Here is the Trib story: IN RE: MCTO contractWM: Maybe Republicans don't. It is, however, the best time of year for transit workers to strike. Today was really cold and the wind was blowing. Customers don't want a strike now.
http://startribune.com/stories/462/4292484.html
Where is the negotiating leverage? Why should the Republicans who control almost everything care if the buses go on strike?
I've hauled a lot of suburbanites as a driver. Bus lines go all the way out to Shakopee (sp?), maybe beyond there at this point. I've hauled beaucoup college students from 103rd and 3rd. From Normandale. Hauled hundreds of pink collar, white collar, blue collar, no collar people from the burbs to the city and back. The customers cannot make some people care, but they aren't slow to complain if they're honked off either.
If the Met Council locked out the transit workersWM: The Met Council is offering a truly crummy contract to their personnel. Drivers make a living wage. They do a truly difficult job. They cannot afford to have their insurance jump to over $600 a month. That's what the Council is "offering." It really sucks.
or declared an impasse and unilaterally imposed a
contract, that would make the Republican state
government the aggressors, not the union.
WM: During the last strike (1995?) not much happened. It takes six weeks to train a driver to Smith standard and to 50 routes. After that they're rookies and they're slow and get lost and etc. for a while. Scabs cannot just walk in off the street, grab a bus, and pull out. That would create a mess you would not believe and the cops would become powerless to unsnarl it.In the event of a strike, how much Minneapolis police overtime money should be spent protecting scabs, or trying to catch anarchists who leave junker cars on freeways? The city might be sued if the police did anything during a strike.
WizardMarks, Central
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