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The key sticking points of the strike were raises, benefits, pensions and retirement age. The contract agreed upon has compromised all of these, not only for the TWU but also for all unions across the country.
The most important concessions from a long-term point of view are those pertaining to benefits and pensions. Keep in mind that only 17% of workers nationwide have traditional pension plans, and of that 17% many are unionized, public workers. Those who have been following the contract negotiations in the airline industry know that this industry has had its pensions and benefits continually gutted since the 1980’s, when Reagan eviscerated the Air Traffic Controller’s union. While TWU members may not give a rats ass about these statistics, they should. The trend has been set and it is unlikely that any future strike will result in turning back the clock to the old days of the traditional pension plans. In fact, it seems likely that by 2009, when contracts will once again be renegotiated, the MTA will have found ample reason to move the TWU towards the private sector model.
It is pointless to talk about accounting and greed. It is much more important that we all talk about the social responsibilities that the Federal & State governments are increasingly shifting to the public sector, which has neither the impetus nor the legal responsibility to care. Business exists for business sake, and is not concerned about the quality of life that retiring employees face. We should also be talking about the skyrocketing cost of healthcare and medical insurance.
Who profits from all of this? Financial Services companies stand to profit the most from shifting the burden of pensions to the individual; they will greater access to money that before was protected. There are no protections for individuals and monies that they invest in this or that plan. It is the luck of the draw, and the hope that no one is investing in an Enron, which we all are and just don’t know yet.
The changing of the healthcare field is also going to have a serious impact on everyone. “Healthcare Companies” and “Medical Industries” are in the game solely for profit. Boards are not made of healthcare professionals like doctors or nurses, but rather investors, CFO’s from other deep-pocket industries, and those who stand to gain from mergers. The concern is not about healthcare delivery or how a citizen achieves a level of coverage. It is strictly profit, which is what is killing us across the board.
All of these things are just as sad as the commercialization of college sports, which has reduced the role of the academy in this country from Institute of Higher Education and a place for real debate to an extension of the High School Experience. Universities are now organs of local Chambers of Commerce, and produce mediocre students with myopic vision and the expectation that somehow and miraculously they will always be solidly middle class. How? And what is the point of caring about it?
What does all of this have to do with the TWU and the MTA? First, the leadership of the TWU is as myopic as a recent college grad. Second, the MTA is hell bent on creating compensation packages in line with the rest of the service sector in the US, which translates to “Pretty Crappy”. Monies once in the control of the TWU and the MTA will eventually find their way elsewhere.
The poorly planned strike, the poorly argues contacts points and the poorly argued justification for the strike will become the tools used to construct the gallows from which will dangle decent benefits and pension plans.
Tags:
bull shit, financial services, mta, strike, twu, unions
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Posted on 12/30/2005
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