Insider’s View of the MTA Strike
Yesterday. Workers at New York’s public transportation system, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), call their first strike since over a quarter century ago. If you don’t live in New York City, you might not know what the real impact is on the everyday people that live here. This is where I come in. To better understand the strike, here are three things to know:
#1. NYC is Ginormous. More than 8 million people live within city limits and an additional 13 million live in the immediate surrounding area. That figure roughly equals the number of London, Sydney, Barcelona and Dublin dwellers combined. (NYC’s population is larger than 39 of 50 entire US states; and, remember, it’s just a city.)
#2. NYC = 5 Boroughs. Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island create “New York City.” If each borough was independent: Los Angeles would be the only American city larger than Brooklyn or Queens; Chicago only slightly larger than Manhattan.
#3. Subway Culture Reigns Here. New York’s MTA is the largest and most comprehensive public transportation system in the United States. Fortune 500 employees take the subway to get to Midtown Manhattan. High school students take buses to school. Doctors take trains to work, hospitals. Social workers. Holiday shoppers. College kids. Lawyers. Almost everyone rides MTA.
The Result? Well, here is a example: To get to work, scores of people now walk across the 6,000 foot [2,000 yards] Brooklyn Bridge, over a large body of cold water, in 20 F [-6 C] degree weather, just to get out of Brooklyn. Once they reach Manhattan, they still have to walk to work. On another note, supposedly, the city loses an estimated $200 million each day of the strike; shoppers can’t get to the stores and New Yorkers can’t get to restaurants or cultural venues. Do I agree with the strike? I don’t know yet. I support collective action. At the same time, right now, I don’t know enough about the workers’ demands (nor the MTA’s concessions) to choose sides.
December 21st, 2005 at 9:37 am
From what I have read, the MTA has a billion dollar surplus and they refused to hedge on a .5% increase in workers salaries. That sounds like the workers had a right to bitch! That’s my take, at the moment, anyway! Mwah!
December 21st, 2005 at 10:34 am
Yeah, look into the issues because I believe that their demands are NOT outrageous. A few days of inconvenience (hopefully a few days) is worth having less crabby subway workers and bus drivers.
December 21st, 2005 at 10:46 am
Berry,
Have you ever been on a NYC subway? Subway workers and bus drivers are, almost by definition, crabby. No amount of money is going to change that. What has always irked me about this is the NYC subway sucks! Not just the infrastructure (shabby stations, decrepit cars), but the employees. I’ve never seen a bigger bunch of grouchy, apathetic, rude, unhelpful and lazy workeforce. If none of those things were true, I’d agree with tonito: a $1 bn surplus would give rise to a legitimate beef against management for not distributing it to a deserving workforce. But, take it from me, a ride on NYC’s subway has — for the last thirty years, mind you — NEVER been a pleasant experience when having to deal with a worker. Okay, I’m talking in extremes, here. I’ve seen and dealt with more than one friendly and helpful subway workder — but they are the exception. In my view, a raise and increase in other benefits is justified but only if the New Yorkers get something for it. Let’s not forget, that surplus everyone talks about is our money — we made it by paying the $2.00 for a ride each way.
December 21st, 2005 at 11:55 am
tonito bandito: Ah, yes, the MTA surplus (somewhere in the range of $825 million – $1 billion). Instead of rewarding their employees with a pay hike or a holiday bonus, MTA used the money to give riders a fare cut. Who wouldn’t be happy about a fare cut? Well, here’s the catch: the fare cut reduces the cost of a ride from $2 to $1 on the weekends only; therefore, tourists and holiday shoppers, not New York City dwellers, benefit. Because New Yorkers travel during the week too, we buy weekly and/or monthly passes—not $1.00 weekend fares. We pay taxes. We live here. And, we pay the lion’s share of the MTA fares. If a fare cut must be given, it seems fair that we should receive it. (But of course, whether or not a fare cut should have been given at all is debatable.) Another interesting factoid? Even with the surplus, the MTA is still eyeing a 2007 fare hike.
berry: I’m looking into to it, but the NY Times, BBC News and International Herald Tribune all have incomplete and/or conflicting information about what the employee demands and management concessions were. It seems the employees wanted MTA to implement common sense safety and security measures, kick in an 8% wage increase and provide some other stuff. Management wanted a retirement age increase from 55 to 62, health care contribution upped from 2% to 6% of wages and leeway on some other stuff. Whatever the case, it seems that the upshot of it all is that they reached a point of mutual compromise and agreement, then the MTA surprised everyone by requesting that employee pension contributions be upped from 2% of wages to 6% of wages.
anonymous: You mentioned, “Subway workers and bus drivers are, almost by definition, crabby. No amount of money is going to change that.” If one wanted to make generalizations, one could say the same about nurses, school teachers, politicians or any other professional that service the masses without receiving respect. I’ve neither lived in the city nor ridden MTA as long as you have. You have the benefit of longer experience with the system. At the same time, I will say that I have lived in and/or ridden public transport in almost every major city in the US and Europe. On a strictly comparative basis, the MTA is probably one of the best systems around and I salute the MTA (employees and management alike) for working to transport millions of people every day. It can’t be an easy job.
