Wednesday, December 14, I went to Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, aka The Met—seldom confused in conversation with the other Met, the Metropolitan Museum.
The MTA strike hadn't started yet and the city was alive and aglow with the holiday season festivities. The War in Iraq did not intrude on our consciousness, let alone our activities. The war was not making a difference in the lives of the revelers, as far as I could tell. Whatever disturbance was occurring, was occurring out of sight and out of mind.
Not so with the strike against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) by the Transport Workers Union (TWU), now that it has started. "My god," say the Republican politicians, "the strike is disrupting our lives. We're not safe. People can't get to work. The stores are empty. This is an illegal strike. Fine the union. This is happening to us. It has to end. Now!"
If Iraq weren't so tragic, the irony would be laughable.
Some background to the strike: First, I unabashedly support the unions. The last minute change to the pension contribution, the excess funds accumulated by the MTA, and Mayor Bloomberg's willingness to give hundreds of millions of dollars in MTA property value to wealthy associates create a climate of distrust on the part of the workers who do the work that creates the wealth. There is no good-faith bargaining on the part of the MTA if they hide behind the "no-strike" law to bring the workers to heel.
Then like Bush #43 on 9/11, Bloomberg invokes the decrease in crime in the city in his comments about the need for the union to return to work, as if people don't want to work.
What we need is a living wage ... enough to support a family with children.
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