Will I See You Tonight, On the Downtown Train?

I’ve not been a New Yorker for almost sixteen years now, but the wonderful city sits fondly in my consciousness. I think I finally grew up there, albeit I was in my thirties. And so I have been reading the reports in The New York Times of the Transit Strike with considerable interest. I think I lived in the City during the last transit strike twenty-five years ago. I worked then on Long Island and took public transportation daily to my position with the Great Neck Public Schools, and I remember having to join Bruce Thompson’s car pool during the strike’s duration. I returned to public transportation when the trains began again to run, and though the cost had increased, the ease of travel was well worth it. The car pool had never been free anyway, and some in the car liked too much to converse at early hours.


I remember also the PATCO strike, and standing on Fifth Avenue watching the Labor Day Parade and the striking air traffic controllers, all recently fired by Ronald Reagan, march proudly with their picket signs. I was a Marxist then, and was incensed at the callous and vicious attack on workers by government officials who never worked a day-job in their lives.

And I will not address the courts imposing on the Union a million dollar daily fine for calling a strike, and I will not address the threatened personal fines to the Union’s leadership for calling the strike, and I will not address the Transit Authority’s last minute demand that new workers pay 6% of their pensions, resulting in a 4% loss in their annual salary. I think these are all unconscionable acts. I want to address Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s harsh criticism of the Union for doing its job and supporting its members. Because multi-millionaire Michael Bloomberg doesn’t worry about health care and job security and pension funds. Michael Bloomberg is fabulously wealthy and need care little from where his next meal or warm jacket will come. Michael Bloomberg will ease his way into retirement very, very secure and comfortable. And so, until every worker feels a security in their financial future not identical, but similar to that held by Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg, I would suggest that Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg refrain from making judgment on the Union which worries about its members pension funds, and cease criticizing the workers whose futures Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg would put in jeopardy.