Thursday, December 15, 2005

Standing with the Transit Worker's Union

My daughter left a frantic message this afternoon. She called to say that her friend had fallen out of the back door of the bus. To make a long story short, her friend tripped on the crowed M4 headed uptown and fell into the stairwell of the rear door. She said the doors didn’t open, but when he fell backward his head went through the doors first and then the rest of him went out. She said his body pressed against the rubber that keeps the door airtight. I always thought that if you fell against those doors they would stay shut.

Falling from a moving bus is traumatic, but what made this worse was that the bus driver didn’t stop. My daughter was horrified. She said a parent of another student had been driving behind the bus and saw the entire incident. She said another adult who had seen the boy fall came to help. She was cradling his head and comforting him. He had suffered a blow to the back of his head in the fall and was bleeding badly.

They were traveling with about seven other kids from school. They worked as a team, calling the police and giving their statement, calling the school to contact their friend’s parents, and even going to the home of the nearest kin (his grandma) when they couldn’t reach her on the phone.

Her friend is fine tonight. He is at home resting after a trip to Harlem Hospital. The area where the wound happened was shaved and sealed in a new method that they call liquid- skin.

My daughter and her friends use public transportation everyday. Sometimes she complains that the bus drivers have little patience with the school crowds, especially the junior high crowd. However shame upon the driver for not stopping.

On the eve of one of New York’s possible transit strikes, I’m pissed by this incident. I wish the driver stopped. I hope the parents report the incident to management.

The news has been on in our house for an hour now. All of the big three media pushing up the fear of how will commuters make it, the lost business (oh how will we get our Christmas shopping done?), icy rain and snow, a threatening Michael Bloomberg speaking through his usual tight lipped-New-Yorker-will-pull-together-we-will-get-through-this-together-crap.

I’m praying for a strike. I’m getting angry that workers are constantly losing the ground they’ve worked so hard to gain. Just a few weeks ago General Motors announced it’s need to cut back. According to Workers World, 30,000 hourly jobs were cut. Those cuts represent 22% of GM’s union workers in the United States.

It’s funny how the MTA can manage to raise fares one year, find a surplus the next year, and then give a bonus to the riders the next. This year special unlimited monthly cards were being sold for $76 bucks, which will be good for 41 days instead of the regular 30 days. For us poor folks From November 23rd to January 2nd subway rides on the weekends are only a dollar a ride. How many of you are willing to bet this tactic was timed, so the public would not back the workers in this fight for what is right and fair.

Call me corny, but “worker’s unite.” The Transit Workers are asking for a 24 percent raise over the next three years to match rising inflation. The MTA has a $1 billion dollar surplus. Why can’t some of that money be shared with the workers? The average worker makes $47,000 to $55,000 before over-time possibilities. That pay may be fine in other parts of the country, but the cost of living is rising. The new workforce may be asked to pay a higher rate for benefits than the current workers. If we don’t support each other we will all be working in Wal-Mart-like conditions.

Support the workers.The right to strike is being pulled out from under the worker. They are threated with a huge fine for exercising their right to complain about conditions. Mayor Bloomberg has the nerve to say that the workers are hurting working people. Is he listening to himself? Is he not the mayor of all of New York? Other major unions will be supporting the T.W.U. The head of the teachers union was standing on the podium with the head of the MTA during the last press conference. Make coffee for those guys and gals on the picket line. Make sure the transit worker's kids get to school tomorrow, by offering a ride if you have a car. If you can’t do that then join the picket line. Make a sign and hang it out your window. Do what you can, but make sure you do something.

To the bus driver this afternoon: Perhaps you were stressed. Did you have a decent lunch break? We're you stressing over late bill payments? Is your partner also working for transit and you haven't spent time together in a while. Were you sick and forced to come to work due to a limited number of sick days? Had you had a bathroom break in a few hours? I'm asking these questions because these are the questions I would have asked. What is it that you need and how can we support you? I'm asking because our media doesn't seem to be concerned about your side of the story.

The transit workers stand to loose out to a two-tier benefits system. We can’t let this happen. If they lose this one, we all lose eventually.

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