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SoDesuKa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-21-05 08:58 AM
Original message
I Support the Strike
Despite Bloomberg's thumping re-election victory, New York is not a Republican town, and it's not going to become one. Roger Toussaint has made the strike a civil rights struggle, similar to the struggle of the Memphis sanitation workers in 1968 when Martin Luther King was assassinated. There is quite a bit of racism in the belief that transit workers are already overpaid. Left unspoken is the tacit assumption that non-whites ought to be grateful they have any job at all.

There's loads of money in New York, and loads of money going to the MTA. It's just not going to the workers, who are New York's untermenschen. I totally agree with Toussaint when he says this maldistribution has got to stop. Huge amounts of money are being spent on transit infrastructure - new equipment and new facilities.

This strike is long overdue. There would have been a strike before 2005 except for September 11th. Bloomberg is still using September 11th rhetoric as a way to gain support against the strike. But this is a case of Democrats standing foursquare against Republicans. Working people are taking New York back.




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lifelong Democrat Donating Member (7 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-21-05 12:28 PM
Response to Original message
1. Wrong, it is NOT, ALWAYS, it is stupid and 'The workers don't want it.'
Despite Bloomberg's thumping re-election victory, New York is not a Republican town, and it's not going to become one.
>> And Bloomberg is NOT a Republican. He switched affiliation to be able to run in 2001, because there was already a Dem - Mark Green - on the ballot.

Roger Toussaint has made the strike a civil rights struggle, similar to the struggle of the Memphis sanitation workers in 1968 when Martin Luther King was assassinated. There is quite a bit of racism in the belief that transit workers are already overpaid. Left unspoken is the tacit assumption that non-whites ought to be grateful they have any job at all.
>> It is NOT a race issue, regardless of what Toussaint would like to paint it as. The MTA (TA) has used the same tactics for decades - all the way back to when the majority of the workers were white.
>> The MTA workers ARE overpaid when compared to the same jobs in the private sector, but not because of race.
>> The unspoken tacit assumption is the product of a slave mentality. The jobs are there for people of all races and beliefs and if there is proof of that sentiment, the Federal Government would be glad to take the case and award the victims $$millions$$.

There's loads of money in New York, and loads of money going to the MTA. It's just not going to the workers, who are New York's untermenschen.
>> The workers are ALWAYS the underclass.

This strike is long overdue. There would have been a strike before 2005 except for September 11th. Bloomberg is still using September 11th rhetoric as a way to gain support against the strike. But this is a case of Democrats standing foursquare against Republicans. Working people are taking New York back.
>> With the fines and penalties, the strike is stupid. The workers have been manipulated to risk their livelyhoods and ultimately give management even MORE clout. The media has climbed aboard the bureaucrat's wagon and the people are picking up the tune, calling for the heads of the TWU. The 'Working people are taking New York' ON THEIR 'back.'

I totally agree with Toussaint when he says this maldistribution has got to stop. Huge amounts of money are being spent on transit infrastructure - new equipment and new facilities.
>> The mismanagement of ignoring the equipment and facilities during the decades of financial crisis HAS stopped. The funds to do the maintenance and repairs that were put off are available and the work is being done to keep the system operating.
>> Toussaint is willing to share in the profits now that the MTA is swimming in cash, but would the TWU be willing to accept cuts when bankruptcy is looming? Of course not! The workers don't want any part of it.
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