Driver2165

Well 94% voted for a psuedonym for a hit. That’s about as decisive as it gets. No date is set yet, but word on the street is March the Second.

Well the good guys (ATU 1005) and the bad guys (the Republican Mafia) met again today, the first day before we can strike. I’m told that each side had their own room and the state mediator physically went back and forth between them. Maybe tomorrow i should just make a sign that says at the top “We are not striking tonight” and at the bottom “I don’t know” and point to it when somebody asks me a question.

From the Star Tribune:

I went bowling for some reason. On Team ATU. I'm not sure what the deal was, but i do know that it was free, i had beer, and there were a bunch of clean-cut happy-looking liberals there. Pictures? Sure.

There's more at Under Ceej (Read his NicWit page. Funny stuff)

Yesterday I picketed in front of the Rail O&M Facility. And it was… bleh. Still get the honks, still get the idiots who stick their heads out of the window while they drive and yell curse words at us. And people walking. It's fucking lame. I'm sick of this shit. Rat Bastard and his boyfriend Peter Bell need to get their heads out of their asses, and stop listening to that ugly fucker down there a ways.

Well then, since Mr. "Peter Bell Can Go To Hell" and Mr. "Tim Pawlenty's Wang is Benty" like to compare us to other agencies, I'll also compare a little bit here.

Keep in mind that today is Day 27 of this Minneapolis transit strike.

In 2003, Los Angeles's Mechanics went on strike. 35 days, and it was solved. And they got better than we even have a dream of getting. They got a 7% raise, and all the other issues would go to binding arbitration. We offered to stop the strike if we got exactly that, except instead of a 7% raise it would have been closer to the 0.5% percent the State wants.

"The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the 4,700 unionized transit workers will continue having healthcare paid for -- a key sticking point in the negotiations -- and would receive a one-time $1,000 bonus. However, the contract is only for one year" - Washington Times March 15 2004

This month in Philadelphia a strike was stopped. Of course they had to raise fares. Put this into perspective. Our fare is $1.25, $1.75 during rush hour. That's bloody cheap. Philadelphia's is $2, and they're considering raising it to $2.45. The current highest in the country is San Diego at $2.25. Yeah that sucks and all. But seriously, that's almost DOUBLE our fare. Chicago's is $1.75 AND you have to pay a quarter to transfer. It's no wonder they don't have enough money. (Well that, they blew all the cash on "high-tech" fare collection pieces of shit, and we're run by some cokehead) Why do people whine about how expensive it is here?

Probably for the same reason the Minnesota Taxpayers League likes getting free roads. Because we're all selfish bastards.

And that reminds me. What the hell kind of name is the Taxpayers League anyway? Aren't they opposed to taxes? That ugly ho won't email me back. That makes me sad.

From the Star Tribune:

"Meanwhile at the Capitol, in debate about the omnibus transportation funding bill, House Republicans voted in favor of an amendment that would turn the transit system over to private business."

What an awful idea. This thing gets worse every day.

Cecile mentioned some bus songs. I thought I’d add a few.

Still no agreement. This is getting old. It's time to stop playing silent. We've gotta make some noise here. Consider this your warning, Pawlenty and Bell. If you don't happen to read this blog, oh well. You should have been.

Well I’d like to take credit. They must have read my last threatening post and decided to figure something out.

Well this is my mindset going into the vote today and tomorrow:

I am anxious to get back to work. I miss it. It’s especially fun in the summertime. I have things that I would like to be able to do again, like buy a cd once in a while. And I need to get my moped fixed. So I’m going into the vote, fully expecting to vote yes if it’s halfway decent and the board recommends it.

However. I’m not going to back down. If it involves losing more than 5% of my pay, I doubt I’ll vote for it.

But hopefully, we can get rolling again on sunday or monday.

Sticky issue. I’m expecting a no vote, but it’ll be close. Basically they offered us a year contract. Well, there’s 15 months left on it if we approve it. A one-year contract with a small paycut doesn’t exactly inspire confidence for the bus system. If we approve this, we’ll likely be on strike again near the beginning of 2006. If it had lasted an extra year, until June 2006, we could have at least took 9 months again (this time we were without a contract for 9 months, from August 2003 to March 2004) until after the election and the new governor. By that i mean that I figure a 0% chance of Pawlenty being reelected and a 5% chance of him even running again.

Some 12 year old spammed my comments on that last entry. Quite entertaining actually. But what he failed to realize is why health care is so important to us Transit Operators. I won't say it's a dangerous job, because some steel worker will probably whine (and there's many more jobs are are much more dangerous), but it's not a healthy job. And until we have more trains and electric buses, it's going to be bad for our health. Not to mention the horrible seats they've been buying since 2002. And how completely the opposite of ergonomic the gas pedal is placed (I don't think that was grammatically correct). Some short sighted people may see this as whining, and it is, but I didn't buy those seats, and I can't imagine that medium working conditions can be blamed on the employee. Almost everytime I have to use my health insurance, it's usually completely related to operating a bus. So why shouldn't my employer either pick up the tab or try to make things easier on our bodies? (They're doing neither. Horrible new seats are a product of the almighty bottom line, except they forgot to include worker's comp cases as a part of that) And no, no one's forcing me to work as a driver, but I might point out that after several years of W Bush getting rid of jobs and a whole bunch of Clinton not doing much, and shit there was the other Bush and Reagan before him (damn no wonder the American dollar is losing value) there's not much else out there.

He also believes everything Pawlenty said about transit not being needed. That was entertaining. Pawlenty is not only a bad politician and human being, but a bad Republican and a bad Christian. Just look at what he's doing! And why does he support pointless transit products like the Northstar Commuter Line? There may be a small need there, but there's much more pressing transit needs elsewhere in the state. Even for commuter rail.

Anyway I'm crabby because I've had to get up much too early this week. Have a good day.

Oh! And by the way, "Patrick". We will probably strike again. 15-20 months. Workers have rights too. I'm curious: Why do you hate America so much?