Report: Wife Scratched Tiger Woods' Face, Chased His SUV; Update: Police Unable To Interview Couple Today
GMA: Adam Lambert, No; Chris Brown, Yes
Street Artist Proposes on Subway Signage
Two Doors Fall Off AirTrain At JFK
SLA Raids Bar for Selling Wisconsin Beer
It's Day 2 of the Transit Strike, and New York City's commuters are trying to get back to work, hopefully having learned something from their mistakes yesterday. Like making sure you have four people in a car to enter Manhattan below 96th Street. Or making sure you remembered how to Rollerblade (we saw a couple wipeouts). Or having some pocket change ready to grab another cup of joe from a coffee cart. Newsday has a good, even-handed look at what the strike did yesterday - and what it could mean for today. The story we're most intrigued by, though, is the NY Times' explanation of the MTA's pension demands, namely how the MTA's request for workers to contribute 6% of their salary to pension funds would have only meant an MTA savings of $20 million or less annually. Which is about the amount we think they siphon just by existing. God, we hate the MTA's accounting so much.
Naturally, the tabloids are going crazy - the Post calls the Transport Workers Union rats on the cover and the Daily News has a two-to-one ratios of anti-TWU columns to pro-TWU column (an editorial and Michael Goodwin column are against, Juan Gonzalez is for). The Times has an editorial, calling this an "unneccessary strike." And, sure, Gothamist is weary of this, but we're not wasting time on vitriol - we've got miles to cover. Although if Governor Pataki attempts to run for President, we'll personally print up a 1000 posters with photographs of the transit strike, saying, "Pataki doesn't care about New Yorkers!"
Many news reports cited people (hey, New Yorkers, did you know that you take things in stride? Stride is the word of the day!) who were frustrated but were still going to go into work, but it also seemed like many people would stay home today. What are you doing?
Photograph of commuters outside Penn Station from kerfuffle and zeitgeist on Flickr via Gothamist Contribute - add your photos, comments, and links there!
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
since i'm a freelancer, with no telecommute option, my friend and i left for work from brooklyn this morning at 5am, heading toward 42nd and broadway.
as we were approaching the williamsburg bridge, a cab driver beeping his horn, stopped and asked "want a free ride over the bridge?"
This man was so generous, he wanted to do his part to help by taking as many people as he could over the bridge on his way to his shift.
much to our surprise, he took us to 14th and ave. A.
we tried to tip him, but he refused.
Happy Holiday's New York!
Penn station is more organized this morning. My wife got to work with no problem (I work from home). We're so far out in Queens that I just dropped her off at a station in Nassau with less then a 10 minute drive. Cost more, but she got to work in under 20 minutes. Hope Penn Station is better tonite.
Has the MTA ever opened their books or be publically Audited??
Yesterday it was a challenge. Today it's just a burden.
We picked up two very nice people at a carpool location in Park Slope at 7 AM. I was at my desk in the East Village at 8 AM. It was one of the easiest commutes I've had in a while--but we were lucky to have a car so we could get in.
"Has the MTA ever opened their books or be publically Audited??" - S.D.
Yes, they have their financials audited every year. Their financial report for 2004 is available on the mta's website at:
http://www.mta.info/mta/investor/pdf/2004_annual_report.pdf
Its under investor information on the MTA's homepage. Everyone needs to stop with the concept of two books and that the MTA makes up their numbers.
The two-sets of books is a total myth. There is no way ratings agencies (Fitch, S&P, Moodys) would give the MTA bonds a decent rating if there were really any truth to this. Also, who the hell would invest in these bonds if this was true. There is no conspiracy here, move along.
Unions are a cancer to economics as a whole. Unions drive up the price of labor, and it is not the union members (few in number) that suffer, but the non-unionized workers. This is economics 101. We can use the american auto industry as an example. GM and Ford have reported countless quarters of losses now due mainly to the fact that of inefficiency of labor. That inefficiency is due to unions who feel that they're workers have a right to high wages, huge pensions, and minimum work hours. Hence the american auto industry is on the brink of bankruptcy and it doesn't take a wall street analyst to figure that out. So then, what is the solution? Simple, take unions out of the equation entirely. There isn't a need for them with the government that we now have in place and the labor laws we now enact. Remember that unions were established in a time when there was no regulation of how employers treated their workers. This is not the case anymore. Unionization will eventually erode all american corporations that it seeps into, and we will see an increase in foriegn markets who can produce this same products more efficiently and better.
Send an e-mail to Mike. Tell him that we support him and do not want him to give in to the demands of the TWU. Tell him that he should fire the TWU and hire the thousands of people waiting in line for these transit worker jobs.
