![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The strike
Dec. 21st, 2005 10:30 amSo far the strike has barely affected me. I live within walking distance of work (in fact I walk every day to work), as well as all the other locations I need to get to this week: Madison Square Garden/Penn Station, grocery store, etc. If anything I've had a net gain from the strike, since I worked yesterday for someone who lives in Bay Ridge (!!--there's no way she's getting in, Bay Ridge is at the end of the world. Even on the train it takes an hour to get in). I have been monitoring coverage on NY1--they're reporting lots of anecdotes about people reacting to the situation, but so far it seems there has been no scientific poll on how many commuters/average New Yorkers support the strike (or at least the strikers). I am very curious--it seems there's more support than I would've thought, but it's hard to tell. Ryan and I were talking about it last night at the hockey game--he feels as I do, that the terrible level of service that many MTA workers give erodes much sympathy we might otherwise feel for a union worker. He told one horror story of waiting on the platform for 45 minutes while workers puttered along the rails and manned the booth and the platform filled up with people. Finally someone yelled down to the workers on the rails where the train was. The guy replied there was no service along that line. Ryan was pissed all over again telling the story--the workers saw the platform filling up with people, the booth workers saw all those people go past the turnstile, and no one said anything. For 45 minutes. And the TWU wants to reduce employee disciplinary actions? How about reducing the need for disciplinary actions, Roger? How about demanding a higher quality of service from your workers so the MTA doesn't have to go after them, in response to the flood of complaints they get from riders? I noticed after the TWU was meeting with skepticism about some of their pension and benefit demands from workers who don't get compensated nearly as well--so then they started talking about "it's not about that, it's about respect." Oh bullshit. That's just an attempt to cloud the issue, because it's more difficult to quantify "respect" than benefits or pay. How about treating the riders with respect? One time I was on the platform for over 20 minutes at 1 am--the train still hadn't arrived, so I went to the booth which backed up to the platform. I tried to wave to the booth worker so she'd turn around and she ignored me. I then tapped on the plastic and she snarled "Don't do that. Come around." I told her I didn't want to exit the system and have to pay again and she sighed rudely and said "I'll let you back in." Don't fucking sigh and roll your eyes at me like it's a pain in the ass to answer my questions. And if you don't want people tapping on the glass, either keep an eye out for them or face the other way. Jesus! You are there to help people!
And you know what--I've worked service jobs too, and it's not easy. There are some real assholes out there and I know that. But when I worked those jobs, I didn't get paid even half as well as the transit workers. I certainly never got a pension or benefits from all the promos I've done, from working at Burger King and Baskin Robbins and Dart Drug and Talbot's when I was a teenager. See, that's the tradeoff--yes, it's not an easy job but you're getting paid pretty damn well, enough that you can be polite when a customer wants to ask you something.
The MTA sucks too, though--I am a little worried that the strike will engender undeserved support for them. I think they've run the system so poorly in the past 4 years or so, with insane jumps in the fares ($1.50 to $2? A 33% jump? Maddening) and a lot of poor decisions. And of course I think the holiday fare reduction is a terrible idea--way to give back to the tourists instead of the commuters! Last summer when I was rehearsing for Midsummer, I had to take the train up to the lower Bronx frequently--the commute was AWFUL. I used to arrive at Saturday rehearsals in tears because I would be so late because of unannounced service changes, and trains that were unexpectedly local instead of express. In fact the very last day of the run the train service just stopped at the end of Manhattan and we had to take a shuttle bus to my stop--an extremely crowded shuttle absolutely jam-packed with people. Naturally this added a good half-hour or more to the commute. AWFUL. I hate the MTA.
And you know what--I've worked service jobs too, and it's not easy. There are some real assholes out there and I know that. But when I worked those jobs, I didn't get paid even half as well as the transit workers. I certainly never got a pension or benefits from all the promos I've done, from working at Burger King and Baskin Robbins and Dart Drug and Talbot's when I was a teenager. See, that's the tradeoff--yes, it's not an easy job but you're getting paid pretty damn well, enough that you can be polite when a customer wants to ask you something.
The MTA sucks too, though--I am a little worried that the strike will engender undeserved support for them. I think they've run the system so poorly in the past 4 years or so, with insane jumps in the fares ($1.50 to $2? A 33% jump? Maddening) and a lot of poor decisions. And of course I think the holiday fare reduction is a terrible idea--way to give back to the tourists instead of the commuters! Last summer when I was rehearsing for Midsummer, I had to take the train up to the lower Bronx frequently--the commute was AWFUL. I used to arrive at Saturday rehearsals in tears because I would be so late because of unannounced service changes, and trains that were unexpectedly local instead of express. In fact the very last day of the run the train service just stopped at the end of Manhattan and we had to take a shuttle bus to my stop--an extremely crowded shuttle absolutely jam-packed with people. Naturally this added a good half-hour or more to the commute. AWFUL. I hate the MTA.
