Just call me Nostradamus! Did I call it or what? Let’s see … $1,000,000 a day … $3,500,000 in the bank … oh look the strike is over on day three! The union today voted overwhelmingly to return to the negotiations and to their jobs.
I do feel for these people. They do work hard, sacrificing their comfort and safety for the sake of our comfort and safety. One of their complaints was the lack of needed breaks. This to me is a legitimate complaint, but how does lowering the retirement age to 50 help a person take a piss now. How does putting millions of people out in the cold and destroying the businesses of many shops help you eat lunch at a decent hour? Over all else I cannot help but to be angry over the how and when of this strike. And I’m not alone.
The support that they may have felt during the earliest onset of this strike has quickly dwindled. As an example of this; NYC bar Scruffy Duffy’s (743 Eighth Avenue) posted on their site “In order to show our gratitude to the TWU for calling an illegal strike this holiday season, from this day forward all TWU members will pay $1.00 EXTRA per drink to compensate for the loss of business and the hassle they have caused us this Holiday Season.”
My favorite bar of all, The Russian Samovar is suing the TWU, the MTA and the city over lost business. Manager Vlada Von Shats said the strike caused them to lose close to 80 percent of its daily revenue. Their lawyer John Nicholas Iannuzzi said they are asking $25,000 for each day of the strike and wants to call a class-action suit for $5 million a day total on behalf of all other businesses affected by the strike. Ah, like I needed another reason to like this place.
I have to agree with them however, I’m not sure how they would enforce it. This was a pretty shitty thing for the union to do that wound up hurting its members just as much–if not more–than the public.
Way to go TWU! Well done!
