Arguments for and against the TWU | Philly

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Friday, November 6, 2009

Arguments for and against the TWU

Daily News columnists bring the hammer down on the TWU today. Let's start with Ronnie Polaneczky:

You ... have a bizarre notion that you're in some sort of profit-sharing relationship with SEPTA. Brown has pointed out that, while the economy is doing badly, SEPTA is not. Ridership is up, and the agency has gotten money from state and stimulus funds. So, your warped thinking goes, you're entitled to a fatter slice of the pie.

News flash: It's not your pie. It's ours. If SEPTA is flush, it's incumbent on the agency to plow that money back into new equipment, improved routes and - here's a fun idea - customer-service training for workers whose job protection keeps them from caring whether they snarl or smile at us.

Christine Flowers:

Even in normal times, the package that SEPTA workers have is a good one. In this depressed economy, with people looking for whatever work they can get and juggling two or more jobs, it's a blessing. So for the TWU to petulantly stamp its collective foot and demand even more when the city and the state are making drastic cuts (and SEPTA is suffering substantial losses in revenue) seems a bit, well, breathtakingly selfish.

Over at Young Philly Politics, Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg argues the other side:

Despite their poorly timed, late night decision to walk out, I support the TWU. The social compact that existed from the time of my great-grandfather, the working-class, trolley driving father of 12, all the way to my parents, is slipping away. With desperate poverty, crappy schools, and little to no manufacturing base, social mobility is less and less a realistic option for way too many families in America.

Every single job in Philadelphia that still pays decently, is secure, and doesn’t require a higher education, is an absolute blessing for our society, and is an avenue to empowerment for another family. Each one holds our society together. The higher we pay our janitors and security guards and nursing assistants and hotel workers and construction workers and SEPTA bus drivers and mechanics, the better off we all are. That is why I support the TWU.

The good news, at least, is that the Inquirer is reporting a settlement might be near.

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Posted by Doron Taussig @ 8:49 AM Permalink | 5 comments

Comments

Posted 09:39 AM, 11/06/2009

myu

I never really support any unions in US. Because Unions give me an impression of much lower productivity and over-protection of the lazy/bad workers among the good workers. TWU still has pention which is rare in most companies. They should be thankful. They don't want to contribute more to the pention plan and complaint the pention fund did not perform. Are they out of their mind!? They did not know how bad the stock market has been in the last two year! I work for a Software company. In our company, we have not gotten a raise for two years, because of the bad economy. On the other hand, TWU workers are promised with 11.5% raise in 5 years from SEPTA. But that is not good enough! TWU is too greedy! Raise or not should depend on the company's performance, not a promise. TWU is using regular people's suffering of no public transportation as a leverage to negociate with SEPTA. Shame on you, TWU!

Posted 10:27 AM, 11/06/2009

MB6

So many people resent the transit workers for having better benefits yet none of them would consider getting a job with SEPTA and driving a bus for a living, even those currently unemployed. If those jobs are so fantastic, then in a competitive marketplace they should be the top jobs desired even by college graduates who cannot otherwise earn better wages, healthcare or pension benefits. But that's not happening. Neither are those resentful workers noticing that their college educations alone do not ensure good wages and benefits and that the primary difference is that unionized workers have held onto basic benefits more effectively than non-unionized workers. Instead of complaining, workers with weak benefits would do better to study labor history and learn that unions fought hard for their benefits by organizing and going on strike. And that for a long time in this country, white collar workers took a free ride off the efforts of blue collar workers who established the baseline for decent working conditions for everyone. The fact that most privately employed workers do not have these basics says everything about the quality of those jobs and nothing about the so-called greed of transit workers who do not earn high salaries and who face greater risks for personal injury on the job.

Posted 10:45 AM, 11/06/2009

BarryG

The pro-strike people never argue the merits of the strike. They argue the merits of organized labor. Great, but a right to strike is not an entitlement for everything you ask for. As the blog title states, this is OUR money, and it is not surprising the we, the funders and customers of SEPTA, are seeing this issue through the eyes of management. Just because you believe in workers rights doesn't mean the workers are always right.

Posted 11:21 AM, 11/06/2009

myu

I think at the beginning of Unions, they had some good purposes to protect workers rights. But as time goes by, Unions have too much power, abuse their power, and cause a lot of overhead costs and inefficency. Union system is more socializm than China, a socializm country. It is not because those unemployed people do not want to be a bus driver. It is because TWU will not allow anybody else to drive the bus except union members. I bet a lot of unemployed people would not mind to be a bus driver.

Posted 12:01 PM, 11/06/2009

ben715

Well said, BarryG. Just because you support unions and strikes in general does not mean you HAVE to support every union and every strike.

5 comments

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Ben Waxman reports and blogs for “It's Our Money.” Before joining “It's Our Money,” he was a regular contributor to the Philadelphia Daily News op-ed page and former contributor to the blog Young Philly Politics. He studied political science at Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA.

Doron Taussig is the Project Manager for “It's Our Money.” He is also a graduate student in communications at Temple University. Previously he worked as a Staff Writer and News Editor for the Philadelphia City Paper.

Dave Merrell is the Web Editor for "It's Our Money." He comes to the project from Philly.com, where he is a web producer. Originally from upstate New York, he moved to Philadelphia after graduating from Haverford College with a degree in math and economics.

Anthony Campisi reports and blogs for "It's Our Money." Originally hailing from Central Jersey, he came to Philadelphia while a student at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied intellectual history. He also writes about transportation for PlanPhilly, an innovative urban planning website started by PennPraxis, the consulting arm of the Penn School of Design.