CNBC Wall Street Reporter - "NY Transit Strike Over" nt

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

[deadmessengers]

1. link to story

http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_356054551.html

[cal04]

2. TWU may end strike

An arbitrator announced this morning that the MTA and union have gone into mediation and TWU head Roger Toussaint has agreed to request that striking workers jobs while negotiations continue.

No timetable was announced for the restoration of service.
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/transportation/subway/nyc-strike1223,0,190134.story

[Omaha Steve]

24. TWU volunteers drove anti war buses too!

The following is an email sent out early Tuesday morning to anti-war activists in the New York City metropolitan area in support of the Transit Workers Union Local 100, who are now on strike.

TWU Local 100 has been an active participant in the anti-war movement. They organized buses to bring workers to the September 24 mass demonstration of more than 300,000 in Washington DC.



Predictably, the government and the media are now demonizing the transit workers and are prepared to impose heavy penalties on the union and individual members for exercising the fundamental right to withhold their labor. The strike is about the defense of pensions and healthcare benefits, issues that are essential to all working people in the United States. This government can spend $1.5 billion every week for war and occupation in Iraq, but insists that society is "too poor" to be able to provide decent pensions and healthcare benefits for the people. Now is the time for everyone to stand with the TWU and the labor movement.

[stray cat]

3. MSNBC has a banner that they are returning to work

No contract but negotiations to continue

[Cassandra]

4. NY1 says...maybe.

Toussaint still has to take it back to the rank-and-file to vote on this. It might be over. If it is, it takes 12 to 18 hours to gear everything up to run again (in case you were wondering why the transit system runs all night).

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. Heading in to NYC to see the family tomorrow

My priotrities are as follows:

1) Get a good deal for yourselves TWU!!!
2) Get the trains and buses up and running again.

Point 1 precedes point 2 in importance.


This government had an idea
And parliament made it law
It seems like it's illegal
To fight for the union any more

Which side are you on, boys?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on, boys?
Which side are you on?

We set out to join the picket line
For together we cannot fail
We got stopped by police at the county line
They said, "Go home boys or you're going to jail"

Which side are you on, boys?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on, boys?
Which side are you on?

It's hard to explain to a crying child
Why her Daddy can't go back
So the family suffer
But it hurts me more
To hear a scab say Sod you, Jack

Which side are you on, boys?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on, boys
Which side are you on?

I'm bound to follow my conscience
And do whatever I can
But it'll take much more than the union law
To knock the fight out of a working man

Which side are you on, boys?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on, boys?
Which side are you on?

-Billy Bragg (echoing the old Harlan County song)

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. So, perhaps police and firefighters and teachers should make more

As for the small businesses, doesn't it go to show that the entire economy depends on the transit workers and that they are therefore essential workers who deserve more money and benefits? I love the incoherence of the argument: these workers are absolutely essential to the whole economy of the city, but they make too much money as it is! If they're absolutely essential, isn't their pay (which is barely above median for NYC) actually contributing to the general welfare of the city? Seems to me that you can't really have it both ways. All the profits made by small businesses are thus dependent in large part on the labor of the transit workers! And yet that labor should go unrewarded in proportion to its contribution? Do you have any idea how fucking stupid that sounds?

I certainly agree that police and fire (not to mention teachers) should make much more as well. I know firefighters who have been priced out of their now re-gentrifying neighborhoods in Brooklyn because the rents have gone through the roof - and forget about buying a place. They should make more.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. Pitting workers against each other

Pretty typical.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[stray cat]

12. Essential and replaceable.

Many of us considered in mass have essential jobs, none of us get paid accordingly based on that.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. So go ahead and replace them

all.

Good luck with that.

[melissinha]

16. didn't that happen in 1918

with disastrous consequences?

