The Transit Workers Union here in New York City went on strike as of 12:01am today. The strike has shut down the subways and buses in the middle of the busiest shopping time of the year. It also happens to be very cold out there, with temperatures in the 30s and dipping into the 20s.
These people should be ashamed of themselves. They are on an illegal strike so that they can get some guaranteed raises in the years ahead. I don't have guaranteed raises. My father, who works for himself, doesn't have a guaranteed raise. I hope the MTA does pursue fining each and every one of the workers two days pay for every one day they are on strike. And Roger Toussaint, the ring leader, should be brought up on charges.
These people are public servants, and they are of the worst kind. Except for the post office, I have never observed a group of public servants who collectively are as lazy, nasty and have bad attitudes as much as this group. They get paid $47,000 a year minimum for chewing gum and copping an attitude. Sounds to me like they need to get a pay decrease, not a raise.
If I was Governor George Pataki, I'd take a lesson from Ronald Reagan's dealing with the air-traffic controllers union and fire every one of these bums who refuses to go to work. Screw 'em. Fire every single one. I don't care if the transit system is shut down for two months before new people are hired. And besides, enough of these workers will cross and come back to work in spite of the union. But, if they don't want to work, it's time to give them a permanent holiday.
I couldn't agree more....the latest proposal from the MTA was pretty good...I have no sympathy for them...my company just froze our pension benefits, and we are ever so grateful if we even see an annual raise any where near 3%....I'm sure many would line up to replace them.
Posted by: billyo | December 21, 2005 at 08:07 PM
Do we even need unions in this overly government regulated era we live? It was needed during the times of child labor and when big business was paying pennies to work for a day’s labor. Today it seems the Union Bosses job is to collect money, pay themselves, and rub elbows with the liberal elite. What a scam! This of course is an over simplified version of the truth...but what really is the purpose of the union now? Today it seems their purpose is to stop traffic and complain. Last month their purpose was to spend huge amounts of union dues to stop a historic election here in California to secure their jobs. Not much of a profession. I agree fire the lazy people and hire people who want to work for less of a wage. People who would be grateful to have a job.
Posted by: Matthew Schooler | December 21, 2005 at 11:35 AM