Stand Clear of the Closing Minds, Please.

Next time, it will be you.

New York City, indeed, the world, is witnessing the continued devaluation and erosion of human rights. We watch as the cost of living skyrockets, while salaries remain static, jobs outsourced overseas, pensions snatched away. Thankfully we have witnessed courageous people with enough nerve to actually stand up for themselves and say no. We watch as people picketed in freezing temperatures, who lost two days' salary for each day of striking, not to mention the astronomical fines. We were the people who walked to work, cabbed it, carpooled, skated. Some couldn't make the trip, some paid heavily to get where they needed to be. Hourly wageworkers were often at the worst end of it, living miles away from where they attempt to make a living. City merchants cried foul, and you know some of them are gearing up lawsuits (*As I write this, the news just announced that some restaurant just filed a lawsuit against the MTA, the TWU, et al., for $25,000 for each day.) We all watched, critiqued, but mostly we complained.

"They make $60,000. What are they complaining about?" Fact: Less than 10% of TWU members make $60,000 a year. Most people make considerably less. And no, they do not sit there and simply push buttons all day long. These people are trained professionals.

I think that it is easier to devalue another's struggle by demeaning what they do, largely out of apathy and ignorance, but mostly out of extreme selfishness. In this way, you never have to think about what actually happens. Truth becomes meaningless in this climate because its fucking Christmas and one has to shop. I heard a woman say that the strike was bad for the city's economy. What's bad for the city is how its citizens are being abused--legally--by the local, state and national governments.

"I have to get to work. This is an inconvenience."
Fact: So is having your rights and pension attacked after putting in, say, 10, 20, maybe 30 years of your life into a job. No, actually, it is a crime. History has shown us that unions are becoming progressively weaker, and the government, at all levels, has but all knocked out all its teeth. For example, there should have never been a Taylor Law, ever. Enacted in 1967, this law prohibits city workers from striking. In the face of no support from the International Transit Workers Union, the local chapter bravely decided to strike. Why?

To inconvenience New Yorkers? You would think so if you believe dumb-assed Bloomberg and Pataki, and unfortunately, the lap dog media. Thugs. Criminals. Cowardly. Shameful. These words were used to describe the union workers, but they are more appropriate for Bloomberg, Pataki, and the media. Just about every report I read or watched depicted the transit workers negatively. New York media, despite its image as "liberal" and occasionally "left" really dropped the ball on this one. The media had little next to nothing to say about this strike except to say, “look at what these working class people has the nerve to do, give a fuck about their futures.”

NY1's morning anchor went through the morning papers, as usual. 90% of the articles and ed/op pieces featured in the NYT, Daily News, Newsday, and the New York Post focused on how the TWU fucked up, that union leader Roger Toussaint was ego-tripping, and that the strike itself caused all kinds of chaos in the city. The remaining ten percent lamely announced "nobody wins." That's actually closer to the truth. But let me be clear: I could give two fucks about big business losing business during the holiday. The city's economy should be the least of anyone's worries.

NY1 had also asked people who they blame. Interestingly enough most queried were not blaming anyone. All the folks I saw looked battle weary.

I am however pleased that Bloomberg and Pataki were shown for the idiot puppets they are, and that the MTA has been exposed and shamed for the rotten way they treat their workers. And most of all, New Yorkers have annoyed me. Very much so.

I heard more people talk about Christmas fucking shopping than actually considering or thinking about why the transit workers decided to strike. The media, again, was instrumental in building the image that people just didn't care about the plight of the transit workers. Maybe that was true. I want to believe that people are being sheep about this but really, I was about to bust a cap in somebody's ass if I had to listen to one more troglodyte griping about how unfair the transit workers were being. Talk about identifying with your oppressors.

Let's, for moment, talk about the benefits of the strike. First, most people have never had that much exercise in their lives. While New York is no where near fat and as unhealthy as, say, the whole Midwest, we could occasionally put the damn donut down and pick up a barbell.

Also: I am glad the TWU went on strike. Whenever drama goes down in New York, people show their true colors, and feel comfortable in being as dumb as they want to be, for example: I heard this statement and similar ones like it spewing out of the mouths of several people in the last three days: "Transit workers should think about what they are doing to the city!"

Hmmm.

What about what the MTA is doing to the city? They spent a fucking surplus in two blinks. What are they doing to the city? When the mayor calls a union leader a divisive thug. Exactly how does this type of talk benefit anyone but the city and the MTA, who, I repeat, mismanaged their surplus? Quite the calculated leader, aren’t you, Bloomberg?

What people fail to see is that next time they might, well, fuck it, will find themselves in very same position, being treated unfairly, underpaid, and abused by their employers with or without the benefit of a union to champion their rights.

NY1 just broadcast a poll breaking how NYers felt: blacks and Latinos blame the MTA; whites blame the TWU.

Surprise.

Thursday, December 22, 2005 @ 09:47 PM