Of course, it was the Brooklyn Rapid Transit company that was largely responsible for the deadliest subway disaster in U.S. history. When their union went on strike in 1918, the company replaced its workers with scabs. This may or may not have resulted in the Brooklyn crash that killed 102 people. And the terrible crash in Japan that happened this (last?) week occurred on a privately owned rail service. Their are pros and cons to all public vs. private endeavors. I was just trying to answer Subway Jared's seemingly rhetorical question.

or

Nov. 1, 1918: A dispatcher, filling in for striking motormen, loses control and 97 are killed, with 200 injured. This is Malbone Street Incident, the worst accident in New York City Subway history. The one day strike by the BRT workers was settled at about 2 AM the next day.

http://www.unionism.com/accidents.html

[melissinha]

15. right!

Just because the transit workers make more than police and teachers doesn't mean they don't deserve more... it appears as if their union is more effective.... sure we think teh police, fire and teachers deserve more, they do IN ADDITION to transit workers.. I think we need to get off this backslide of comparing workers and understand they all need to catch up to cost of living and have a decent chance at retirement.

Roger Toussaint made an interesting point in an interview on AAR the othe other day to Mark Riley "We are your next door neighbors, the MTA management are, we work just like you and this is about starting to get fair wages for all workers" not a direct quote, but raises the point, if we can get wage laws on the table through this strike everyone is better off (except the rich fatcats who don't DEPEND on money)

[LostinVA]

20. Some talking points from yet another new low-count poster

Go volunteer or something.

[reformedrepub]

21. This sucks

It's not good for the rank and file of TWU who put their butts (literally) on the picket line. They walked and got no concessions from the MTA about disciplinary action or roll backs of the fines. Not surprisingly the corporate media, NEVER once mentioned about the MTA being caught with two sets of books, railing on about deficits and then turning around and "finding" a billion dollar surplus. Pataki whining about them going on strike, and talking about how much they make, when he paid a woman 60 grand a year (base) to dress his wife....Bloomberg the disgrace calling them "thugs". How quick he forgets those bus drivers and train operators who stayed at posts on 9/11 with buildings crashing down, literally, on top of them. How quickly he forgot those bus drivers/train operators who showed up for work the day after the London bombings. How about all the extra training these men and women have had to undertake since 9/11,recognizing potential terrorists and how to respond to a chem/bio attack. Look at what happened to the PBA during their last contract negotiations, there is a NYPD officer standing a foot post tonight in the worst neighborhoods in the city making 25,000. That is a disgrace!!

[cal04]

7. Deal must be OK'd by union executive board.

NYC transit workers union leaders agree to a return to work while strike talks continue, mediator says. Deal must be OK'd by union executive board.

[Julius Civitatus]

14. Maybe there's a happy ending. In the meantime, check the hateful NY Post

The Murdoch right-wing trash media has shown a truly ugly face in this crisis. Their editorials called for jailing the union leaders, union-busting measures (Reagan-style), and I think they stopped short of calling for shooting workers on strike.

Check out their despicable cover and their main editorials:



NY Post: HEY, UNION JERKS, ENJOY YOUR 'ISLAND' GETAWAY - AT RIKERS
(Yes, that the headline of one of their editorials. Pretty "classy" indeed.)

NY Post: Reagan's Transit Strike

This should remind blue-collar New Yorkers (the main readership of the execrable NY Post) where this newspaper stands, and which interests it defends.

Just remember this disgusting episode.

[SOS]

17. Pataki will be disappointed

He wants to cripple the TWU so he can look like an anti-labor corporatist for the South Carolina primary.
As if the RNC wouldn't destroy him in SC anyway!

[lovuian]

18. after what we are spending in Iraq I think these people can get

there raises...You can see how strikes scare the Bejeebus out of Bush cause it can shut the government down just like they are shutting down NY...

jail them Bankrupt them shoot them but that doesn't mean they have to Work for ya...

Communism learnt that from Solidarity...

[Julius Civitatus]

19. IT'S OVER!!!

It's official. It's over. Transit workers back to work.
Subway system should be running within 12 hours.

http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_356054551.html

[Omaha Steve]

22. Public employees in Nebraska can't strike by law either

AFSCME local 251 (Omaha) will be without a contract at Midnight when the New Year's Bells ring in 9 days. The Lincoln union has been asked to increase what they pay for health insurance by over 20% while getting a 2-3 % raise. Merry Christmas.

[NYC Liberal]

23. Finally. This whole thing was a nightmare.