Aren’t you Glad …
… that you don’t live in New York City?
I have been amazed at the pictures of people walking in NYC because of the transit strike.
From what I understand, it’s against the law for them to strike. I don’t know how I feel about that, but then I’m not a huge fan of unions.
But it seems to me that these people chose one of the most busiest times of year to pull a temper tantrum.
From WNBC.com
With talks still stalled, a judge imposed a huge fine Tuesday against the Transport Workers Union — $1 million for each day of the strike — and lawyers were due back in court Wednesday.
State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones has yet to rule on whether a second union, the Amalgamated Transit Union, will also be fined. The union has two chapters in New York that have joined the strike with the TWU.
Also undecided is whether the individual officers of the two unions will be fined for supporting the strike. Officials, including TWU Local 100 head Roger Toussaint, could be fined up to $1,000 apiece for urging union members to break the law.
Okay — who is going to actually pay this fine? Well the workers who are on strike of course, through their dues and such, but in the end, the little man is going to pay. How many of these striking workers are going to lose everything because they aren’t getting a paycheck and are having to help pay a fine?
The ramifications of what they are doing doesn’t just affect the transit system either. Businesses will be effected in other ways other than their employees not being able to get to work. They will have to cancel meetings, or move them to another city; therefore, the hotels will lose as will any other business that supports them. So now we have the hotel and restaurant workers being effected by this strike. People that rely on businesses based in NYC are going to start to have problems with service from those companies also. Right now if I needed something from a company in NYC or one in Atlanta, I’d go with Atlanta — at least their employees can get to work.
It is a domino effect really.
Selfishness is like that you know.
Technorati Tag
Unions
Labor
Strike
1Stacy
wrote on 21 December 2005 at 7:29
It’s things like this that really make me grateful I work from my home.
2Bor1977
wrote on 21 December 2005 at 7:33
Hi Jo,
but lets try to get the little victories first 
I read your article about the transportstrikes in NYC. Let me first tell you, I’m belgian (Yes, I’m part of those soft europeans) and here we have a law that allows people to strike. Everybody has a right to voice his or her nuisances.
I don’t really know why the transport sector in NYC is on strike but I can imagine they want higher wages and more security on late shifts (something the belgian transport sector has demanded too a few months ago after a wave of violent clients).
It’s who you want to affect and who is in charge. I’m not sure about the transport sector but I can imagine that they belong to the city. So they want to “hurt” the city. They did a pretty good job with their strike yesterday. It’s what you said, the image of NYC is smudged. The reliable metro has stopped running in over twenty years. It was a gutsy strike, and ok the workers will loose some money, but who said no pain, no gain. Or you have to break eggs to make an omelet (my favourite).
If they are working for an idependant organisation (like public transport in Belgium) they would better work but let all rides be for free (in belgium we had some “paystrikes” ;-)) and that gets the public on your side and the bosses don’t like it
A strike is something powerfull and should be used only as last resort. With a strike the niceties (hopefully spelled right) are swept off the table and knifes are drawn.
I for one hope the workers demands are met by the city. That way the metro will run again, the workers will be happy and more motivated and people will continue riding that subway and going to work.
I know, another wish is world peace