Power to the People

"If Rosa Parks had obeyed the law, many of us who now drive the bus would be standing in the back of the bus."

Roger Toussaint
President - TWU Local 100
Speaking to members
at a pre-strike rally.

"I am a completely shameless asshole."

Same guy
Alone in his own house
Looking at himself in the mirror.

12/21/2005

In the spirit of full disclosure I am not going to lie to you. I can honestly say the transit strike that is going on right now in New York City has fucked me personally.

Along with 7 million other other people.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, let me give you a taste. At 6:30 this morning I was found myself crawling to the Metro-North station at Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx to catch one of those Gregory Peck "Man in the Grey Flannel Suit" commuter trains. There was a line of people waiting to get on so they could get to Grand Central Staion and do their daily dance for The Man. It was twenty degrees out and steam was coming out of our mouths and noses as if we are on the sidelines of one of those Minnesota Vikings home games circa Decemeber 1976. And by the way, the station has the look and feel of a conformist nightmare that mankind use to rebel against but now embraces with the want and the need of a baby on his Mother's tit.

In other words exactly as it sounds.

The only reason why I bring this up is because earlier today I ran across some pictures that I feel tell the whole story.

Two Transit employees busting their asses!!!

But in all honesty, even if the pre-strike scenes above of MTA employees "Moving New York" were not that common, they do perfectly illustrate the general experience I have had (and I would argue MANY of us have had) whenever I needed a piece of information and/or assistance from a transit worker: be it surly, lazy or non responsive.

I remember having a yelling match with a token clerk in a mid town station because, I think, my card (Metrocards were new at that time) was not working or something. Again, I don't remember the exact circumstances but I do remember being totally right. Right in a common sense sort of way but, apparently, wrong in an "MTA rules" sort of way.

Now being a complete fucking tool my whole life, I completely understand the "dance, shit head, dance" thing, so that part didn't really bother me. It was that whole, "I don't care" dismissiveness she had and the "so what are you going to do about it" type attitude. It was so pathetic that it became enraging.

I mean, here is a person who, and I am not going to far out on a limb by saying this, has a pretty crappy job. She sits in a box all day dispensing (at that time) tokens and counting the minutes. Stimulation comes from nowhere and any disturbance to this completely mediocre world is met with hostility.

No one is arguing that THE FUNCTION of the New York City subway and bus system is indispensable to the health of this Metropolis. So, logically, since Transit workers are part of that system, using the Transitive Property, you can conclude their JOBS are also indispensable. But lets get real here. To equate these guys with Fire, Police and even Teachers is completely ridiculous and every time that clown Toussaint opens his grape and suggests that they are, sets back the cause of organized labor in general.

Especially when you have thousands of people ready to take their place.

If we are going to make some real headway in the fight to free the human spirit, we have to chose our fights. With that in mind, saying that an offer of 50k a year with complete health benefits and a retirement age pf 62 instead of 55 is an "insult" is, in actuality, insulting.

See you on the platform.
I'll be the one with my head in my hands...
And my heart on my sleeve...
Longing for the warmth of the cube.
Larry