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Strike! Huelga!
¡Pero que asco!
The negotiations are in the tank, and so is the city. Mired in our inability to understand and effectively use collective bargaining agreements for the greater good, we have instead chosen to go the low road. Estamos en la mala leche!
Solo para los echufados…
The MTA has been less than silent; there have been only a few clips on the main players, and these have been little, tiny sound bites. Is there really that $Billion surplus boys? Or is it that you already earmarked it for the next round of your famous Pork Belly Projects?
Vamos a ver, ciudadanos…
It is not so much the idea of a strike that perplexes those of us who support unions and who come from a traditionally socialist background. Rather, it is the use of the strike in this context and this context alone that makes us feel uneasy. Certainly, this will allow business to argue that strikes are detrimental to free enterprise, and organs like the Free Enterprise Institute will no doubt use this event as a giant wagging finger pointed at all social welfare programs. How? First, the strike is illegal, which means that no matter what moral high road the TWU thinks it is taking, at the end of the day the union is breaking the law, and what matters in the minds of many Americans is that very point. Second, without broad public support of the strikers, it will be difficult for other union organizers to create an effective base for their movements.
Las lagrimas de Garcilorca
While the one-off commentaries from riders show some public support, let’s see where that support is as the strike drags on. (If you read Craigslist.org Rants & Raves, it does not seem like there is much public support.) The public is very, very fickle (recuerda bien la obra de Orania Fallaci, con el titulo “Un hombre” o bien “A Man”). The ads running almost continuously on NY1 (only just now, as if they had been waiting all along to run them) by and for TWU members are not exactly empathy-building for those who can’t get to work and are losing precious pay. And to boot, these workers have no pension or benefits. So, we are all in a quandary here.
And where are the other unions? There is simply no union brotherhood here, for if there were, then every union worker would be out on sympathy strike and the whole city and all its services would be shut down.
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Posted on 12/20/2005
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