Hope the traffic isn’t too bad for Bruno as he flies into the New York area, because City transit employees have walked out, staging the first system-wide strike since 1980:
City subway and bus workers stormed off the job early today, paralyzing the nation’s busiest transit system and leaving millions of commuters in an abyss of uncertainty just five days before Christmas.
Unable to reach an agreement after days of contentious talks centering around wages and pensions, more than 33,000 transit workers waged an illegal walkout that will cost them — and the city — untold millions.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 even defied its own parent union, whose leader urged them to go back to the table amid apparent progress in talks.
“Shut everything down, then talk,” TWU Local President Roger Toussaint declared to the cheers of his executive board in a closed-door meeting shortly before 2:30 a.m.
“We’re on strike, brother!” said a union rep who showed up at an East Harlem bus depot this morning with a bullhorn and picket signs.
Only in New York do employees — who make upwards of $50,000 — strike after getting pay raises above inflation in each year of their contract, and an extra paid holiday:
Sources said last night that the MTA has offered a three-year contract with raises of 3%, 4%, and 3 1/2%.
The MTA also was willing to back off changing the pension age for new employees - but called for the new hires to contribute 6% of their salaries toward retirement funds for their first 10 years on the job.
In addition, management offered to add Martin Luther King Day to the list of union holidays.
The question is whether anyone will feel sympathy for transit workers. So far, it’s unclear they feel anything today, on a morning in which temperatures dipped into the low 20s:
At the corner of Cedar and Nassau Streets in the downtown financial district, Christian Kerr, 28, a foreign currency analyst, was assessing his options for getting to his office adjacent to Grand Central Terminal in midtown.
“I don’t know how I’m going to get to work, honestly,” he said. He thought he might take one of the ferries to the 30’s and walk.
“It’s a pain in the neck,” he said. “I’m very anti-union, especially this time of year. It’s ridiculous. If you look what they’re asking for, that’s 50 years ago. Pensions don’t work like that anymore. I’d kill for what they’re asking for.”
(P.S. Where’s the title to this post from? Ask her.)
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Now Playing: Episode 360
Biden and Palin square off while international intrigue heats up in Africa and the Middle East.
Links Mentioned: Africom … Frank Rich on Palin …
Theres a Manhattan Beach restaurant called Panchos here in LA that sells a shot of tequila billed as “the most expensive shot of tequila in the world.” Upon questioning the bartender on how much of it they sell he says “about a bottle every 2 weeks, people take it to celebrate, on a dare, and to look like big shots.”
Mind you that Manhattan Beach, CA is super high crust and the game of who’s got the most toys and money is at pro league level. Not terribly surprising that this unassuming mexican restaurant goes throw this stuff so quickly. That alone is a bit sickening.