Extremely pissed off rant ahoy : The transport strike (warning: obscenity ahoy)

[docwebster]

I wish I knew what to think. On the one hand, the MTA are being obdurate assholes over pensions and raises, but (to me) the worst is the union itself. I *know* I have transport workers on my friends list from other states and I know they're union.

But when you completely fuck up people's lives like this on motherfucking Christmas week of all the damn weeks of the year, rendering it close to impossible to get anything done like, say, go to work or get to places you need to be in weather like they're experiencing, then frankly you can go fuck yourself. I don't give a flying damn what your rationale is.

I also have very little doubt that some cowardly assholes will succeed in sabotaging mass transit in various ways and in varying degrees of success. I don't even live in New York, and this is pissing me off beyond belief.

Comments

[lazysun.livejournal.com]

The thing that really got me is that one of their big sticking points is that the employees want a bigger cut of the budget surplus that the MTA found. I mean, for fuck's sake, they should be using that surplus to, you know, upgrade equipment, lower fares, that kind of thing. It shouldn't be a pocket-liner for anybody, unless they use it to hire more people.

Fuckers.

[shadowduchess.livejournal.com]

This is the time I'm glad I don't live in the city.
*shakes head*

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

The timing sucks, but the employes are getting fucked, Cut pensions, cuts in insurance, higher insurance costs, etc...

I'm in NYC, and not doing so badly transit wise. The city will make it. We're tough.

[celestial-fluke.livejournal.com]

don't ask me when it was as my concept of time is warped, but one year (this? last? year before? dunno) london transport were going to stage a strike on new year's eve. they called it off in the end when they suddenly realised that was not the best way to get public support.

[witchylatina.livejournal.com]

As a university professional also in a union, I know the frustration those transit people feel: higher insurance premiums, only 1% pay increase given in 4 years, lack of support. We weren't asking the state to give us more money but for the university to allocate it better and explain where $3.5 million disappeared to...

Our contract ended in 2004 in June and went into negotiations all the way through until September when we voted an intent to strike and federal negotiator stepped in, but the University did not want to negotiate. After going through arbitration the university still did not want to conceded with what our union wanted. We went on strike the week before Thanksgiving. Yes it fucked up the student's schedules and they went a little longer on the semester, but it had to be done. Sometimes the way federal arbitration works there is now way to know when the strike happens.