At last! Laurie Blake of the Star Tribune has a good article that answers the question of which side is willing to prevent a strike through arbitration:
http://startribune.com/stories/462/4630233.html In January the union and the Republican Met Council avoided a strike by agreeing to submit the dispute to binding arbitration. The Pawlenty Met Council reneged on its committment to binding arbitration. In a nutshell, here are the positions of the two parties: The Republican Met Council wants a strike or else a total surrender by the union. Take it or leave it. The Transit Workers want a negotiated settlement and are also willing to submit the dispute to binding arbitration. The Pawlenty Met Council has been hiding behind procedural issues to avoid binding arbitration. The Republicans who control state government are the aggressors. They are forcing a strike. The root cause of this strike are the Republican budget cuts. They are wrecking the Mpls public schools (see David Rubenstein's op-ed in the Trib a few days ago). Here is David Rubenstein's article: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4620599.html This bus strike is another attack on the inner cities. Bus riders need to know who caused this strike and who the real enemy is. Michelle Sommers of the Transit Workers union has an op-ed piece that refutes the propaganda put out by the union-busters: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/4629820.html Ed Fesler [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minneapolis __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Get better spam protection with Yahoo! Mail. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
