Wednesday, December 21, 2005
A Union Loses Its Base
David, A hard-core Democrat (whose worked on campaigns) told me last night that he respected the principle the Transport Workers Union Local 100 was trying to uphold: "The union is fearful that if they give up on the pension issue [creating different contribution levels for newer workers] it changes the basic dynamic of "us" [united workers] against "them" [management]. The leadership might fear that, years down the road, as the workers who come in after them take leadership roles, they would be willing to bargain away benefits of the now-retired generation that had given up pension benefits." Despite that observation, he nonetheless concluded, "The transit workers have managed the impossible -- to turn the corrupt MTA (and its president, Peter Kalikow) into victims."
Eowin, another strong pro-labor guy (who can barely stand Republicans) said, "The union screwed this up. The MTA's last offer was a reasonable one they should have worked with."
Some similar anti-TWU comments from friends of the decidedly left-of-center Dawn Summers trouble her mightily.
UPDATE: This is an archive of the comments section from the TWU blog. It was taken down sometime in the late afternoon Tuesday (with probably another couple hundred comments).
Tags: transit strike, MTA
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Eowin, another strong pro-labor guy (who can barely stand Republicans) said, "The union screwed this up. The MTA's last offer was a reasonable one they should have worked with."
Some similar anti-TWU comments from friends of the decidedly left-of-center Dawn Summers trouble her mightily.
UPDATE: This is an archive of the comments section from the TWU blog. It was taken down sometime in the late afternoon Tuesday (with probably another couple hundred comments).
Tags: transit strike, MTA
