Strike! Scratch a Liberal, Find a Fascist

[ed_rex]

With the deadline less than 12 hours away, there is a good chance Toronto's transit workers will strike in the early hours of Monday morning, leaving a half-million people to find alternate ways to get to work and school.

I can't say that my friends' list has been flooded with howls of outrage, but a few people are very miffed.

- "TTC strike... sucks ass. i really don't think they should be allowed to strike, because a-they're an essential service. b- they're partially funded by our tax dollars. c-they JUST fucking raised the prices.

"... them striking is akin to a 3 year old throwing a temper tantrum. eventually they'll get what they want, just because everyone is sick of dealing with them. they need to find some kind of better tactic to deal with their issues, rather than finding one that alienates the entire city..."

- "I don't live in a nice area, and I work far far away, so I am left FUCKED ... I am stuck either walking an hour and a half at around midnight through the seedy Lansdowne and Bloor area, or I stay at home and not work and not write my exams and not pay my rent this month, or I am to ride my bike through the heavily trafficked streets of Toronto...

"And for what? So that the transit unions can raise their average pay of $25 per hour and get rid of the penalties for being late or early to stops?"

It's not the half-truths that strike me (though I note the current top wage is under $25.00 per hour, and that the TTC makes this city vastly more liveable and so should be "partially funded by our taxes dollars" (a lot more than it is, in my opinion) or that the fact the TTC management just raised prices, not the union - but all that is beside my point), so much as it is the this evidence that principle sometimes means so little to people, when they are personally inconvenienced.

The TTC is an important service - indeed, it is arguably an essential service over the long run; taking a half-million cars off our roads is a Good Thing, for All of Us - but it is not an essential service in the way that ambulances or doctors and nurses are essential.

In a capitalist society, the only power workers have is the ability to withdraw their labour. Without the right to strike, employees would be at the mercy of their employers - in terms of wages, in terms of job security, in terms - essentially - of their very lives. In a capitalist society, the right to strike makes the difference between freedom and (de facto) slavery.

And for those I've heard describe driving a bus or streetcar as a "cushy" job, give me a break. Fighting traffic, dealing with drunks and crazies all day long is not cushy. It is hard, stressful work that requires constant attention both the road and to the passengers one is ferrying about the city. TTC drivers are reasonably well-paid, I suppose, but 50K a year is not going to make anyone in Toronto rich.

All right, fire away ...

Comments

[stolen-identity.livejournal.com]

LOL, hey, two of those comments belonged to me!!! :P

actually, i'm not really personally inconvenienced at all by this strike. school's all done, i've got nowhere i've gotta be that i can't get to. but that doesn't stop me from thinking that it's not fair for them to strike. i'm not a very big fan of unions in general. i think they were necessary back in the day, but not so much anymore.
i think people need to learn better ways of resolving their problems than saying "fuckit, i'm on strike" ... seriously. throughout school, all they ever teach you is to find different ways to resolve problems/differences.
but then talks break down, and they resort to this.
i would much rather have no such thing as a "strike deadline" and have an unbiased mediator in there. lock them in a room, don't let anyone out until they've reached something that makes both sides happy.

i'm not saying that they shouldn't get or don't deserve what they've asked for. but i absolutely do not agree with them hurting the people that rely on them, in order to get the attention of the bigwigs.

what's that phrase, you catch more flies with sugar than umm... salt? a lemon? LOL, i can't remember. but anyway. they should think about that, because in doing stuff like this, they aren't going to build a very big fanbase.

personally, i'd probably just suck it up and learn to drive downtown, if i had a job down there and worked up here, even after the strike was over. i'm not all that attatched to the service, simply because of things like this.


flame ahead! :D

[miyyu.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. I am in my local teachers union and we currently do not have a contract and have been working without one for over a year and a half. As teachers and public servants, we are not supposed to strike, and even the mention of it makes the public furious. Many of the people in the town do not want us to make more money in spite of how little we make comparitively considering both our education level and our pay scale compared to the rest of the area (lowest in the county by a LOT). (Side Note: how people can think that they want poorly paid and therefore poorly qualified people teaching their children is beyond me) And while we are not going on strike YET, we may very well have to, because at some point we will have no other means at our disposal and would otherwise be at the mercy of the school board.

