Tuesday, December 20, 2005
music: "Buffalo Solider" Bob Marley
I am so happy right now ... Okay, I know some of you may think I’m crazy, but this is a historic moment in New York City ... city workers are treated horrible from the transit workers to the police department (a starting salary of $25,000) and worst of all TEACHERS. According to the Taylor Law in New York – it is ILLEGAL FOR CITY WORKERS TO STRIKE. What is the point of a union if you can’t strike?
In the overly convenient society that we live in today no one wants to be inconvenienced, no one wants to have any discomfort, people want things when they want it, or there is no option. Yet they still want to complain about how people are being treated. No change can be made without discomfort and I am ecstatic that WORKING CLASS PEOPLE are taking a stand against big corporations with a strike to the New York City public transportation system during the holidays -- that's right, get 'em where it hurts!
The city has ignored the workers requests and I think the workers have been totally patient. If they did not strike now no one would take them seriously (they’ve been debating about striking for over a week). Governor Pataki has not been attentive and NOW he is threatening, along with Mike Bloomberg, to throw the union leader, Roger Toussaint (aka Trini Man) in the SLAMMER! I heard one news reporter say, "We are at a high risk for a terrorist attack!" Oh lawwwwwwwwwwwdddddddddddddd! The media will just do anything to scare the good hell out of people won't they? Working class people saying HELL NAW is not going to cause Al-Queda to slash us - isn't the highest threat to our subway system - WELL, IT'S NOT RUNNING!
One of the most "striking" things about the strike is that this is a WORKING CLASS REVOLT. The leader of the strike is a West Indian black man who has Irish, Italian, Asian, etc. behind him to take a stand against how they are being treated as workers. Many may not agree, but I don’t think any type of progressive movements are going to take place within RACE in America; I believe it will happen through class. Until poor whites and poor blacks (and all of the other shades, especially in New York) realize that it is PROFITABLE for them to hate each other – they cannot proceed on a progressive path. The workers in this strike realize they are all workers class people – I wish more of us could realize this. Imagine if the whites in the Union said, "I'm not listening to some West Indian man tell me what to do!" Well, that isn’t happening -- in the 1920s that did happen and blacks were not even allowed to have a union.
Therefore, this is fantastic and I’m glad to see someone in America take a STAND for something. In 2000 150,000 African-Americans were not allowed to vote in Florida, the Iraq war happens and nationwide protest had no effect, thousands of poor people died in Hurricane Katrina due to an AMERICAN FAILURE (not an act of God or Mother Nature) as they waited for over 5 days for food and water, all this year the President and his administration are making ungodly mistakes and take no real accountability. So, go on and strike! I hope this makes some type of change in New York ... this city is overpriced, underpaid and overworked. As Roger Toussaint said: "To the city’s seven million commuters, we ask for your understanding. Our fight is your fight.”
Ummmmmmmmmm … like I said, I’m all for it, but they have to get themselves together by Thursday! I got things to do!
Here are a few things transit workers are fighting for:
To have maternity leave (they have NO maternity leave)
Be afforded bathroom breaks between route changes
For the reirement age to not be moved up to 65
For the new and future hires to recieve the same pension increase that the current ones are supposed to be recieving instead of having to return 6%.Labels: Politics
Posted by Clay ::
11:06 AM ::
23 comments
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