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December 21, 2005
New York City Stews in Its Moonbattery
New York City remains paralyzed this morning, as workers walk miles through the freezing cold and many stores remain closed during the busiest shopping week of the year, seemingly all because of the runaway greed of the illegally striking Transport Workers Union.
But can the blame really be placed completely at the feet of the thugs at TWU? It's hardly a secret that unions tend to be dominated by greedy goons who will take whatever they think they can get, with no regard whatsoever for their effect on society. What makes them think that by holding New York City hostage, they will be granted their outrageous demands (retirement at age 50, 8% pay raise per year, no employee contributions to pensions or health insurance)?
They think so because, in NYC's left-wing, pro-union environment, this sort of extortion tends to pay off. From the Wall Street Journal:
Founded in 1934 originally to represent workers in the private sector, the TWU was one of the radical unions that formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations. An early president, Mike Quill, was a member of the Communist Party who reveled in his nickname, "Red Mike." Though Quill quit the party when it refused to back an early transit fare increase (on the grounds that it would hurt the working class), he remained a militant power for decades, especially after New York Mayor Robert Wagner misguidedly signed an executive order giving public employees the right to organize and bargain collectively in 1958. Quill began a predictable cycle: Every few years, during the critical Christmas shopping and tourist season, the TWU threatens to shut down New York if officials don't acquiesce to its demands.
The union first struck on New Year's Day, 1966, John Lindsay's first day as mayor, demanding a 30% wage hike, a four-day, 32-hour work week and retirement after 25 years service. Workers stayed out for 13 contentious days, and though public opinion mostly opposed the strike, in the end the union won a rich settlement, estimated at some $70 million (about $400 million in today's dollars), or twice what city negotiators had originally offered. In 1980, with the city still recovering from the fiscal crisis of the late 1970s, the union struck again, this time for 11 days, and when a judge imposed fines on workers, they simply upped their demands to cover the costs, winning 18% wage increases over two years.
The pay these low-skilled transit workers receive is already outlandish, which is why there are 30 applicants for every job opening. Average pay is $40,000 (plus extremely generous benefits) for cleaning subway cars, a job requiring no more skill than shopping cart wrangling. Nothing could be easier than replacing them on reasonable terms. If Reagan could fire the highly skilled air traffic controllers in 1981, what — other than engrained moonbattery — prevents TWU members from being canned for sabotaging their own city with this illegal strike?
Mayor Bloomberg has been filling the air with appropriate rhetoric, using words like shameful, thuggish, selfish, and unconscionable to describe the TWU. Let's see if he can back it up with some action. This crisis could actually be a great opportunity for the city, allowing it to put an end to the transit union shakedown cycle.
New York needs to strike a blow against moonbattery by firing the bums immediately.
Posted by Van Helsing at December 21, 2005 9:01 AM
Comments
VanHelsing for Mayor!
Posted by: Harry at December 21, 2005 9:47 AM
"Average pay is $40,000 (plus extremely generous benefits) for cleaning subway cars, a job requiring no more skill than shopping cart wrangling."
Yeah, and people are really living it up on $40K in New York City, aren't they?
Posted by: Blunderford at December 21, 2005 10:23 AM
Blunderford, not long ago I was getting by in Manhattan on less than a third of that, with no benefits whatsoever, doing work that involved much more skill than anything having to do with the TWU. The greed of these people is absolutely over the top, matched only by the idiocy of anyone who sympathizes with them.
Posted by: Van Helsing at December 21, 2005 11:19 AM
Failed to mention they're also demanding anti-terrorist training -- one of the big sticking points of the strike.
Musn't have those subway workers trained in how to deal with terrorists, must we? It's not like terrorists will ever attack New York.
Better to spend the money in North Dakota. Al Qaeda may try to blow up a cow.
Posted by: Ronald Reagan at December 21, 2005 11:58 AM
At 8% per year, they are demanding more than twice the average salary increase that employees in the private sector get.
And since Junior brings it up, how much do you wanna bet that some union leader has a brother or a cousin who just happens to be in the Anti-Terrorism Training biz?
Posted by: V the K at December 21, 2005 12:30 PM
Junior also fails to mention that the unions are striking because they want to write into their contract a limit on the number of disciplinary actions that can be taken against its members for misconduct.
It's kind of a three stikes law from the Bizarro world. Once you've amassed a certain number of offenses, they can't discipline you any more.
Posted by: V the K at December 21, 2005 2:52 PM
Unions are an organized crime extortion racket.
The Union leader doesnt even sound like an American - he sounds like he just came from some country like Rwanda. Are they going to break out the machetes next?
Public employee unions should never be allowed to strike - they should be fired immediately then the ones who want to work can come back as non union employees.
RICO should be applied to these guys in NYC - I dont live there but this could happen anywhere.
Unions are a menace. Do they really think New Yorkers are going to sympathize with them as they walk several miles to and from work every day in the freezing cold? If anything this will open up the eyes of the average New Yorker so they will see that unions are nothing but bad news.
Posted by: General Jack D. Ripper at December 21, 2005 10:21 PM
"runaway greed" excellent turn of phrase when we're talking about trains...
Oh, and I had a grand time in NYC for a tiny fraction of $40k...
Posted by: Mike's America at December 23, 2005 2:26 AM