I will walk for as long as I have to. I will not be held hostage by Roger Toussaint!
This is the link to e-mail the mayor.
http://www.nyc.gov/portal/index.jsp?epi_menuItemID=bd08ee7c7c1ffec87c4b36d501c789a0&epi_menuID=beb0d8fdaa9e1607a62fa24601c789a0&epi_baseMenuID=27579af732d48f86a62fa24601c789a0&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fmail%2Fhtml%2Fmayor.html
"GM and Ford have reported countless quarters of losses now due mainly to the fact that of inefficiency of labor."?
Really? Not due to Crappy Cars sales?? Who knew. Guess my Really P.O.S. Fords I owned in the 80's and 90's were "Quality Products". Must be the Union's Fault that all 4 sucked...
Say, does Honda Still have their plant in Ohio where my Old Accord was made? Isn't it a Union Shop too?
Between Corporations and Unions, I think Unions are the lesser of the two evils. Corporations are out to make money, nothing more. While that's not a bad thing, Corporations only have "Corporate Responsibility" because it's cheaper than litigation.
Boy's and Girls, Can we say "Offshore out Sourcing"? Like I said, Corporations are out to make money, nothing more.
Tim, I'll read the Anual report.
I'm Curious to see: Does it reflect the "Found" Surplus? And If Not, Does the MTA get a good bond rating due to it's Accounting?
Unfortunatley the offshore outsourcing comment is incorrect. The numbers say something completely different. In the last few years that have been almost double the amount of insourcing to our nation then there has been outsouring. Huge companies like Toyota and Sony, and countless others have been and are increasingly assembling and building there products Stateside. The Camry that your friend or relative owns was most likely assembled in Texas or Ohio. While you are right about corporations being greedy, the fact that more companies are pouring into the United states is more true then the U.S. sending labor abroad. And if you don't think that asking for a full pension at 55 years old for driving a bus or train for a shift a day is greedy, then I think you may need to rethink your definition of the word.
Getting to work isn't so bad, it's getting home that's the problem. The plan for the morning works, but there's no plan at all for the evening.
Greedy? Odd, I don't remember typing "Greedy" into my Keyboard. You Confusing me with someone else?
;-)
Hmmm, Do you work in the I.T. Industry? Can't speak for other industries, but that one has Outsourcing up the Wazoo. Generally, I don't consider Corporations to be greedy per se, just task oriented to making money.
My point is: Honda and Toyota make profits despite dealing with Unions internationally. If they can do it, why is American Business falling on that old excuse? Honestly, it sounds more like propaganda and excuses more than anything else.
I Still think Unions are the lesser of two "evils".
I can't wait until all the trains become automated like other cities. It'll be a massively expensive task but that's a small fee to pay compared to what we are experiencing. Ultimately I hope it breaks the union as well.
Bloomberg should have been more involved from the beginning, instead of hiding out in his bunker.
The fact is, he did not want to get involved because he's scared of the political risk. It is clear that, in this instance, he cares more about his image than he does about the city.
The point of changing the MTA-NYCT pension plan for future employees is not to save money over the life of the current contract, but to start to fix structural financial problems in the budget. Although the initial savings will be limited, they will grow over time as more new employees are hired at the higher pension contribution rate. The fact the Times can't understand or explain this is symptomatic of reporters' general inability to explain complex situations.
The TWU members can retire at age 55 with 25 years of service. How is this any different than cops putting in 20 years of service and retiring at age 40? Or, Sanitation workers and their 25 years of service rule?
Automated trains? for NYC? I think not, unless you like to trust your trains to run on MS Windows.
The TWU members can retire at age 55 with 25 years of service. How is this any different than cops putting in 20 years of service and retiring at age 40? Or, Sanitation workers and their 25 years of service rule?
Automated trains? for NYC? I think not, unless you like to trust your trains to run on MS Windows.
My friend was able to get a ride to Church Ave and Abermarle Rd in Brooklyn, get on a Command bus and there was this other bus running the BMX or something to the WTC Path, then the Path over to her job. A nice 2 hour commute to Jersey City!
yeah, let's get rid of unions. let's go back to the 70 hour work week as the norm. let's get rid of osha, too. let's go back to the good old days when all workers were totally at the mercy of their bosses and those lucky enough to have decent bosses maybe worked in somewaht safe conditions and only had to work 60 hours/week. Unions are not perfect and i would bet that every one of them has some really screwed up people at the top, but all in all, they do improve the lives of their workers over the long run. I cannot stand my union. they suck, BUT, when my non profit laid off %35 of our workforce this last year, all of us union folks were safe-- we could keep paying our bills and taking care of our families, could keep getting our illnesses treated with our health plan--which we don't pay any direct contribution to. No one who works in my company is wealthy--except for management, but thank god for our sucky union we all still have our jobs.
