Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Johnny Lunchbox
I've thought a bit about it, and I'm sorry, but the transit workers union is dead wrong on this one.
Currently, transit workers can retire at 55 -- each worker pays only 2% of their salary to the retirement fund, which is currently underfunded. The MTA wants to raise the retirement age for new workers to 62 a.k.a the normal retirement age for every other working person (if they're lucky). The MTA also wants new hires to contribute 6% of their salary to the fund, which I think is completely reasonable. If you don't agree that's a reasonable amount, think about how much you'd have to save on your own to retire at 62, assuming you live to 75-80 years old.
The transit union wants an 8% pay increase over the next three years -- thats 24%. Show me another profession that will get even a fraction of that. It's a ludicrous number. The NYT reported that the MTA's final offer was a 3% raise in the first year, 4% in the second, and 3.5% in the third. -- 10.5% over three years. And the median transit worker salary is $47,000 -- to drive buses and open subway doors.
The union knows that they have the city over the barrel. Every day they're on strike is costing the city hundreds of millions in lost productivity, not to mention lost Christmas sales for merchants. Maybe the MTA is coldhearted, I don't know enough about them to say, but striking during Christmas, when it's bitterly cold outside, and it's also the most important time of the year for stores, that's pretty fucking low as far as I'm concerned.
Oh yeah, and this strike is illegal to begin with.
IF I were in control, I would break this fucking union's back. Let them strike a couple weeks -- that will cost the union tens of millions in fines, and the workers are losing two days pay for every day that they're out. And if you really want to play hardball, you can start arresting some of the strikers -- which is completely legal under NY's Taylor law.
The transit union has been allowed to be too militant for too long. They simply cannot be allowed to think that they can shut down the city every 25 years and demand a king's ransom.
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Currently, transit workers can retire at 55 -- each worker pays only 2% of their salary to the retirement fund, which is currently underfunded. The MTA wants to raise the retirement age for new workers to 62 a.k.a the normal retirement age for every other working person (if they're lucky). The MTA also wants new hires to contribute 6% of their salary to the fund, which I think is completely reasonable. If you don't agree that's a reasonable amount, think about how much you'd have to save on your own to retire at 62, assuming you live to 75-80 years old.
The transit union wants an 8% pay increase over the next three years -- thats 24%. Show me another profession that will get even a fraction of that. It's a ludicrous number. The NYT reported that the MTA's final offer was a 3% raise in the first year, 4% in the second, and 3.5% in the third. -- 10.5% over three years. And the median transit worker salary is $47,000 -- to drive buses and open subway doors.
The union knows that they have the city over the barrel. Every day they're on strike is costing the city hundreds of millions in lost productivity, not to mention lost Christmas sales for merchants. Maybe the MTA is coldhearted, I don't know enough about them to say, but striking during Christmas, when it's bitterly cold outside, and it's also the most important time of the year for stores, that's pretty fucking low as far as I'm concerned.
Oh yeah, and this strike is illegal to begin with.
IF I were in control, I would break this fucking union's back. Let them strike a couple weeks -- that will cost the union tens of millions in fines, and the workers are losing two days pay for every day that they're out. And if you really want to play hardball, you can start arresting some of the strikers -- which is completely legal under NY's Taylor law.
The transit union has been allowed to be too militant for too long. They simply cannot be allowed to think that they can shut down the city every 25 years and demand a king's ransom.
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