Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Strike 2 It's been relatively non-chaotic during my walks through the city to work. In the days leading to the strike, the news coverage led me to believe people were going to be running crazed in the streets, arms flailing, screaming that they were going to be stranded. Of course it hasn't turned out that way, although there have been some circus-like incidents. It's actually been generally quiet, and my train in from Jersey has been running better than normal. It isn't too bad for me because I just have to walk across town but some of my colleagues have to walk from farther out, like Queens. Fox interviewed people who spent 4 hours walking back from work last night. I guess all of this discomfort would provide greater leverage for the transit union, but I'm not really sure who's going to win out in this one. At first, I thought, if the transit union is willing to face huge penalties and possibly jail time, then the cause they are fighting for must be worthy and they must really need what they are asking for. But, looking at the last offer that was left on the table, greedy really crept into my mind. The MTA offered the union a 10.5% raise, over several years! They also dropped their demand to raise the retirement age, but asked the union to contribute more towards their pension. I also read that the average salary wage for a union member is $55,000. Hot damn! So, that average worker would have gotten $5,000 extra a year. Maybe the MTA shouldn't have thrown in that pension demand at the last minute, because it wouldn't have saved them that much money, but the union workers would definitely have been in a better position if they took the last offer. All I can say is that I'm getting great exercise and seeing a lot of little stores and restaurants that I've never come across before. I actually think that Bloomberg and the MTA are going to cave first, because as much as this pains New Yorkers/New Jerseans/Ct people, they always find a way.