I've heard a lot of vitrolic commentary in the past couple of days about the NYC transit workers.
It doesn't matter where you go, even the "supposed" liberal media like the NY Times and even some folks at the Village Voice seem to be against this strike.
Hell, even some people here on dailykos as well. To the point where something so monumental isn't even being touched on the front page.
Well, I think that is wrong. And this is why.
The only issue on the table is the pension plan which many people have heard about. The reason it is an issue is not because the workers (in the words of NYC's billionaire mayor) are greedy. No. It's because instead of being greedy and doing what has become standard practice in this country, they are sticking up for yiunger workers who haven't even been hired yet.
See, thr workers could have averted all this if all they did was say sure, you can cut pensions for the new hires. But they didn't. Instead they went on strike. Imagine that.
How many times here on this site have there been posters slamming the union movement for screwing younger workers at the expense of older workers?
How many times have we heard about how Bush's spending and tax cuts for the rich are being done on the backs of our children and grandchildren?
For once in our generation, somebody is saying enough is enough. Sure, I do fault the union's communications apparatus for not articulating this issue, but, in their defense, those pension cuts for future workers were proposed illegally at the last minute as part of a last and final offer by the MTA the day before the strike.
If anything, every single one of us without an interest in the strike in New York should be supporting these workers whole-heartedly. Who else has gone and sacrificed two days pay for every day they strike so that they DON'T pass on the cost of their benefits to younger workers?
Or take it this way, when has anyone NOT thought twice about passing on the cost of their tax cuts to future taxpayers who are going to pay the bill? What is the difference?
For standing up for younger workers, this is what these striking workers face. They are called "goons" and "thugs" anf "greedy" by billionaires. The other working people who are most affected by this strike and who have to walk miles to work are now being eulogized by the same people who continue to refuse giving them a raise int a minimum wage.
Heck, even a judge is now threatening to take possession of each of the strikers' individual bank accounts and send their leaders to jail. Yes, not in 1920s America or somewhere in China but today in the America of 2005.
If anything, we shouldn't be trashing these workers - we need to be supporting them. What they are doing today, knowing the consequences of their actions, is beyond braverly and I will say is heroic.
Fort once, somebody is saying, enough is enough. We are not going to screw over our kids in the future just so we can get what we want today. They could have done that. They could have walked away with their raises and their pensions intact. But they didn't. They stuck it out for workers who today have no interest in the strike but someday in the future will be joining the workforce.
If anything that is not selfish, it is selfless.
I drove into work today in a damn frenzy after listening to what's being said on the radio and how these strikers are being characterized. I'm slightly inarticulate right now as I try to calm down, but if anything, maybe this will help get the point across, a familiar saying to all of us that I changed around to highlight the real issue behind this strike and why it effects all of us:
First they came for the air traffic controllers
and I did not speak out
because I was not an air traffic controller.
Then they came for the textile workers
and I did not speak out
because I was not a textile worker.
Then they came for the transit workers
and I did not speak out
because I was not a transit worker.
Then they came for the rest of the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not in a union.
Then they came for everyone's social security
and I did not speak out
because I could invest my own money.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.