Ruminations On A Transit Strike

I hate unions.

Here's their deal. They want more money. They want better benefits. The want earlier retirement. Fine....

Here's my deal. An MTA janitor makes 1.5 times more than I do. The janitor. He doesn't pay into his retirement like I do. He doesn't have to worry about contributing anything to his health care, where I get 90 bucks a month deducted so I can have a relatively managable copay. And as it stands right now, he can retire at the ripe old age of 55.

I stopped listening to the union's side after I read they were asking for an 8 percent raise every year for three years. 24% pay increase after three years. Go. Fuck. Yourself.

New-hires into the police union make less than new-hires into the TWU. That's right. People charged with keeping the peace get paid less than the people who keep the trains running at a less than punctual pace. Makes sense right?

"But they work in such horrible conditions!!!" Ok, I apologize ahead of time for this as it will no doubt come across as harsh, but.... No one forced them to take this job. If it is truly, truly, that unbearable, then quit. Go back to school and get a degree that'll land you a nice cushy desk job on the 34th floor of a nice flourescently lit office building.

"But they're in a high profile target for terrorist attack!!" It's New York City. We're all at risk.

"They don't really want to strike!" I'm sure they don't. Those fines are a bitch. I don't even think a 24% increase would help out once those wages start to get garnished.

And yet here we are....

This post is disjointed and scattered, and I apoligize. That's normally the way my brain functions when in "rant" mode.... That and the fact that I find myself writing this in Dirty Jerz. Something in the air here slows the brain neurons.