Yeah, that is good money for the positions involved. I'd say 65k is roughly the same as 50k here... and I can bet ya that metro drivers here don't make anywhere near 50k a year.
I support these strikers demands. If the subway is ran for profit, it should benefit the gears that enable the machine to make money.
Most of those guys live in the outerboroughs. trust me, 65k is good eough for a decent middle class living. My parents raised the 4 of us on 40k a year combined and they spoke no English, and were able to buy a house on top of that. It all depends on how you spend your money. Yes the only toy I received when I was a kid was a Transformers Bumblebee action figure, but for those sacrifices, we were able to buy a house in a very good neighborhood. Maybe some people can lay off buying that XBox360 for their kid.
Businesses cannot just consider a year in isolation, they must consider the future. They're projecting a deficit of $1 B in 2009. Not only would it be an undoable agreement for management, if they decided to...would the 'gears' be willing to cover the deficit with their own funds when the deficit hits? I didn't think so. Unions can be helpful at times and they can also suck. This one sucks. Bring in market forces and let people who want those jobs take them ASAP.
This is one time that most of libs, moderates and conservatives agrees on something, we should celebrate!
Honestly, the President should be stepping in. This strike is pathetically short-sighted, greedy, and damaging. Evan
It's one thing when you're working for pennies, 16 hours a day in dangerous conditions in a meat packing plant to need a union to fight for the worker, but TWU is completely out of control. Basically you have a group of unskilled workers who are holding a city hostage due to selfish, unreasonable demands. I think that MTA should immediately seek out replacement workers. I'm sure that there's plenty of Bangladeshi cab drivers that would love to try their hand at driving buses or operating a subway car.
the only thing I was gonna say in favor of the strikers that I think Metro Drivers make pretty good money. I wouldn't be surprised if it was close to $50K a year.
Can't he use an executive order to have them go back to worK? And didn't Jack Kennedy do the same thing with the steel workers back in the early '60's?
Great business opportunity: The people at Segway should drop their price to $3500 and sell them on the street to the bazillion people who are having to walk home. Giving 'em payment plans would sweeten the deal even more.
Could also include his pee-drinking machine to sweeten the deal. http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/healthscience/atoz/article_890581.php
Too cold for these The temperature was only in 20s in the morning. I had to walk around 30 mins to downtown to work. Yet I already felt lucky because I managed to find a dollar van driving from Queens to the city. This sh*t can't continue!
havent read the entire thread yet... I have been hitching rides to work with my boss from New Jersey, he drives over the GW bridge( after the HOV restriction hours) and scoops me up in Washington Heights, then we head down to the UWS... so its not affecting me as bad as others... the problem is I have to fly out of LaGuardia on Friday and I am majorly stressing out how to get there. I just cant afford cabfare right now, I do have a morning job near Penn Station that I have taken off from on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I will probably miss Thursday as well... I supported the TWU for about an hour after the strike began, then I thought about my own salary and the fact that I have to pay for some of my benefits, and how this is crippling the city during the worst possible week of the holiday season... they really are screwing over the common man, all 7 million of them per day...
okay, nobody has mentioned the BILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS that the MTA literally found underneath the cushions... oh, look, a billion dollars, where did that come from? they gave the riders a "holiday fare bonus" that was a bunch of baloney- dollars off on weekends during the months of November through January and a 30 day Metrocard is extended by 4 days... the TWU got nothing out of the deal and conveniently the deadline for a new contract was right around the corner... meanwhile, my $76 Metrocard with 4 extra days on it aint worth jack when the subways arent running...
from what salary.com says 100k in houston equals over 250k in new york. take that into account before lambasting the union. plus the billion dollar surplus should also be considered. but the retirement at 55 is ridiculous.
