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The strike sucks. TWU Local 234's entering the fourth day of their strike, and Philadelphia, without city bus, subway, and trolley service, is moving at a snail's pace. SEPTA, Mayor Nutter, Gov. Rendell, and Rep. Brady are all trying to move things forward and negotiate with the union as quickly as possible, but the bargaining parties are stuck on pensions.
Wait - Pensions? People still receive pensions?
The worst thing about the strike is definitely the inability to get around in Philadelphia. I'll have to drive my girlfriend through hellish traffic to get her to her job in a moment. The second worst thing about the strike is the near universal kneejerk reaction against the union. Comments about the strike on local websites have damned the TWU with vitriolic condemnation from a number of perspectives, most of which come from people with the most ignorant background on unions imaginable:
(from various comments on facebook and philly.com)
dear septa workers: welcome to the land of the living, where benefits cost money and yearly increases are modest. your collective ignorance and greed is truly breathtaking.
Screw Septa, somebody needs to start a private transportation firm, have reasonable rates, better service, and kick septa in the face
Let them stay out till their families starve. Enough of SEPTA and the City and State caving in to these incompetent, rude and frequently unwashed and stinking pieces of garbage. As for the contract offer from SEPTA that is dependent on some six million in funding from the State - taxpayer money - NO, NO, NO! Let SEPTA pay its own way and let the unions live with that.
The people with these attitudes infuriate me more than the strike does, and here are a couple of reasons why:
1.) The "how DARE the union fight for its benefits?" stance that these commenters take. I don't understand why you wouldn't support a union fighting to maintain its benefits. While the vast majority of workers have complacently watched their pensions turn into 401(k)s (one of many Ponzi schemes implemented by Wall Street in recent times) and complacently watched their employer-based healthcare plans pinch their wallets more and more each year, unions have done what they could to fight for their benefits, and fight for more and more people to start earning benefits. Unions strongly support the healthcare reforms being debated in Congress right now - reforms that may reduce workers' healthcare costs! How is it a bad thing for a union to fight for this?
2.) The ludicrous notion that a private company would run a transportation company better than SEPTA. Contrary to that wild assumption, the privatization of, for example, roads, causes tolls on highways to dramatically increase. Private companies providing essential services are outrageously corrupt - do I need to point further than Enron to prove my point? Other private companies providing utterly incompetent and illegal services for extortionate prices include our buddies in the military, such as KBR/Haliburton and Blackwater/Xe.
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I believe that the strike is an indefensible move on the unions' part, and the near-universal condemnation of the union for going on the strike obviously hasn't won them any friends. But what should a union do in this situation? What should SEPTA/the government do?
I spoke with a worker from Philadelphia's City Planning Commission - he explained that the Regional Rail system is still running because their unions' contract states that their union cannot legally strike, as they provide an essential service. Seeing as SEPTA's bus, subway, and trolley divisions carry far more passengers than Regional Rail does, I believe that the government should force TWU 234 to accept a "no-strike" clause in their new contract. But, then, how does TWU create leverage for the next contract? How does the Regional Railworkers' union do so when they have contract negotiations with SEPTA? These are the questions I wish I had answers for.
Thanks for listening - I'm starting to get the idea that my opinion is extremely controversial, and I'd like to know what you think.
2 comments:
Mr Wilson: I was refreshed to read your sympathetic analysis of the TWU strike, but surprised by your conclusion, which I summarize as "unions should fight to keep things all working people ought to have, like true retirement security and affordable health care, they just shouldn't be allowed to incomvenience the rest of us to do so."
TWU has struck in the past and people weren't nearly so bent out of shape. Two things account for this, IMO: economic hard times have most people wondering if they'll be employed nexy week, making it hard to feel sympathetic toward relatively secure workers' demands for better pay and benefits. second, and more important, in my view, is that TWU's leaders failed to articulate its efforts in a way that connected with the public. In 2005 when TWU struck, everyone knew that the union was fighting for dedicated funding for SEPTA as well as protection of employee health benefits. The union articulated a message that said, in essence, "we care about the riding public AND our members." And the union forced Rendell and the suburban-dominated SEPTA board to figure it out. Current TWU leadership focused far too heavily on the narrow interests of their members.
My two cents... Thanks for your thoughts. Jeff Hornstein, Queen Village resident and union member.
Jeff,
Not sure if you'll see my response, but, thanks so much for reading and responding to my blog - it's good to know that the blog is not just out hanging in the ether!
I would say that my conclusion of this post was more open-ended - I still believe that, like the railroad division, bus&subway service should be considered essential, and the TWU should not be allowed to strike. But, what's their leverage, then, when they choose to fight for a raise and benefits? That's just another reason why the strike was such a tough subject.
By the way, thank you for the history lesson regarding the 2005 strike. At that time I was a student at Philly U. up in East Falls, and took trains, not the El, so I didn't worry about the strike too much. The TWU should have articulated their concerns more clearly this time, like they did then.
Thanks again for reading.
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