone even pause to consider the havoc 30 THOUSAND suddenly unemployed people would have on the NYC economy? Sure, seems all the right wingers are waxing nostalgic for Reagan’s air traffic controllers massacre (which after finding out they actually endorsed Reagan over Carter in the 1980 election, makes me feel a lot less angry about it…something about laying with dogs and getting fleas…) – but that was less than 12,000 spread across the fifty states and U.S. territories – not concentrated in one city.
Nor do they seem to figure on the legal liabilities of running the subway and bus system with newly trained, never tested workers. Have you seem the avenue-long buses that riddle Manhattan streets making right turns? Or what happens when a motorman overshoots/undershoots a platform during rush hour?
Or God forbid worse.
Yes, please God I want my tax dollars spent on satisfying lawsuits and increased costs of 30 thousand unemployed workers and their families.
Where are all the “if the working people get more money in their pockets, they will spend more and grow our economy” people when it comes to contract negotiations?
Crickets, I hear?
These people pay taxes, buy movie tickets, clothes, etc. I personally think the money is better off in their hands, than in the hands of the organization that said a minor track fire would result in a major subway station being closed for six years.
As for the pension issue – no, I don’t get a pension, most of my friend’s won’t get pensions – but the private sector also usually pays enough for employees to save in retirement plans or in savings accounts. City employees are notoriously underpaid – almost precisely for this reason.
Look, the city says, we’re not going anywhere. NYC isn’t going to declare bankruptcy, close its doors and let you all go. We aren’t going to be taken over by Boston and have to downsize the New Yorkers as part of business streamlining.
So, trust us. We’ll pay you just about enough to live on, but don’t worry about having no savings, we’ll still pay you some portion of your salary in your old age and we’ll take care of your health insurance costs.
What’s the alternative? These folks make crap and when they leave the MTA and have nothing – they rely on Social Security — oh, wait…
Why do they even have a contract, one of the girl’s at the dinner asked me? Well, I’d guess for the same reason that the Taylor law forbids striking by public employees – it’s in the public interest to have motormen, teachers, and policemen with experience. Not young kids right out of college looking for something to do while they study for the LSAT.
Without some semblance of decent benefits (in place of decent pay for the most part) and job security, why wouldn’t cops just walk the beat for a year and then go work for Sloman Shield? In fact, we’d spend millions on training at the Police Academy, only to have these guys ditch it for PI or security guard work. The private sector might even require that one year on the force knowing that then the city does all their training for them.
I don’t have a contract – and as someone that’s had four jobs in five years, each one paying more than the last one, I can’t begin to tell you the lost cost of training me to all of my previous employers.
Another girl commented that it’s disgusting the way the union workers seem to be clinging to this shit job for fifty years – maybe, but just as I don’t want a medical resident doing my brain surgery — I don’t want a 17-year-old being responsible for repairing the brakes on the subway car.
I don’t need some 20-year-old that is “so outta there” once he sells his screenplay, responsible for my safety when I’m standing on the deserted Prospect Park platform at night.
And I don’t know what a trained monkey is going to do for you if you collapse in the station or you are separated from your child taking them on the subway to see the Statue of Liberty for the first time.
No these people probably aren’t our most educated or brightest and sure some of them have been downright rude and unprofessional (and by the way, I have reported all such instances, as should everyone else) but without something that makes them do this job long enough to be good at it even after ten hours on a shift, our subways and roadways will be less safe.
And of course, the flipside is also true – if the MTA is allowed to increase retirement age to 62, 65, 70 – you’ll have certain senior citizens, who are no longer up to the long hours or the quick decisions that need to be made on the tracks, hanging on just to make that magic age. No one wants that.
I don’t know if the Union workers are “overpaid.” From everything I’ve seen, similarly employed workers on Metro North, LIRR, NJ Transit and Amtrak all earn more money than MTA workers. But as F-train, so astutely pointed out “I’m not an economic major.”
And yes, I’ll be getting that emblazoned on shirts and hats.
But, I do know what it’s like for a family of two to live in NYC on a salary of $19,000
a year. And all the talk about “average salaries” never mention how many are being supported on that salary. I also know that in an emergency I couldn’t drive either the bus or the subway – ok, maybe the bus, but only if Keanu was on board.
Token clerks now stand all day – are responsible for cleaning the platforms, handling emergencies, retrieving things that fall on the tracks, maintaining machines and turnstiles all underground with the constant roar of trains registering at hearing loss causing levels.
But, hey, I’m no economist, so I won’t speculate on how much one’s hearing, back and podiatric health is worth.
I don’t know why tonight’s discussion was so depressing; maybe it’s because I know these workers have gone on strike at great risk and personal sacrifice. Yeah, it sucks that we have to walk to work or that schools start late and people need babysitters and cab costs triple – but these workers are not only not getting paid for each day they are out, they paying the MTA a day’s salary for each day they are out. Their Christmas holiday will be tense days of uncertainty and worry as the credit card bills for their kids’ toys start appearing in the mailboxes.
