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Transit talk gridlock: Public be damned
On Monday, the executive committee of Local 85 of the Amalgamated Transit Union authorized a strike vote on Nov. 20, just in time for the start of the Christmas shopping season. The idea is to leverage the public into leveraging transit officials to cave after more than four months of talks.
But a funny thing happened 'round these parts on the Overbrook Express to the 21st century: Union-inspired Luddite-ism doesn't play very well anymore. Witness the lack of public support in the ongoing strike by Pittsburgh parking lot and garage attendants.
Unresolved in the Port Authority-ATU dispute are raises, work rules and efforts by management to, holy smokes, better serve the public through some privatization. The union also is whining about demands for its members to pay something toward medical insurance; workers now pay nothing. How many of you making less have such a sweetheart deal?
The farcical North Shore Connector aside, the Port Authority knows it must change its ways to better serve the public and survive. That Local 85 bosses would authorize a strike shows that the public is their very last concern.
