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Bluff called, meltdown averted
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Bluff called, meltdown averted
Not to be that guy or anything, but I pretty much called it: When the chips were down, TWU declined to go on strike and fuck up the city's transportation system during its moment in the sun. According to the union, this happened because Gov. Rendell threatened to yank mass transit funding if either they or SEPTA officials left the negotiating table — an empty threat if ever I heard one. (Seriously, Fast Eddie's gonna punish 1 million some-odd SEPTA commuters because authority and union leaders throw adolescent temper tantrums? Right.) But anyway. Using the gov's alleged "threat" as cover, the union backed off its nihilistic promise to plunge this city into chaos over the weekend. Now, we're told, a deal is imminent.
Good. Now, with the worst presumably behind us, let's take a look at the bigger picture. First of all, I don't really have a problem with SEPTA threatening to strike, in teh abstract anyway. I've spent most of my life in a largely non-union state, Florida, and seen what happens when there's not a strong counterbalance to either governmental or business excess. My objection, rather, was to the nature of the TWU's threat — i.e. give us our way or we'll blow up the city. Sure. SEPTA shouldn't be dragging out negotiations for six months after the last contract expired, but trying to negotiate by taking the city hostage isn't my idea of maturity, or a way to engender my respect. The problem, in this particular instance, was one of tactics.
Does TWU have a case? Probably, at least in some respects. Yeah, rising healthcare costs suck, and no one wants to see their costs rise from 1 percent to 4 percent — when my insurance kicks in (please God, let me make it to Jan. 1) I'll be paying somewhere around 7 percent of my paycheck for me and my fiancee — as SEPTA proposes for its workers. But everyone's costs have gone up, everywhere. The cost of healthcare itself is increasingly astronomically (c'mon, public option), and without asking the union to pay up, those costs get passed along to riders and state taxpayers. But, OK, fine, whatever. Same with wages. Is SEPTA being a bit heavy-handed with a two-year wage freeze? I'll admit to not knowing the severity of the authority's budget woes, but I'd imagine they can bend a bit on that. I really haven't found TWU's argument for more pension money at all convincing.
The eventual agreement will probably fall somewhere in the middle. Seems there won't be an increase in health costs, but I would imagine (or hope) that in return the union will give up its pension pipe dream, and then they'll come to a middle ground on wages (maybe 1 percent a year instead of nothing; but really, the union's demands for 4 percent per year are simply unrealistic, and I reckon they know that).
The bigger issue, for me — and this may make me a bit unpopular in these parts — is the union's ability to muddy the authority's ability to innovate. No layoffs, guaranteed? Great, until there's a crisis that demands them. Guaranteed raises, no matter how well or poorly someone performs? I'm much more inclined to award merit over seniority.
See, to me, unions are supposed to be a counterbalance, not an anchor. SEPTA isn't a multi-billion dollar corporation; it's a state-funded authority, with a responsibility to provide transit at reasonable costs. The union would do well to keep in mind that that is its primary mission — it's not merely a guaranteed jobs program. The union is and should be there to protect its workers from being exploited; I support that. But making unrealistic demands and then threatening to strike on the most important weekend of the year if you don't get your way isn't about protecting workers, it's about manipulating SEPTA officials' to produce maximum returns for its members, even if such returns are ultimately harmful to taxpayers and SEPTA users.
In that sense, I glad their bluff was called. Next time, negotiate like grown-ups.
[...] did more than its fair share of what Tom would surely label as union-bashing, here and here and here. In part because of an excess of spleen but mostly because they relied on traditional journalism to [...]
If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait till its free.
He who laughs last... TWU grew a pair
I think Jeff needs to go back to his bread and butter subjects that worked so well for him in Orlando: gay adoption, crazy right wingers, christian bashing, raising taxes & expanding government as the solution to the world's problems, and "praying away the gay"...c'mon Jeff - write about these things instead of some obscure union dispute at a local transportation authority.
Way 2 claim credit for repeating wut everyone else was saying and everyone else whose been around for more then 10 minutes already knew.
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