December 21st, 2005 at 12:38 pm
Sheesh. I hope it is over soon.
Fortunately the bus company here in Austin does not have that much power. Gollum would surrender the ring before a Texan would give up a truck.
December 21st, 2005 at 1:34 pm
The offer the union rejected was, reportedly, a 3% pay increase, though I suspect that nobody will know the whole story for months, if ever.
And if there was ever a less sympathy-inducing group than the MTA, I’m not sure who it could be. I live half my life in NYC and the other half in DC, and the differene between, at an administrative level, the MTA subway and the DC Metro is massive – but I’m not sure the characterization of the $1b surplus is accurate.
Yes, they had a big surplus, but it’s not a structural surplus, and the main issues of contention (tiering the healthcare, pensions) are important because with the number of projected retirees, that surplus is going to turn to a massive defecit in the very near future. It’s better that MTA do this now than default on pensions and salaries five years down the line.
December 21st, 2005 at 3:12 pm
Yes, the MTA is a crappy, punative, disrespectful organazation to work for. It’s true. But the TWU can kiss my big, beige Union-member ass. This strike is unconscionable and morally inept. They are crippling the city economically to the tune of billions.
The surplus is meaningless and has nothing to do with wages. Their demands may not have been outrageous, but their biggest beef was with the retirement age raise and the MTA caved on it. Damn right if you’re going to retire at 55 you should pay 6% into your pension fund! People live a lot longer then 70, these days. These people will be paid for more years than they will have worked! All the TWU does is bitch about “selling out their unborn” and “respect”. My answer to that is: YOU WORK FOR THE CITY! OF COURSE YOU DON’T GET RESPECT! I work for the city and I don’t get respect, either and it sucks! But you ddon’t see me striking.
The truth is, transit workers make a very high wage for a skilled profession that doesn’t require a college degree. As for selling out their “unborn”–please. I know people who took the transit test 15 years ago, scored in the top percentile and STILL have not had their numbers drawn! There are THOUSANDS of people waiting for those jobs. They are HIGHLY sought after. It’s not like the MTA suffers from a recruitment problem. The idea that folks will say “Oh, no. I don’t want to pay 1% into my health care and 6% into my pension and retire at 55! ” is INSANE. Anyone out there paying their own health insurance knows that 1% is a pittance.
And at least they HAVE a contract to negotiate in the first place! I’m an RN in a city hospital and I’m working under a contract that expired nearly 4 years ago. That means no raises, no nothing. We negotiated right up to election day and they offered us a 5% over three years and wanted to take away 3 sick days a year, 5 vacation days, AND our measly $2 grand education reimbursement and we said no. We can’t recruit workers to save our lives! Did we strike? NO! because it’s illegal, just like it is for the transit workers. So as far as I’m concerned, the combined total of a pay raise offered to the TWU of 10.5% over 3 years seems pretty decent. Anyone who thinks they’ve earned the right to retire from driving a bus at 55 is a little loopy.
See, I’m also really mad because now I have to walk to work in the cold and the dark to get to work. And I’ll get docked pay if I’m late!
(phew…okay…I should have posted this on my own blog…sorry)
December 21st, 2005 at 6:26 pm
Ok, just so people know, and I will post some facts later when I am not a work but, THERE IS NO SURPLUS. MTA would have had a deficit this year had it not been for some tax kick in due to the realestate market, slightly complex. The entire city got this tax benifit. That will not be there next year, so the money is rolling over to cover future deficits. This year MTA would have been in the hole had this tax break not come through. It is funny money.. you could say. MTA’s budget is badly run, I am not arguing with that. I thought the “holiday pass” was INSANE, considering they are going to be in the red very very soon. What were they thinking? But as for the pensions, if they are not cut for future workers, meaning if the retirement age is not increased, the city will go bankrupt. The pension plan is going through the same issue as Social Security is nation wide, workers are living much longer than what was expected. I guess MTA, who knows perfectly well that they are in BIG SHIT, could just say to the workers, yeah right, we will give you your pensions, and just default… but the money is not going to be there. It just is not. I also guess they would raise everyones fares to $10 per ride and maybe that would cover it. But the rich aren’t taking the subway’s. Overall they are not being even “inconvenienced” by it. It is the middle class to the extremely poor, the majority who would LOVE to earn what the MTA workers are earn and receive in benifits. Do I think the TWU100 should have accepted their offer, no. But they should have continued negotiating like TWU international told them to do. BTW, because I have a friend who lives in the city, I have been barely affected, so I am not writing this out of any anger or anything like that. I also don’t think that workers should get screwed. But I do have friends who make way less than the MTA workers make and they are really suffering right now. My friend who is a maid had to stay home because she lives way out in Corona and has no way to get into the city to go from place to place at $10 a taxi ride per zone. That means she will not have enough to pay for rent this month since she is strapped as it is.
