December 20, 2005
You might wonder what Gov. George Pataki is saying and doing during this crisis. It is a big crisis, when thousands of commuters are walking in temperatures well below freezing (wind chill as of 10 a.m. was 16 degrees), and when the economic well-being of America's largest city less than a week before Christmas depends on tourism and shopping.
Gov. Pataki was in New Hampshire last Thursday night working on his possible presidential bid. That's right, while the MTA and TWU were bargaining hard, exploring a potential strike commencing just after 11:59 pm last Thursday, Pataki was in New Hampshire. AWOL again. Lucky for Pataki the strike was postponed. Unlucky for those, however, whose well-being depends on public transportation. TWU chief Roger Toussaint: Now that he's back in New York, though, the governor ought to refrain from bashing transit workers, an angry Toussaint said. "If the governor needs to appear tough in front of the nation for his political ambitions, it's inappropriate," he said.
In contrast, this morning our billionaire mayor showed some PR savvy and fortitude by walking over the Brooklyn Bridge around 7 a.m. He made much of his plans last week to hunker down in the city's emergency bunker, and this is rather impressive, certainly much moreso than the hands-off governor who will leave both Albany and the State of New York in tatters as his term winds down.
So ask yourself today: Why can't this governor be more engaged? He's too busy fundraising. He's too worried what middle America (read: white moderate Republicans) would think if he was seen negotiating with a firebrand union. Meanwhile, listening to transit workers on WNYC and WINS radio, as well as reading comments from angry commuters, you can easily see how far apart the two sides are on this issue. It's tough to argue with a Caribbean-American family man who has bills to pay that he doesn't deserve more than a paltry 3% or 3.5% wage increase. On the other hand, an email comment from Adrienne in Manhattan to WINS is just laughable: "Pataki should pull a Reagan, illegal strike, you walk, you're fired!" Will President Reagan—oops, I mean Bush—send in the National Guard to run this railroad? Warren has a brilliant suggestion: "Conductors and motormen's jobs should all ready be automated." Your job should be automated, too, Warren; then you would not have to commute and could stay home in front of the TV every day! In fact, if we were instead a nation of cyborgs, then we would have no strikes and no labor disputes. Good luck Adrienne and Warren, running those trains; I doubt the TWU left the manuals behind in the operators' booths. Maybe Pataki could schedule a photo-op wearing a motorman's cap and drive the A train for a few stations?
Perhaps one of the most cogent comments about the MTA's botched management (which reflects on Pataki as well) came from 35-year-old subway booth clerk Antonio Trinidad, as quoted by the New York TImes: "The bottom line is that we went on strike because the M.T.A. has squandered and mismanaged my money, your money and every taxpayer's money - and that has got to stop."
Tags:
bloomberg, governor, mayor, mta, pataki, strike, twu
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Posted on 12/20/2005
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