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12/19/2002 01:50:00 AM | Jared Alessandroni Few Things Just got a chance to look on the Blog - it's been so active! I'm really stoked. 1. Administrative - Do we want to show, as we are now, "The Last 7 Days" on the Blog main page, or last 10 posts, or something else? 2. Administrative - Format - I don't know why sometimes it shows as a break and sometimes it treats spaces [you can look at the code if you get bored] as paragraph divides, but, either way, it seems to look fine in general with spacing. 3. Democracy, fight for freedom, liberalism - I don't know what people know about or don't about the transit strike that was "averted" in New York, but as for how sympathetic it is, I think that it's sort of a perversion of sense to argue that the union was in the wrong because the strike was illegal. What in Hell would justify making strikes illegal? I don't know if some people read some of the more one-sided arguments like this on MSN, but they revolve around the fact that the city would be crippled by a strike of the transit workers, business halted, traffic unmanageable. They refer to the Taylor Law, which makes it illegal for public workers to strike, and in fact fines them TWICE their wages per day if they do. While it is true that New York would be thus crippled, this is only a potent demonstration of the importance of these workers. As for the law, it's what many could easily describe as a travesty of justice. It is a choke hold, preventing thousands of workers from speaking their voice in the only way it will likely be heard. And the concept of taking advantage of Bloomberg is laughable. This is a man who could solve the budget problem with his own pocket-book whose only Mayoral qualifications were his ability to use a database and a wink and nod recommendation from Rudolph the hide-the-poor happened-to-be-there hero of September 11th. Taking advantage of this man, or the ailing economy and financial situation of the city, might be the aim of a few. But it would be ignorant and facile to pretend that this is some pleasurable revenge or planned legal robbery on behalf of the Union. These are people with limited health insurance, few benefits, little to no retirement plans, and, more importantly, who have been getting raises that were lower than the cost of living for several years. They demanded some sort of catch up, safer work environments, and better wages. To call them opportunistic would be as inane as calling a starving Indian child an opportunist because of the flawed Indian Economic Model. The rookie mayor and his budget problems are a problem that New York voted for blindly as he held the tail end of the flag waving parade. He is a business-first people last kind of man who has no experience at all in government, so the people, perhaps some of the same who are fighting him and his sadistic use of the Taylor Law, deserve it. That's Democracy. As for the economy, that's noone's fault. But the transit workers were stepped on, have been for a long time, and when they tried to get up, their strike was called illegal. They should have held on, maybe, crippled the city. The city has to learn that the people who hold its shiny marble floor up with shaky hands are down there in the basement living lives that no one in Bloomberg's office would comprehend. But, in this season, and we'll note that it was the Mayor's office that postponed the negotiations until the Christmas Season, in this season, with the Taylor Law upheld, no one can afford to win on principle, so what's left over wins. perma link |
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