December 30, 2005
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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December 20, 2005
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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December 18, 2005
Lost Opportunities all round
Toussaint was elected to lead the TWU on the platform that he had the balls to call a strike. That should not be the platform for anyone to be elected to any office. It’s no better than electing Bush on the platform that he had enough balls to cut taxes. Who has gained from that?
The problem here is not wages or benefits or working hours or working conditions. The problem here is that New York is an expensive place to live.
TWU salaries average 47,500, compared to the nationwide average of 45,000 for White Collar jobs (degreed professionals), and low wage, hourly jobs average about 20,000. Clearly, on the basis of wages alone, the TWU cannot complain about pay. Additionally, most Americans contribute more than 2% to benefits – not including a pension plan. In fact, the underclass (Wal-Mart, McDonalds, the Gap non-management workers) in the America have no benefits & no pensions, When they retire at age 65, they will receive precious little from the government – their future is achingly bleak. No healthcare for most of their lives, untreated illnesses, lower life expectancy, terrible working conditions, poverty level retirement.
The problem here is that the private sector continually removes itself from the social responsibility of caring for its workers, just as the government has and continues to do. To place that responsibility on religious organizations is sickening, but that is what Bush and Cheney have done and continue to do, and no one has the balls to stand up and tell the truth to the people. Neither private business nor the Republican machine want to be responsible for the welfare of the people. It is a now considered a moral issue. The poor are responsible for their own problems and their own stink. What a step backward for the most powerful country in the world. Shame on us.
The TWU striking will not solve the problems that plague New York City. There is no affordable housing. The lowest rents amount to more than 50% of income, when in order to run a household the rent should not be more than 20%. But when a tiny studio with the right zip code costs 2500, who can pay for it? When cheap rent is more that 1,000 per month, who can afford it? Certainly not the average hourly worker, and probably not the average white collar worker. The cost of living in NYC is not a function of the TWA. It is a function of the real estate market, speculation, foreign investment, urban planning and low down greed. To say that the TWU is being maltreated by the TWA is a misstatement. The TWU is not being mistreated. All residents of NYC are being mistreated by the over-valued cost of space per square foot.
As far as Toussaint’s claim that the TWU should have a contract equal to that of uniformed services, it is an insult – uniformed services by definition is a dangerous job. Sweating and toiling is hard work, but there are many jobs that fall into that category that pay 7 dollars per hours. It is not the same thing.
The TWU’s strategy for renegotiating this contract gave the TWA just the platform they needed to argue against the union; the TWU’s leadership showed no new strategy, falling back on old rhetoric that hasn’t worked for decades. It has only served to further damage the position of unions in general. There will be no sympathy from the private sector, and no growth in union membership until there is strategy that shows intelligence and long-term solutions. In this respect, the TWU has lost an opportunity and has proven that it is as bellicose as the Republicans in Washington. Shame on Toussaint.
THe future of unions in general is stake here.
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Posted on 12/18/2005
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December 15, 2005
With President Bush’s recent albeit brief side note admitting that the pre-war intelligence had been anything but, we can all ask ourselves if an apology to the American & Iraqi people forthcoming. Probably not – we’re just too deep into it.
Dick Cheney and his appetite for petro-revenge led us all straight down Blunder Boulevard. With Rove and Libby the willing front men in a PR campaign aimed at exploiting every American’s patriotism and sense of unease, Cheney managed to have his way not only with the war machine but also with the public trust. Not only have we been cheated like a cheap date, we’re left to pay the bill. Generations will have to pay for his tragically bad final solution.
While Bush has just enough of a soul to say that there were errors, I doubt that Cheney will ever bring his fat ass before the public with the news that he was wrong. He knew he was wrong, so it’s not news to him. It’s a big chunk of the truth that’s lodged somewhere in his endless digestive track.
Now, we’re all knee deep in the big muddy; how to extricate our pride from this disaster? How to focus on our own suffering citizens, who can’t rely on FEMA? How to deal with the bankrupt pension funds and the failing schools? How to deal with gun deaths & grinding poverty in our own backyards? How to ask for more when nothing is given in return?
Not since Malthus has a public speakerphone been so willing not only to blame the poor and the suffering for their plight; but shame on Cheney for recruiting from those very ranks the fodder he sends forth to wage his war of revenge.
Tags:
blunder boulevard, bush, cheney, fascism, iraq, malthus, poor, war
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Posted on 12/15/2005
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