So, will there be a strike in spite of the Taylor Law...?

I thought the resolution for this was arbitration under the PERB laws.

There may be exceptions, but it seems to me that PERB arbitration would be the way to handle this.

arrow wrote:Not sure if you are being serious about firing them all haha , but former President Reagan would love to follow that advice!

Only half serious.

But I'm old enough to remember the look on the face of air traffic controllers union pres Robert Poli when they all got the axe back in '81. And they were replaced without a single plane accident. I'm not a fan of Ronald Reagan, but that was impressive.

I'm neither pro- nor anti-union. I'm pro-fairness and anti-abuse. And while most of the unfairness and abuse used to come from management, trends in the last 30 years have been the reverse.

I hope that both sides are able to come to a reasonable agreement that restores service asap.

while most of the unfairness and abuse used to come from management, trends in the last 30 years have been the reverse

You must have a really nice job, then, because management is more abusive than ever, especially since the federal and state governments stepped in to weaken the unions. Better hope you can keep your status quo...

Urban, I agree with you.

Irish,
I am not disrespecting the transit workers. I do feel that they have betrayed the people of new york. They are, after all, public servants. They have public service jobs and when they are not serving the public, something needs to be done.

And no, the MTA is no angel but it must be tough to have to deal with the same old nonsense every 3 years.

Management is more abusive than ever? What examples do you have of this and why do you say it? Maybe it's true, but I just don't see it. I think that people are so much more understanding today than they were before.

I semi-agree with you that labor is more important than management. If the labor force was perfect you would be absolutely right, but it's not and there needs to be some supervision. Now that's not to say that all managers are perfect either.

BTW, the Taylor Law does not stipulate that workers that strike will be terminated—merely a loss of pay of certain degrees (don't recall all the details).

Never said it did. They lose 2 days pay per day they are out. The union is fined $25K (if I remember correctly) PER employee PER day and that doubles every day the strike continues. Not to mention all of the lawsuits filed by the city, the MTA, and anyone else that suffered financially due to this.

It's nice to have a good debate going here

cranky2073 wrote:I thought the resolution for this was arbitration under the PERB laws.

There may be exceptions, but it seems to me that PERB arbitration would be the way to handle this.

This is also what I thought, but the union doesn't want it. But hey, they ignore the Taylor Law, why shouldn't they ignore everything else?

Irish Chieftain wrote:

while most of the unfairness and abuse used to come from management, trends in the last 30 years have been the reverse

You must have a really nice job, then, because management is more abusive than ever, especially since the federal and state governments stepped in to weaken the unions. Better hope you can keep your status quo...

I don't really want to get into a Godzilla vs Rodan thing about unions and management. Really, I don't. And I'm not saying management is innocent.

But, for example, when I heard what Septa workers were making (and griping about), I figured I could take one of their places at 65 cents on the dollar and still be giving myself a raise.

Also... a buddy of mine went from working at a family-owned printer to a large unionized shop. First thing the old heads told him: "You're working too fast, kid. You're making us look bad." He really didn't know how to handle that. But the union had negotiated such a strong position that the workers really only put in about 5 hours a day of real work. After a couple of years, he actually left that cushy job. Said he'd rather be busy and broke.

Now that the strike is reality, let's start a new thread...

-otto-