A Fed judge has ordered MTA workers to pay a Miliion a day for every day that they strike…So I could see how subways and buses are essetial in NYC but what about other smaller citys like Phoenix AZ or Akron OH that have marginal Systems? As Far as Garbage Collection in many places it is done by private cobtrators or people take there own tra***o the dump in rural areas.
Is Public Transportation as essential as trash collection and police protection?
The anti-strike law in NY is only in NY, it came about as the result of a parallising strike back in the 60’s, it didnt stop the last MTA walkout several years ago and that one lasted for something like 25 days in defiance of this law!
Out here we had our own bus strike a couple years ago that lasted for several weeks, it was a huge incomvenience but people adapted quickly and found other ways to do their business, so the effect of the strike wasnt as bad as the strikers hoped it would be, hence negotiations dragged on, I could see this being the case in NYC. Its been a cold but snowless winter so far, and if this continues, the people thier will adapt also if the strike drags on.
In New York, the answer is certainly yes, as it is in a number of other major cities of the world.
The question as to whether or not strikes against the general public, such as this one, should be legal is an extremely complicated one, and involves many many different aspects. The situation is rather different from that involving industrial action against an industry; in that situation, there is usually at least one alternative available to the general public for the services provided by that industry. However, in situations which involve an essential service (e.g. transit, water supply, police protection, fire protection, etc.) and which are a monopoly (as is the case for most government agencies or transit districts etc.) the strike, while ostensibly directed at the agency or what have you, in fact is a direct action against the general public; the citizens.
This is not a trivial distinction, and needs to be considered very carefully before forming opinions about such strikes.
Public transit is as vital to NYC as highways are to Atlanta. There is no way to add enough capacity to the road structure in NYC at any kind reasonable price to do what the subways do. Neither could you build transit to cover all the O/D pairs of highway travellers in reasonable fashion at any kind of reasonable price in Atlanta.
That would be quite inconceivable for a city like New York – that is people taking their tra***o a dump outside the city.
Apparently not, at least in the short term. Certainly economic activity is taking a hit, but most everyone seems to be getting along despite the inconvenience. If you’re from out of town, using a combination of the LIRR, PATH (from NJ), and MetroNorth you can get within a few miles of anywhere in Manhattan and then take a taxi. The key is that there are workarounds. Look at the positive side – all those fat Americans getting exercise and working off excess pounds. Trash collection in NYC is mostly by private cartage. Police, of course, are a core service of government.
Here’s the weird part. Looking out the window, Second Ave. is jammed with traffic, yet it’s eerily quiet. Usually you can’t count to 10 without hearing the blast of a horn. The only thing missing is the buses or maybe drivers are just resigned to sitting in traffic.
I guess one of the main reasons why NY has an anti - strike law is because back in the day when many workers were present and on demand, espeacilly imigrant works, many strikes used to result, thus hurt production and the economy in New York. I guess there were also many unions in NY because, NY was the center of American industry back in what I like to call the “Imigrent Worker Days”. Interesting, to me the anti - strike law seems a bit unjust.
Does this anti-strike law have a provision to force the sides into binding arbitration? There needs to be a penalty to both sides for failure to reach an agreement.
The Taylor Law (1967) only applies to public service unions, not to the private sector.
Not that I can see. If there’s arbitration both sides must voluntarily submit. Beyond that the Taylor Law seems to be mostly about prohibitions and sanctions.
http://www.perb.state.ny.us/stat.asp
AFAIK, notions of fairness and balance have little to do with the drafting of laws. Mostly the drafting of laws are driven by group or personal interests.
Public Transit used to be run by private for profit companys in most citys…
Now it is just the oppisite.
The disiction that the Subway is transit and not a railroad means that the President cant step in and stop the strike…
If NJ transit commuter rail went on strike the strike probaly have been stopped in 24 hours by presidential order…
Sigh![|)][|)] Maybe New York City is just not that important anymore…Like Railroads…
I mean when was the last time you saw a movie filmed in New York City?
Just a little reminder . . . . . . . takes your meds. We wouldn’t want you to forget now would we! ! !
TerminalTower,
New York City is one of the U.S’s most important economic centers. When the New York Stock exchange “sneezes” global businesses are affected! BTW: Law and Order, King of Queens and other tv shows, though filmed in Hollywood, are themed in New York City. Spiderman was a smash hit, again the theme being New York City. Filming there today is not as practical, when Hollywood studios can recreate the scenery in studios.
Anyway, this strike has zero to do with New York’s importance. It’s about the disagreement between labor and management groups.
Even in smaller cities - public transit is essential to many groups of people. We cannot address the oil import issue without including public transit. In fact, as I look at the situation, a garbage strike actually will have a smaller economic impact than a transit strike.
While I recognize that the striking transit workers have some significant issues - these issue do not excuse breaking the law.
dd
Well…
Today on December 23rd the strike ended.
Rather take the subway than walk.
Well, “that’s a deep subject!”
C U ALL L8TER!!!
[:)][8D][:D][:O][8)][|)][:P][;)][alien][X-)][%-)][(-D][swg][{(-_-)}]
Just imangine how many people lost over 15 to 25 pounds that those 2 days of walking.
Since more than 89% of Americans are too FAT and over weight I think that the strike should have continued. What does the News media say about FAT Americans nowadays? Allan.
I’m curious and would like more info on the strike.
A “talk radio” host commented that the transit workers were upset that they now had to pay part of the cost for medical insurance and that they were demanding an 8% to 10% raise. So it seems that the workers look like the bad guys as so many of us today that have employee health benefits have to foot a portion of the costs…
Af first, I wanted to “boo” the workers then I remembered my days at the transit company I worked at for 15 years. The management (and media) were notorious for grossly twisting facts about contract negotiations. I was a union rep myself. Over the years our raises, after contract negotiations, averaged between 2% and 3%. One year, we did receive 5% over a 2 year period, and we were celebrating! The one thing the media left out was that our workers bent over backwards to cut down on waste and inefficiency…something that our managment team did not seem to practice. We easily saved the authority several hundred thousand dollars a year in fuel and fleet maintenance repair costs.
I’m not excusing the New York City MTA union for the walkout as it had to be devastating for “well to do” and poor citizens alike. However, let’s get all of the facts before making a “sledge hammer” analysis.
As for the federal judge with the "$1,000,000 per day fine…he must knows fully well that he’s wasting oxygen. The union will likely pay a hefty fine, but not in that amount.
Most unions now adays are corrupted and ruining the US economy, thus the strict laws against them.
They want higher pay, usually twice what the national average is for someone in their position. they want to pay less for their insurance and retirement programs, but get large sums and services from them. they Hike up the cost of what they produce to the point that companies are outsourcing to cheaper labor overseas just to offeset the cost of their saleries.
Unions once had a place in our society, but now all they do is whine and drive the costs up of what we purchase. personally I think that judge was a bit easy on those strikers, i would have fined each striker 2 days pay a day till they went back to work, disolved the union and fined it $5 million on top of the $1 million a day.
Dover, Delaware has a population of less than 40k and we have a no-strike clause in our union contract (ATU). That’s fine with me as I believe a strike mostly punishes those who depend on us the most. A goodly portion of those using public transit here are those with various disabilities that prevent them from driving a car. Then there are those who occasionally ride because their car is in the shop. Plus there are those who just cannot afford a car.
We definitely have an increase in ridership this year, which I think was a direct result of the rise in price of gasoline.
I’ve been told countless times by passengers how thankful they are for public transportation.[:)]