NYC workers strike

[coogebeachhotel]

"NO" what do you mean no???? No it did not happen in Boston? No its wrong? British????

 

[Zmanav8r]

I was just pointing out the fact that they were breaking the law, nothing more nothing less.

 

[Green]

Lovely analogy, but..............NO.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/20/nyc.transit/index.html

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Millions of New York commuters are preparing to battle their way home in near-freezing temperatures during a strike by transit workers, which Tuesday afternoon was ruled illegal by a judge.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg lashed out at union leaders for "thuggishly" turning their backs on the city, adding the strike could cost the city more than $400 million a day.
"You can't break the law and use that as a negotiating tactic," he said at an afternoon news conference. "This is unconscionable," he added.
Judge Theodore Jones ruled Tuesday afternoon that the Transport Workers Union was in contempt of a court injunction for going on strike, and he ordered that the union be fined $1 million per day beginning Tuesday
Bloomberg urged the union's 30,000-plus members to return to work as soon as possible, and drawing a hard line, said the city would not negotiate with the union until then.

Michael Bloomberg the billionaire preaching ethics. I bet he's done some "uncoscionable" things in his persuit of wealth...

 

[Zipperhead]

Vingus,

I don't pay any money into ALPA. As you can see from my Avtar, I was TWA. ALPA SCREWED the TWA pilots and now I fly corporate. I don't plan on ever joining ALPA again if the opportunity presents itself.

 

[Gulfstream 200]

Maybe in violation of the law and a court order, but this shows that a true union with the guts to stand up for what they believe in can still have a huge impact, regardless of the RLA or courts.

Think about what would happen if ALPA had the guts to stand up as a whole and walked off the job for just one day country wide...

"think about what would happen" huh??

think about what would happen --- if CRJ pilots had the same brains as a bus driver and never went to work for 17K/yr in the first place.

imagine that pal.

 

[ACT700]

Gents, why do people repeatedly go down this road. Was it a difficult and curageous decision to take this action, of course. However, any comparison between this and an aviation labor group just doesn't make sense. The Transit Workers Union no longer has a contract, it expired last week. Our contracts do not expire, they become amendable. There was no court order to prevent this and the TWU is not breaking any laws. Most importantly, the TWU has leverage. They work for a government entity that had a huge surplus last year. Notice I referred to it as a surplus and not a profit. As a line item on the state budget the MTA has an annual surplus or deficit. They are not a "for profit", free market entity. This strike will not cause the MTA to liquidate or go out of business.

Now, forget about the nuances of the RLA or this labor group. If we strike today as airline pilots, we will most likely eliminate the existance of our airline. This is a generalization, but the point remains the same. If your point is to strike for better pay and work rules, you will not meet your objective in todays economic climate. If your point is to bring the company down, you will succeed with flying colors. Instead of talking about the "big balls" of our teamster friends, go read a book or two about the history of airline labor and the success rate of self help. This is not ancient history. We are only talking about a few decades here. Or better yet, volunteer for your negotiating committee and learn about all of this first hand. It is my opinion that you get once b1tch and one b1tch only. If your one and only complaint did not result in the effect you desired, then you take charge and make it happen. Don't like your contract, change it. Don't like alpa, run for office or start a recall of your current officers and then run. If you get off your ass you can actually get something done, until then, quit b1tching.

While I agree with some of your points, a lot of your commentary is "tainted".

First off, you can hardly compare public service employees to private, airline labour.

Second, they are violating a law: That Taylor law, as someone mentioned previously.

Third, the general consensus among the front line employees is: "We'd rather be working".

This strike was forced upon them by some ghetto-thug union goons, who could never, ever have any kind of gainful employment in the private sector.

I am pretty sure that these ghetto-all-stars (union leaders) are not going to cover the penalties imposed against the INDIVIDUAL workers, ie. the 2days pay/every day on strike penalty.
I wonder how they will cover the 1M/day penalty assessed today in court.

Also, these idiots have ruined, actually ef'd up christmas for a lot of people-on both sides of the fence.

A lot of New Yorkers will be able to swallow the extra cost and burden of commuting, but your average unskilled labour worker will be hard pressed to cough up 8-10 times the amount it normally takes to commute.

But like other controversies we (New Yorkers) had to overcome in the past, we will deal with this one, too.

Taking a guess, I'd say it's back to the farm, for these TWU union leaders.

 

[ferlo]

The reason they have such gigantic cajones is because none of them grew up wanting to drive a bus around queens. When we can finally get it thru the thick heads of some of those in our ranks that getting to fly isn't in and of itself a form of compensation, we might be taking a step closer to the ball size of the TWU. Until then, many hapless pukes "will fly for food" and keep the slide into the shi*ter going at Mach 4.

 

[MedFlyer]

It has nothing to do with cajones and everything to do with being a public service monopoly.

Unlike airlines, the mass transit system in NYC won't go out of business if the workers go on strike. There is no competing subway system that will steal customers away. If DL pilots go on strike, the airline will liquidate and other airlines will pick up DL's former customers. The two aren't comparable.

Remember, mass transit is a money losing enterprise (no mass transit system in the US makes money) and is subsidized by local, state and federal gov't. Don't complain when you have to start paying more taxes to support these transit workers.

 

[holdon]

Vingus,

I don't pay any money into ALPA. As you can see from my Avtar, I was TWA. ALPA SCREWED the TWA pilots and now I fly corporate. I don't plan on ever joining ALPA again if the opportunity presents itself.

Can I get an AMEN!

 

[QXpeon]

Maybe Bush can spy on them too......

Maybe he can find out the union secret and end the strike. I mean, since he doesn't give a $hit about the law to begin with, so who cares right?