The rent is coming due in a week or so.
The new semester of college needs to be paid in a month.
Those that wish bankruptcy on the union, are also consequently hoping that the landlord of the building they lease won’t get the rent – that the union scholarships and employees (non TWU union workers) will go unfulfilled or be let go.
With every word against the union, they curse practically every other facet of the city.
They are sadly short-sighted and myopic.
But whatever, as long as I still get to take their money on poker nights, they aren’t so bad.
CONVERSATION OF THE DAY
kaz: i saw david duchovny over lunch
Kaz: he was at the next table
Dawn: with Tea?
kaz: no, i think he was drinking something alcoholic
Dawn: TAY AH
kaz: but
kaz: we were at gobo
kaz: and tea is something of a special there
WHY DOES DAWN PLAY FANTASY SPORTS?
I mean, sure income redistribution is all fine and good, but why thirty dollars at a time to high powered attorneys?
DEAR GEORGE SOROS,
WHY OH WHY IS DAWN AT WORK
The whole point of a strike is that I’m supposed to be watching my Netflix DVDs and napping. Errr…in solidarity!
MIGHTY, MIGHTY UNIONS
I was seven when I walked my first picket line. I took the day off from camp and held up a sign that said “No contract, No work.” I was missing my two front teeth. To this day, I assume that’s why the Channel 7 reporter decided to interview me for the six o’clock news.
“My mommy needs more money,” was my response to whatever question she asked.
Awww, who’s the most adorable kid you ever did read posts about?
In college, I caused my newspaper’s editor-in-chief to have a coronary when he saw a picture of his Editorials Editor walking the picket line with the Yale dining hall workers.
I look good in cardboard placard.
So, you can say I’ve had a lifelong appreciation and support for our nation’s unions.
Obviously, I am no fan of the history of violence and racism that characterized unions in the early half of the 1900s, but today’s unions are really last sentries for our working poor.
Politicians dote on the middle class, companies dote on the bottom line and the workers – the ones who make our cities and businesses work – are left out in the cold.
The MTA, which, as Robert George points out, announced a billion dollars in surplus this year – asked the union to accept less than 3%, plus contributions to healthcare which would eat up that meager raise, PLUS a ridiculous SEVEN year age increase before retirement.
It was only after the Local balked — starting a partial strike yesterday – did they drop that preposterous request. However, they still refuse to go higher than a one-time only four percent pay increase and STILL demand that 6% be paid by new workers into the pension. I don’t have to be a math major to know that a four percent pay increase minus a six percent deduction is not a number that will buy clothes for workers children or put food on their family table.
In announcing the strike early this morning, President Toussaint said “this is your fight too.”
And he’s right.
In the run up to the strike, I read a bunch of posts and articles complaining that rookie police officers only earn 20,000 a year, so who are the transit workers to demand more?
Well, how do you think cops ended up earning so little? Their union—handcuffed by the restraints of the Taylor law—ended up selling out benefits for their “unborn members” in favor of current members and retiree benefits.
And now we have these courageous men and women who protect our streets getting paid less than a NYC gardener in the first year. It’s outrageous. But it happens because unions are mere shadows of their former selves. Imagine a union agreeing to pay cuts and eliminating benefits, just so their workers will any job at all.
These people are the lifeblood of our country — if Mayor Bloomberg is to be believed, these people will cost the city $400 million dollars. Imagine it. 400 MILLION. And yet, the agency that boasted a BILLION dollar SURPLUS, can’t give its worker a less than thousand dollar A YEAR raise?
And they want whatever raise they do give to basically go back to them to pay for pension costs?
If this union – the same one that sucked up ZERO percent increases last contract around because the MTA was drowning in debt — if this union accepted these demands in today’s economy, they should pack up their offices, refund the dues and resign in shame.
The MTA is a virtual monopoly, there isn’t an alternative place to work if you are a NYC bus driver or subway conductor – they are the only game in town. And the Taylor law, the mayor’s disgusting “cowardly comment” and the Governor’s decision to excoriate the union, rather than the MTA board that he appoints has emboldened the MTA to essentially flip the bird to its workers and invite them to sit upon the out stretched middle finger.
Alone those workers wouldn’t stand a chance against that kind of power and pressure.
Good thing they’ve got the union.
GLUG GLUG GLUG
Michelle Rodriguez is craaaaazy.
KITV quoted court and police documents that said Rodriguez was “very argumentative” and kept interrupting the officer who was explaining drunk driving sanctions to her.
“I don’t (expletive) belong here! Why don’t you just put a gun to my head and shoot me! You’ve already taken my freedom! You might as well take my life too!” she said, KITV reported Friday.
THE COLOR OF AWESOME
Is Purple!