I hate the almost 2 hour walk to my office in the freezing cold. I hate that people who cannot afford it are haivng to pay extra to get to work. But I blame the MTA for that and I support TWU Local 100 and applaud them for not caving.
The TWU members can retire at age 55 with 25 years of service. How is this any different than cops putting in 20 years of service and retiring at age 40? Or, Sanitation workers and their 25 years of service rule?
Cops put themselves on the line for public saftey. Sanitation workers came to an agreement with the city that allowed the city to save millions by reducing new hires.
The transit workers, on the other hand,
* are consistently rude
* don't work as hard as other public employees
* have it much easier than people with their same skill-set (GED) in the private sector
I want them to start laying off workers today. Put their feet to the fire -- and start hiring scabs. This strike has to end.
I want to rip the eyeballs from every transit worker, put a hot skewer inside all of the eye sockets and spit inside of them! FUCK THE TWU!!!!! NEW YORKERS SHOULD UNITE AND STRIKE AGAINST THE TWU! somebody find out who the fuck these people are and let's round up a angry mob to bash the fuck out of these DICKHEADS!!!
"when my non profit laid off %35 of our workforce this last year, all of us union folks were safe - we could keep paying our bills and taking care of our families, could keep getting our illnesses treated with our health plan--which we don't pay any direct contribution to."
That's exactly why unions are CANCER!
Unions do not protect or enrich workers. Unions protect and enrich union heads. Roger Toussaint is a power hungry and corrupt leader of a monopolistic labor organization.
If your skill set is unique you will have a job. If you perform your job at a level high level of service you will have a job.
At the peak in 1954 28.3% of all workers were unionized in 2003 that percentage has fallen to 11.5%. Where is the exploitation of labor? Where are the poor working conditions?
Fire all transit workers. Regan did it to the air traffic controllers in the '80s and we are better for it.
Cindy, hopefully you aren't a freelance writer!
I'd like to see Bloomberg shell out 7M to pay for some emergency buses or give out free bikes. He had no qualms about giving 7M to the "needy" Republicans in 2004.
two sets of books:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/v-pfriendly/story/78918p-72648c.html
how easily we forget...
Anyone have more info about the Command bus or other Brooklyn buses going to Manhattan?
S.D.,
You do realize that most Toyota and Honda plants stateside were non-union shops until recently. Honda's 16,000 Ohio employees were non-union as of 2004 and may still be. Are you less happy with your old car now that you've learned this? UAW has been pushing hard to unionize those plants even though there weren't any complaints from the workers. Honda and Toyota resist unionization because they know union-protected jobs mean lower productivity. Who cares about being efficient when you're going to get a raise no matter what and you can't be fired without going through convoluted union procedures? It's all about power. If UAW lets non-union plants continue to exist, then they call the necessity of their own existence into question.
rev pays,
You undermine your whole argument by taking it to absurd extremes. Windows isn't used to control equipment. Custom-written software is. Other, less hidebound cities have computer-controlled subways and yet we don't hear about mass mayhem underground. One reason we haven't progressed more quickly is, surprise, the TWU. Their mission is to protect the jobs of transit workers, no matter what, thus ensuring they have a full rank and file. That means opposing anything that might reduce jobs, such as automation.
Bloomberg needs to find a way around the Taylor Law, so that he can fire these idiots as soon as possible, just like Reagan did with the air traffic controllers. This strike is illegal and is costing the City about $100 million every day, according to today's AP article. There's probably not even a way to count how much businesses are losing. The TWU is crying that the $1 million per day is too much; I say it's too little. Fine 'em out of business, then if they don't pay, do what the child support enforcement units do. Place liens against their bank accounts, intercept their tax returns, confiscate property, put people in jail.
It's not that I disagree with the TWU in theory. I think everyone should be able to retire at 55, to get guaranteed increases of 4% every year, etc. I also think housing is a human right, that everyone should be guaranteed an income, and that all children under 12 should have the opportunity to get free music lessons. That isn't the world we're living in. The TWU are spending too much time with their fellow union radicals and not enough time in the real world. Get a clue, Toussaint! It's not 1954 anymore.
Hey, read that NYT article more carefully. The pension proposal saves 20 million over the next three years, but the pensions costs get exponentially higher as new workers are added, and until the number of new workers is higher than those under the old plan. The long term effect is in the hundreds of millions, and without addressing it now, we are in for much higher transit fares, and much worse service.