I find that these contractual negotiations are often much more complex than the public thinks and there is a lot more at stake. I have learned a great deal being on the receiving end of it.

[sck5000.livejournal.com]

What a tragically poor analysis.

The reason they need unions is not because we live in a capitalist society, it's because we *don't live* in a capitalist society. The TTC is a subsidized, state-controlled monopoly - precisely the opposite of capitalism. The TTC is exactly the kind of transit system that would be offered in a Marxist utopia: a state-run, non-profit, single-option mass transit system mired in bureaucracy.

The strike is the inevitable result of no competition for the labor pool in mass-transit, the workers are held hostage by a single, monopolistic employer: the state. They have to form a union because with a single employer it is the only way to increase bargaining power in an economic model that does not have competition.

None of that is capitalism dude; so naturally I find it amusing that in your analysis you not only misidentified our best local example of Marxism as capitalism, but then went on to blame the failings of a Marxist structure as proof of the failures of capitalism. Young Geoff, this depressing misanalysis is precisely why I have trouble taking you leftists seriously; and why so many leftists are good artists but bad logicians.

[sabotabby]

I have the bias of being, at worst, slightly inconvenienced if the strike happens. I mean, I can walk to work (it's about an hour), get a lift from my boss, or work from home. I might not be able to get down to the pub as easily, but that's it.

Anyway; bottom line is, they have the right to strike. I hope it's over quickly because I'm incredibly TTC-reliant, but I support them even if it's fucking annoying.

[sooguy.livejournal.com]

I think people that have never belonged to a UNION don't appreciate the history of organized labour and how it's actually made their own jobs better.

I saw a bumper sticker once that summed it up nicely "Unions - The People that Brought You The Weekend"

Hard fought concessions that we take for granted today, like a 5 day work week and statutorary holidays were due in large to UNIONIZED workers forcing employers and gov't to provide them.

[amaaanda.livejournal.com]

I recognize those!


Now then, I was misinformed of the pay rate of TTC workers, who actually earn from $17 to $24.32 an hour, so I will give you that. BUT - that is still a fair amount for someone who doesn't do really hard labour. True, their jobs might involve fighting off homeless people and paying constant atention, but so does mine, and I do it while on my feet and for a pitiful $7.70 per hour. Working at a grocery store isn't really comparable to driving a subway, but theirs is definitely cushier than mine. 50 K a year is not going to make anyone rich, nor should it, being given to someone who hasn't had to receive higher learning or a specific degree to work that job. Hell, I'm going into journalism, and am getting a degree for it, and I'll still be lucky to make that much.

Unions are a necessity, but you have to admit that some unions promote slacking off because it is so difficult to get fired. I've seen the paperwork involved with the unions at my work, and it's ridiculous sometimes. The thing is, what the TTC workers are fighting against isn't all that serious. If they were being grossly mistreated, then I would fully support their right to strike and gladly walk to work. But that isn't the case. Not one bit.

And the TTC is essential in this city, because with the 1.4 million or whatever people in their cars on the roads, traffic would be so that ambulances, firetrucks, and police cars couldn't function to do their jobs. Add to that the amount of pedestrian homicides, and occurences of road rage, blablabla. I wasn't here in 1999, but I have seen it when there was a power outage for a half hour at Yonge and Dundas, and that in itself was chaos. The "neccessary" services can't function without the TTC in proper functioning order.

In short, let's agree to disagree, and if I made no sense, ask me to clarify, because I have had to pee really bad for the past 20 minutes and don't care enough to look this over...

[beable]

A day and penny later, (giving me time to read the comments as well) but I think it is a growing trend.

When PSAC was in a strike position, alot of people I know were complaining about the inconvenience of having large amounts of people picketing in front of downtown buildings, and the traffic slowdowns and disruptions this inevitably causes.

It surprises me how many people my age and younger in particular are anti-union for precisely the reasons mentioned above either in comments or quoted arguments. It's like we (people, Canadians, pick a label, etc) don't have a sense of history, and don't have an awareness of how easily the ground previously one can be taken away again. Then again I'd say the same thing about many things such as freedom and privacy as well. The popular notion that "we are a free, democratic society" so we don't have to work constantly to maintain this state is symptomatic of the same complacency.

Eh, thanks. Whether I said anything or not, for giving me the opportunity to pontificate.