Stefan's Stuff

NY Daily news sums it up perfectly. Since the Union apparently did NOT get the concessions it asked for, What was the purpose behind the strike?

The mediator has the right idea: A total press blackout. I’m sure Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Pataki will have some "I’m Tough" position to take, but I can’t say I really care what they think. I wonder: did we have these problems under the old NYC TA? Currently, the MTA is an "Authority" that apparently does not directly answer to anyone…

In other news:

Have a Merry Christmas one and All! 

The Daily News has it right: At this point, "War of the Words" is exactly what  this is. This is getting seriously ridiculous.

Politicians like Mayor Bloomberg  keeps posturing for even stricter fines and penalties, the Judge in this case is threatening jail time *AND* even Gov. Pataki crawled out and did his "No Talks Till the Strike Ends" bit.

Apparently, the MTA didn’t get the memo as they’ve been negotiating since 1:00am this morning. In the mean time, people and business continue to suffer. As I said before, I think they have the right to strike, but TWU Local 100 made a mistake doing it now. the Anti-Union pundits are having a blast with this strike.

In other news, Jeanine Pirro abandoned her campaign for Senator. Not terribly fond of either her or Hillary Clinton, but you have to feel a little sorry for her. Her campaign started with a whimper and finally ended when her own party screamed for her to drop out.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign adviser Howard Wolfson summed it up best:

"We know at some point the Republicans will sort out this process and choose a nominee."

Ouch.

Not sure why they think she’ll do any better for State Attorney General. People will remember her for giving up more than anything else. She has a good record as a Prosecutor, but all the screw ups in her campaign is, IMO, too much to overcome. I think she should skip out of this next election.

Another Day in the City. I’m still working from home but my wife got in ok via the LIRR. We live so far out in Queens that we merely drove for under 10 minutes to an LIRR station in Nassau. Other than paying over $16 for round trip, she was in Penn station 20 minutes later.

People are, to put it mildly, freaking out. While I don’t think the State should stop people from striking, I think the TWU local 100 made a mistake to do this in the few days before Christmas. John Q. Public really does NOT care if the MTA is screwing employees as long as John Q. is taken care of.

IMO, People are only sympathetic when it doesn’t involve them. Once it a dispute crosses into their back yard, Bang! No sympathy.

Some Food for thought: In December 2004, the NY Times reported that Facing Deficit, M.T.A. Gave a 22% Raise to Its Director. MTA executives get a "Housing Allowance"? Huh?
If these Yahoo’s tried that in the Private sector, they’d be out in th Street.

Flickr Pics taged with "transitstrike2005"
Go to Gothamist for Up to Date information and Lively comments.

Not really sure which is worse, the actual Strike or the rhetoric that arises from it. Love the Mayor/Governor/Other Generic politician Talks tough…

I think people are only pissed at the Union now that the Union’s dispute affects them directly. People consider the strike to be extortion, but what else is the Taylor Law? Politicians like to use it to threaten Unions, but IMO, it gives an unfair advantage to the City and MTA.

I think this should go to Binding Arbitration and be done with it. 

On the plus side, I now can test my MT plugin MTIFrames

This was done via:
<MTIFrames src=”//www.epyon-1.com/blog/stuff/transitstrike.php” width=”540″ height=”400″ align=”center” frameborder=”no”></MTIFrames>

This was pulled from the NY Times Transit Map.