I peered into the boys’ room at 8:30 to check to see if Ian was dead. Breathing. He was still sleeping, because we made him holler for half the night. On Monday night, we watched Nanny 911 lecture a family for letting their kids sleep with them. Nanny 911 shamed us, so we decided to stop the bed sharing. And, I’m cranky as hell today.
Instead of being a responsible person and finishing off the damn Christmas cards, I am devouring stories about the strike. I see no good guys. The MTA hides from all accountability through its semi-public and semi-private status. The Republican leaders ain’t smelling like roses either. Strikes are a good thing, and I fully support union action when it is deserved.
Does the union have a leg to stand on? This about more than the 3% percent raise that they are asked for. It’s about kicking in for medical and about early retirement. I’m fascinated by public reaction to their demands. Most jobs don’t enjoy those benefits. My brother the journalist gets paid less than a transit worker, kicks in for his medical, and doesn’t get a pension. I don’t think he has a 401K plan set up yet. (Tammy, would you make him take care of that?)
This strike is a giant referendum about fair wages and compensation. It is a referendum about the benefits of a union job. I am most interested to see how all this turns out.
UPDATE: The Times says that this strike is unnecessary.
The pension numbers. The pension proposal that would have saved the transit authority less than $20 million over the next three years, $160 million in the first 10 years, and more than $80 million a year after 20 years. Steve Greenhouse from the Times says that those numbers are still relatively small considering that the city is losing hundreds of millions per day due to the strike.
UPDATE: Posts from Megan McArdle.
In the New Republic Online, Joel Kotkin and Harry Siegel write that public sector unions have excessive power and that urban Democrats are in bed with them. (Thanks, Dr. Manhattan.) For more on Democratic mayor and the teachers unions, read Black Mayors and School Politics: The Failure of Reform in Detroit, Gary, and Newark
Apt. 11d 
Oh yeah, I’m always ashamed the few times I’ve watched Nanny 911 or Super Nanny. It’s always the same (like listening to my own mother’s advise on my shortcomings as a mother). We’re not consistent, we don’t have punishments or don’t carry them out, our schedules are a bit loose…yeah, but my kids are ok anyway. Not like those monsters on tv!
My daughter (4 1/2) now goes to sleep in her own room, it’s just that she ends up in ours. And as we’re sleeping, we don’t know when she shows up – we just know she’s there.
The strike. I have so many mixed feelings about this strike. Like you say, many industries do not have these benefits any longer. Wouldn’t that be great if we all had pension plans and early retirement and not have to kick in for health care? Life isn’t fair, but I also see the MAJOR inconvenience this has caused everybody in the city. Even if some people could get to work, their child’s school is on 2 hour delay – causing them to be 3 or 4 hours late or not make it at all. And Manhattan is one problem, it’s so much harder to get around Queens and Brooklyn. I guess my eye is on the trickle down effect on people. My mom is a therapist and works out of her home, so no problem with her getting to work. But her clients can’t make it so she’s losing half her work this week. She’s going to do some phone sessions, but it’s a hassle.
It will be interesting to see the long term ramifications of this strike.
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Does transit fall in the same category as police and doctors these days, where they simply can’t strike for the sake of public safety?
And if “I don’t have health care and so you shouldn’t either” is a valid argument, then would we not end up in a world where no one anywhere has health care?
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The one and only reason why so many of have less health care and retirement security than we used to is that the Bloombergs have beaten the Toussaints too many times.
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Good luck with the sleeping thing Laura. I watched Nanny 911 too (what a surprise) and think she did a public service. 3 nights and you’ll be through it.
I’m with Tom and jen on this one (another surprise!). I can only wish the transit workers complete success (I know some of the leading lights of the strike from my murky past and they are among the best people in America — if I were Bush I’d hire people like Tim Schmermerhorn and Steve Downs and send them round the world to counteract anti-Americanism — if the rest of the world knew people like them it would make a big difference). I do feel for everyone affected by the strike, of course.
I’m unlikely to be in the blogosphere again before Christmas, so hope you and Steve and the kids have a brilliant Christmas.
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I’m basically mildly hostile to unions in the best of times, think it’s time for Bloomberg to do a PATCO here: these guys are using the fact that they are essentially monopolists here to hold up the city.
I think he could do it, by doing emergency licensure of jitney cabs to run on the bus routes and firing every striker. Unions are appropriate in Ford or GM or another provider of a service with which there is competition. They are not appropriate in a case where they have a stranglehold on something everyone else needs desperately.
The decision makers in this case are politicians who just need to make the next couple-three years go well, and union negotiators who want to have their working careers be comfortable and short – the incentives are terrible on the part of the politicians to sell out future citizens of NY on 55-year retirement, which will have an enormous cost for everyone in future, to get labor peace today.
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If the public supports the union (like the Toms, Jens, and Harrys) and feels that early retirement and 100% business supported health plans are a good thing, will this lead to more pressure on other businesses to offer those same benefits? Is the public willing to support the union members, if that means increasing the $2 fare?
(Adding some info in the body of this post.)
Thanks, harry, for the x-mas wishes. Best to you and the family!
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When we wanted to stop the crawl into bed activities, we put a quilt on the floor and the child could come in and have the comfort of being in the same room with us without being in our bed. This worked well with kids 1,2&3. With #4 we’ve become lax again and there are nights when it is musical beds in our house.
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