If bus riders call their legislators to complain
about a bus strike, who will they be complaining to?
How many bus riders live in districts represented
by Republicans? That is the $64,000 question.
The Republican domination of state government makes
a huge difference.
How many suburban Republican legislators are going
to worry about losing the election if the bus strike
isn't settled soon?
If Tim Pawlenty was more like Tom DeLay a bus
strike might last a year.
Scabs can be recruited from from other states.
There was a bus strike in Las Vegas a couple of years
ago and they brought in scabs from other states to run
the buses. They wouldn't know the local streets.
Suppose the state workers who process unemployment
checks went on strike. Nobody else goes on strike, but
the unemployment checks don't go out. Would that scare
Republicans?
The strategic situation the transit workers are
facing is as bad as what the Local P-9 workers faced
in Austin. The meatpackers tried to do something that
was impossible. In yeaterday's Trib article Prof.
Peter Ratchleff said that the 1995 strike ended badly
for the transit workers. Peter Ratchleff was an
advisor to the P-9 workers and the "corporate
campaign".
I hate to pour cold water on people who want to
rage against the machine. But what will happen if the
transit workers strike and lose? What if a long strike
resulted in the repeal or gutting of PELRA? What
happens if a certain presidential candidate gets the
nomination and loses in a huge landslide?
I hope the transit workers don't try a conventional
strike. Creative tactics would be much better.
If the Met Council started training or recruiting
scabs in advance of a strike, that would raise a lot
of interesting issues. Would it be a legal or
acceptable use of public money?
Ed Fesler [EMAIL PROTECTED] Corcoran
--- WizardMarks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Ed Fesler wrote:
>
> > Here is the Trib story: IN RE: MCTO contract
> >
> >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?
> >
> WM: 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.
> 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 workers
> >or declared an impasse and unilaterally imposed a
> >contract, that would make the Republican state
> >government the aggressors, not the union.
> >
> WM: 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.
>
> >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.
> >
> 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.
>
> WizardMarks, Central
>
> >________________________________
> >
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> Discussion - Mn E-Democracy
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