Thursday, December 18, 2008

UAW 2008 & MTA 2005, A Study In Parallels

For those of us that remember,December 2005 was a time of great upheaveal in NYC, as the MTA Transit Workers Union decided to go on strike at the height of the holiday and shopping season thus ensuring a dreadful time for all.This was in direct contravention of city statutes prohibiting disruption of basic city services. Involved in those discussions were wage increases and pension related issues.

Fast forward to 2008 and here we have the UAW, in worse shape even than the MTA was back in '05, trying to preserve wages as if the economy were zipping along without a care in the world. Now mind you they were being asked to achieve parity with what Toyota, Honda, Nissan etc..are paying in this country.

The hubris displayed by unions in general and these in particular just boggles the mind.It remains to see what will become of the negotiations for a bailout, but if the Big Three collapse, the unions will have played a big part in making it happen.

1 comment:

  1. I remember the strike.

    I saw a video of the workers taking breaks and leaving the work site, and that it was the managers fault.

    So unions seem like the bad guys.

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