Some spat-upon NYC bus drivers take months off

[Liberal_in_LA]

Some spat-upon NYC bus drivers take months off
May. 25, 2010 10:01 AM

Associated Press

NEW YORK - New York City bus drivers took an average of two paid months off last year after being spat upon by upset riders.

The indignity is considered an assault under the drivers' union contract. That entitles them to take a paid break.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday that 83 drivers were spat on last year. Of those, 51 took an average of 64 paid days off. One driver took 191 days of paid leave.

The drivers made up one-third of the number of transit workers who took time off due to assaults.

The drivers' union says the encounters cause psychological trauma, because workers they may contract a disease or be assaulted again. They say all cases are cleared by a transit agency doctor.

http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2010/05/25/20100525nyc-passengers-spit-on-bus-drivers.html

[Poll_Blind]

1. If it were a wife spit on by a battering husband, would people be so critical of...

...the time they took to recuperate?

Just wondering.

:shrug:

Also, I'm not sure I'd want a bus driver who might've contracted some hideous communicable disease from being exposed to some mad person's bodily fluids transmitting that disease to all the people they pick up in the bus. I wonder how much of this is for public safety as well?

PB

[dmallind]

2. Yes - It does not take two months to "recover" from JUST being spat on in any scenario

[Poll_Blind]

3. I imagine it's not just spitting, it's some form of altercation with a belligerant....

...passenger which culminates in spitting. These things don't happen in a vacuum. Also I thought it was interesting the article chose to leave out any of the other aspects of the altercations which involved the driver.

PB

[dmallind]

4. Depend son what else then. Real physical injuries would make sense - but not mentioned

It doesn't take more than a half hour for any well-balanced individual to get over a yelling match. If we're talking broken legs then weeks would make sense, but you'd think the article would have mentioned that.

How long do you think it SHOULD take for a bus driver to get over being yelled at and spat on?

[Systematic Chaos]

5. I'd give them 2 or 3 days, maximum of 3 times per year, for that kind of thing.

A little extra time off can help relieve burnout, so that's justified, I think. 60 days sure the fuck isn't, though.

But I would also audit those transit workers' attitudes while on the job to see if they maybe bring some of the bullshit upon themselves.

[JackRiddler]

6. Why are you putting out management's propaganda?

This story, true or not, is being pushed at the moment because of negotiations with the NY Transit workers. If there weren't negotiations ongoing, you would have never heard about it. True or not.


If you're going to post it, you should do the due diligence of seeing how the union responds to the allegations, and include that, and also put it in the context of an ongoing labor struggle.

[Mojeoux]

9. Here here! n/t

[charlesg]

7. Wonder how many had their friends spit on them for the free 2-month vacation

[Blue-Jay]

8. If that were in my contract, I'd ASK people to spit on me.

[Brickbat]

10. Jayzus H, is it Free Republic Day here?

If the city thinks this is excessive, it shouldn't have signed it and granted workers this benefit. Benefits like this are often inserted into contracts to make up for concessions on pay -- and then, when the contract is up, are targeted.

[Greyhound]

12. So few people have any clue how the game is played any more.

Probably because so few are in a union, and even of those few pay attention.

[JackRiddler]

13. Exactly!

It's just like the "two bonus months" that Greek unions got in their contracts, instead of the legitimate pay rises they deserved. Down the line, the government and all the foreign suits get to decy the "two bonus months," and no one's supposed to notice that all this means is that they want to cut salaries by 1/7.

[w4rma]

11. Something is definitely wrong with this situation and it deserves more investigation. (nt)

[readmoreoften]

14. Yeah, they should just wipe off that spit and continue. Fuck unions.

Let's fuck over the working-class even more because we hate other "lazy" workers so much. :sarcasm: