Go Back To Work, You Stupid Gavones
That's the unanimous response (except for one guy up from Philly who didn't realize that they get such a cushy deal already) I've had to listen to all day from people across New York state reacting to the illegal New York City transit worker's union strike.

I'm sitting here this morning, after paying $20 get to work by taxi in the teeth of the first New York City Transit strike in 25 years, wondering from which planet these bus and subway workers landed.

To summarize: 7 million New Yorkers who ordinarily get to work by public transportation (or even worse, with five shopping days left until Christmas, those who wanted to go shopping) were left suddenly stranded. That's because the 34,000-strong Transport Workers Union (TWU) decided they wanted a deeper feed trough than any other city union, or indeed than any other unionized worker in any industry I can think of in the country would even hope for these days.

Let's look at what they want--an 8% a year raise, each year for the next three years of their contract. And they want to keep the benefits they have unchanged: retirement at 55 and no contribution to a lavish health plan. That's only the top-line of what has to be one of the most outrageous pay and benefit packages in the nation.

According to the Manhattan Institute, the average bus or subway driver--the most-skilled job in the union by most standards--is already paid $63,000 a year. The person who sits behind the bullet-proof glass in what used to be called a token booth, and who now says for most purchases you have to use the metro-card machines, takes down an average of $51,000. And the least-skilled work, though certainly the dirtiest, is the subway cleaner who clocks in at an average of $40,000.

Compare that with the average New York worker. Take out Wall Street, where mega-bonuses skew the average unfairly, and the average private sector worker earns $49,000. Peel off the college-educated (which you don't need for most transit jobs) and the average income drops to well below $35,000. That includes everyone from a skilled factory worker to the clerk in Bloomingdale's.

They're also upset that they feel "underappreciated" and don't believe that the MTA should be able to discipline them so easily when they break the rules, with one member commenting that "it's really about respect". No, seriously:

At one subway booth, a handwritten sign read, "Strike in Effect. Station Closed. Happy Holidays!!!!" At Penn Station, one of New York City's transit hubs, an announcement over the loudspeaker told people to "please exit the subway system."

Huge lines formed at ticket booths for the commuter railroads that stayed in operation, and Manhattan-bound traffic backed up at many bridges and tunnels as police turned away cars with fewer than four people. All the while, transit workers took to the picket lines with signs that read "We Move NY. Respect Us!"

"I think they all should get fired," said Eddie Goncalves, a doorman trying to get home after his overnight shift. He said he expected to spend an extra US$30 (euro25) per day in cab and train fares.

Reporters aren't being allowed inside union headquarters. This was a major topic of discussion at work this morning, and I felt open disgust as a coworker got off the phone and described their demand to keep their ridiciulous retirement age. The MTA apparently wants to raise the retirement age to 62, which is still well below the traditional retirement age of 65. With an average lifespan of 78, the typical American worker can already expect to spend substantially less than 60% of their life committed to any kind of profession, but that's just not good enough for the (in their own eyes) Christ-like chosen few at the TWU.

What the union really seems to want is access to all of the $1 billion surplus the MTA, with its usual tin ear to the nuances of its announcements, disclosed in the late fall. While a small fraction of this will go to some fare incentives over the holidays, most of this "surplus" should go toward debt service--the MTA has more than $22 billion in debt it must pay interest on every year. Indeed, even the reasonable 10.5% pay raise over three years that the MTA proposed--and the TWU rejected--will add at least $200 million a year to the Transit Authority's payroll. Whatever happens, another fare increase is no doubt just around the corner after this strike is settled.

All the MTA wants, on the other hand, is for the TWU to grip a reality that everyone from car salesmen to computer programmers to CEOs now understand. The world has changed. Health care costs for the city's transit workers were expected to jump to $380 million this year--up nearly 50% from the level at the start of the last TWU contract three years ago. At the same time, the MTA's pension obligations have more than tripled to $453 million this year from where they were in 2002. Still, late last night, the MTA backed off of demands to raise the retirement age for new workers and for them to pay 4% more into the pension system than older workers for ten years to keep it afloat. It shouldn't have, but it did.

In fact, most of the people responsible for holding the people of New York City hostage to their ridiculous demands really deserve to be jailed, and that point isn't lost on the courts.

A state judge found New York City's transit workers in criminal contempt for walking off the job Tuesday and ordered the union's Local 100 to pay $1 million each day the strike continues.

Arthur Schwartz, a lawyer for Transit Workers Union Local 100, said the fine is "crippling" and the union will file an appeal immediately. "I think they want to destroy the [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] TWU," Schwartz said.

The fines won't make the union accept the MTA's latest contract offer, Schwartz added. The local has said it had $3.6 million in its accounts at this time last year.

Public-sector strikes are illegal under New York state law and the judge's ruling doesn't resolve other legal actions the city has initiated against the union.

I guess that's money the union won't be donating to the Clinton campaign. Union members are also being fined two days of pay for every day they're on strike, which is probably making some transit workers question the wisdom of compulsory union membership.

Bradley Schiff, an electronics equipment maintainer who started at the MTA in July, said he was plenty cold, too. A Bay Ridge resident, he had to walk from 90th Street, almost 60 blocks, to go to the nearest picket line.

"I know it's hard", he said, commiserating with commuters. Schiff said he's pinning his hopes on an early resolution, so that he can get back to work. After all, he went from the private sector - a job at Federal Express - to the public sector in search of "better job security." And now this. "It's hasn't been my year," he says.

Sad, but by holding the city for ransom, the non-workers of the transit union have made it pretty clear how they really feel about the actual workers of New York City and their duties, against the better judgment of their parent union. It's like wartime.

The morning rush hour did not produce a feared gridlock in midtown Manhattan, partly because of severe traffic restrictions. Only cars with four or more occupants were allowed to enter the heart of the city between 5 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, with the temperature at 24 degrees and the winds swirling, led an army of Brooklynites across the Brooklyn Bridge and into Manhattan early Tuesday. The mayor, who walked across from the city's emergency operations bunker, was followed by commuters on scooters, roller skates and bicycles.

Throughout midtown and lower Manhattan, workers queued up in the cold to await company-run buses that replaced the idled city subways and buses, or generously shared yellow cabs that became the most popular vehicles in town. There was a flat $10 fee for cab riders.

The TWU "shamefully decided they don't care about the people they work for, and they have no respect for the law," said Bloomberg, his tone particularly strident. "Their leadership thuggishly turned its back on New York City. This strike is costing us."

It was costing Jack Akameiza, 66, a day's pay. He was trying to get from Manhattan to Coney Island - typically the last stop on the D train from his home in the Bronx. He made it as far as Grand Central Terminal, where he was trying to find a carpool.

"I cannot go to work," he said. "I cannot take care of my family."

This isn't France, and if you don't like your job, you don't sabotage society over it, you go look for a better job. If you can't find a better one, that's a sign that your complaint may be entirely unreasonable.

I'll say this: I'm pretty sure there are 34,000 people in this country who would love to come replace these apes and enjoy their outrageous salaries, pensions and benefits. Fire those who don't return to work and give them a free bus ticket out of town as a severence package.

Union workers chanted into megaphones, screaming "34,000 cannot be wrong!"

Yes, they can.

Update: The New York City Transit Worker's Union has an unofficial blog.

The Local 100 Executive Board has voted overwhelmingly to strike all MTA properties effective immediately. All Local 100 representatives and shop stewards are directed to report to their assigned strike locations, picket lines, or facilities nearest you, immediately. To our riders, we ask for your understanding and forbearance. We stood with you to keep token booths open, to keep conductors on the train, and to oppose fare hikes. We now ask that you stand with us. We did not want a strike; the MTA, the governor and the mayor did. We call on the good will of New Yorkers, the labor community, and all working people, to recognize that our fight is their fight, and to rally in our support -- to show the MTA that the TWU does not stand alone.

New Yorkers respond:

[S]econdly, if i could meet the masterminds behind this strike, i'd personally spit in each of their faces. I know fifty people at my campus who now cannot return to their families for the holiday season, and are being forced to spend their break in a hotel off campus until the transit system is running again. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves doing something this stupid this time of the year. Every single worker participating in the strike is extremely selfish and short sighted.

-----

You guys really have a lot of balls. All you do is drive around in circles. Your job isn't hard at all. You get paid as much as cops and firemen, while much more as teachers. Something is wrong. You're asking for way too much here.

-----

Everybody will know in a few hours what you actually make. And what you make is a lot comparing to majority of New Yorkers. Your strike is hurting financially the people with daily wages, people who usually have no medical insurance, no pension plans, who usually have to take mass transit because they don't make enough money to afford anything else (and who definitely make less then TWU workers). Luckily, some of them are making your sandwiches. So, I am hoping the TWU strikers will find some spit in theirs and some piss in the beer they drink between picketing duty.

-----

Only in America can an immigrant from Haiti, one of the most depressed countries in the world, come to this country become the head of a powerful union - and then shut down the city because he thinks he knows best how to run this country. Your union is playing with the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. You agreed to not strike when you became MTA employees. You are criminals - if you are that dissatisfied, get another job. Oops, no you can't because where else are you going to get paid as much for doing nothing?

-----

There will be actual casualties as a result of the unions called strike from: unavailable medical treatment, weather, etc)...You have only hurt your fellow New Yorkers with this strike, mostly in our pockets. Do not expect any sympathy when you can not pay your fines.

-----

You suck.

Another fan laid out his Christmas wish "that [Union President] Roger Toussaint gets syphilis and dies". Someone else posted Toussaint's home address. Numerous calls for an immediate firing of the entire TWU membership and immediate replacement with entirely computerized trains. Comments have now been disabled, but are preserved for posterity over at Dartblog. It must be lonely in the Ivory Tower.