December 21st, 2005 at 6:35 pm
missbhavens thank you for the hard work you do and thank you for not striking, even though you are mistreated and your contract is up. People really do appreciate the work you do, even though you get a lot of CRAZY people coming into the hospital. The normal people know your work is hard. NYC is a hard city to live in, we all get pushed, yelled at, insulted, degraded, even groped, at our jobs and on the trains unfortunately…. but most people really do appreciate your work.
December 21st, 2005 at 9:43 pm
It sounds pretty bad up there. I suppose things could be worse, I mean its freezing winter, it’s not as if your gas company went on strike…this way you have a great excuse for not showing up at work! (my attempt to find that ever elusive silver lining thing).
I wish we’d have a strike at university up here. Then I wouldnt have to submit this essay I’ve been slaving over for the past few days. I hate essays.
Best I can hope for you is this scenario; your social life is completely unaffected. Your work-place sympathetically realises that it is too much asking everyone to come to work so you get a unofficial paid holiday so you get to stay at home doing nothing and still get paid. Of course I suppose we can also throw in a fit bloke who is ’stranded’ because of the strike and needs a place to crash at! Goodluck with all this.
December 21st, 2005 at 9:55 pm
Amusing how little sympathy a person that works for the city can have for their fellow worker fighting a clearly justifiable cause.
The main sticking point in negotiations right now is pensions. Pensions aren’t even supposed to be on the negotiating table, but the MTA insists on putting them there. In any case, it would cost them about $20 million to appease the workers. It is costing the city at least $200 million in lost revenue to function without the transit workers.
Granted, this makes the TWU seem like bullies, intent on getting their way. But listen, it’s about time the little people got their way in this city. This absurd anti-labor law coupled with an unsympathetic management has scared people from striking before. Your own personal experience exemplifies this. Your rights were being trampled on, and you were powerless to fight back.
If you let the employer push you once, they’ll do it again. Someone has to make a stand. I’m glad the transit workers did. It’s absolutely absurd that workers are expected to work without contracts while the city takes their sweet time negotiating. Teachers, policeman, and firemen have been severely screwed by this pathetic state of events. But they didn’t want to strike, for fear of public backlash. Still, their cause was justified, their demands not unreasonable.
The current proposed pay hike is not even above inflation levels! Workers earning the same while goods going up in price would be ultimately disastrous for the economy!
Anyway, those who are familiar with the MTA workings, namely what they do with contractors, would be disgusted at this turn of events. Most people associated with the MTA realize the corruption and money wasted on contractors that could be better spent elsewhere.
The point is, anyway, that we can’t let them start a trend. If the TWU backed down on this, I assure you, there would be a trend. I salute those brave men and women for risking the fines in favor of doing a lot of workers a greater service in the long run.
December 21st, 2005 at 10:49 pm
I loved reading the comments here. This is great. But, I’m going to loosen this up a little: at least more people are exercising.
December 21st, 2005 at 11:02 pm
First, how lovely to see the new faces; welcome to the blog! :) Now, for your comments …
Raymond: Texans *love* their trucks! :)
Gregory: I agree; it will probably takes MONTHS for the full details of the strike come to light.
missbhavens: Thanks for sharing; differing opinions make the world more interesting. :)
salsa12345: Awww, that’s really nice! I’m sure missbhavens appreciates it.
Darwin: It’s the opposite for me, my work life is completely unaffected and my personal life is. My employer is chartering buses and vans for us all; I can get to and from work just fine. I wish I could say the same for my social life. Last night I had to skip out on dinner, drinks and a concert because I couldn’t get to the Upper West Side. Tonight’s plans with friends, fortunately, were in my neighborhood so I kept them. Tomorrow, a friend is having her last concert of the year, but I can’t get to the venue..
Anton: Thanks for sharing; seriously, I appreciate it.
Anhoni Patel: I haven’t been to the gym all week, so I really appreciate the extra walking … And, yes, it’s fun to blog, but it’s equally fun to read what you all have to say about the posts. I LOVE MY READERS!!! :)
December 16th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Well the 2005 Union strike was not so much about money,as it was about protecting benefits,pensions and both active and retiree healthcare,the union has very powerful button on the left that says nuclear and stike written under it,no matter anyone says about 2005 strike and people “walking”,I was in NYC at that time,and the city was in a sense shut down,it just basically stopped for 3 days,many people just didn’t show up for work,nothing moved,what was mormally a 40 minute commute turned into a 4 hour commute for many people..If you have that kind of power to shut down one of the largest cities in the world,certainly the most important in the world financially to protect what you have,you can’t be afraid to use it when threatened,the MTA quickly then dropped any mention of any type of benefit reductions in it’s contract talks and hasn’t since ever said a word about them.