"MTA workers earn between $47,000 and $55,000 annually"


This is a ridiculous salary for a bus driver. Public employee unions are a burden on society. In the private sector these salaries could not be upheld because competition would bury them. Government workers don't worry or care about profit or competition so they are free to make exorbitant demands.

Whenever large services are in question which are heavily used by extremely large publics, there really should be some kind of bar to this kind of strike; the effects would be almost the same as a terrorist strike, especially dealing with something like public transit in a city like NY that relys on it heavily. I believe it is an illegal strike, but how anyone can force the workers back to work is another question.

You're absolutely right: the MTA's "gifts" are pretty stupid, all things considered. Whoever came up with that program should be fired, as should those who endorsed it. Where is the Mayor in all this? Does he have any oversight over this kind of idiocy & the MTA Board?

Meanwhile, you all have my wholehearted sympathy & best wishes this gets resolved soon.

It would appear Bloomberg sides with the MTA simply on the basis that the strike will cost the city itself, not just the MTA, an estimated 400 million dollars per day. That's simply insane that the TWU can have that type of power, but it's quite real.

It seems kind of class-snobbish to admit that I think a busdriver or anyone else with only a high school diploma (if that) can earn that much, but it's true, I do feel that way. Argh! The Left is going to burn my membership card! Oh, well - c'est la vie.

"It seems kind of class-snobbish to admit that I think a busdriver or anyone else with only a high school diploma (if that) can earn that much"

Yes, it certainly doesn't feel right to limit what someone should be able to earn but it is sometimes necessary. Cab drivers earn $22K average salary in the competitive transportation system. Teachers in New York earn an average of $53K, but they must have a college degree. It seems the MTA should be somewhere in the middle at about $40K but they are already much higher.

To a non-New Yorker the strike seems a little bit outrageous. If the MTA had an extra Billion maybe it should give those taxes back to the cabdriver and other private sector workers who makes $22k/year rather than give them to the comparatively overpaid MTA workers.

By striking illegally they have put their own personal greed above the economic wellbeing of the New Yorkers who pay their salaries. It's a tragedy and a vivid example of what causes the anti-union sentiment in the private sector.

Next question: IS this an "illegal" strike? On the radio this morning (WTOP) they were saying it was, and the union would be paying some enormous amount for striking (per diem), plus the workers would be suspended 2 days for every day they were out, etc. etc. Is this a symbolic thing, where they're just out until the weekend, or is it until further notice? Can they be ordered back to work by a court, and who would enforce it?

It's definitely illegal for them to strike. The legal ramifications have yet to be handed down, although the two-days-workpay lost for each day on strike is set in stone. You have to wonder if most of these workers really want to follow the leaders who declare they must strike.

As for their current salary, I challenge any bus driver or train operator to come sit in my corporate cubicle and use Photoshop, Illustrator and Quark to any efficiency, and see if I deserve less pay than them. Or is it simply because I don't have an union behind me? Yeah, I know... someone's bound to say, "The world ain't fair, kid!" So it goes. ;o)

I probably have a conflict since my father was a bus driver in another city and my grandfather helped found the union. It is a tough job, and I don't begrudge them their $47,000-$50,000 pay. That kind of money does not go very far in NYC. Having said that, though, I do not think that public service workers should have the right to strike because they are relatively well compensated and have many means for improving their lot, either through politics or through collective bargaining. When they strike they are hurting only the people who need the services that they provide, not some greedy fat cat capitalists. The greedy fat cat capitalists do not ride the subway. In the week before Xmas in a city that depends so much on public transportation, they are hitting NYC's entire economy. Hard to believe that the MTA amassed a surplus of $1 billion. I guess their "gifts" to you were a ham-handed way of returning the surplus to riders. There is not much of a case for using the surplus to increase salaries. Besides, as I understand it, the issue was the TWU's demand for generous pensions for new hires. Where will the money come from to pay those pensions 25 years from now? As Instapundit said, "What would Giuliani do?"

"Public employee unions are a burden on society." What about all of the public assistance that companies get on the backs of the workers of NYC? Or companies like McDonald's who get money from the government to train workers when in fact, they aren't training their lower level employees. The real burdens come from greedy corporations who hoard the money so they can get HUGE bonuses while the workers get cuts in benefits and raises that are below the cost of living!

As far as the salaries that these public employees are making, I think it's more than fair considering that in all union jobs there are salary caps! If you are not promoted to a new position with higher salary ranges - a worker will not gain anymore money.

I also think that it does not matter that many of these workers only have high school diplomas! If they were CEOs of companies and only had their H.S. diplomas, no one would say anything about the bloated salaries they got as a CEO!

My first office job was as a claims examiner which happened to be an OPEIU union job. The benefits I had were 20 sick days, every federal gov't holiday off, the day after Thanksgiving and 10 vacation days. Once I hit 5 years, I got 15 vacation days. In July, we got a small cost of living raise and on the anniversary of our contract we got our annual raise. I had top of the line insurance that I did not pay a dime for. When I tell people this, they can't believe it. And when I tell you that these were not GIFTS from the company - there were plenty of heated negotiations that took place for these types of benefits!

The reason I bring this up is that this should not be the exception - it should be the rule for workers. Yet, people snarl at the "greed" of the TWU when in fact, they should be asking why the federal government (who works for us) doesn't not try to pass legislation to promote good benefits and fair wages for american workers.

If it weren't for unions, many of the benefits that we are presently losing as american workers wouldn't even exist. Look how they are taking back the 35 hour work week! Pensions are slowly disappearing. Alot of the safety standards that were put in place are being taken away (* meat processing plants) and all for corporate greed.

Regardless of a workers position in a company, we all help make the company money. If it wasn't for the mailroom person, the mail wouldn't get out. Is it fair that he only gets 2% while the person making 3-5 times his salary sits at a desk and creates products that make the company millions gets a 10% raise? I think not! Wake up and smell the coffee.

Well, actually I rant all the time about bloated CEO salaries, regardless of their qualifications. NO ONE - not athletes, entertainers, CEOs, or anyone else - should be making the obscene amount of money these people (athletes, entertainers, CEOs, etc.) make; there's no excuse for it, and what they do is not THAT valuable.

You people are all intellectual lightweights. The only way to fight the carnival of greed let loose upon our land is to strike.

It's no carnival if both sides of the strike are clowns, Dorian.

Listen...all you snobs who think these guys in the union are greedy, probably felt that certain ethnic groups were "greedy" when they demanded fair and equal treatment in American society. same old thing...You know how to use quark, but a high school graduate makes more than you ? Step up your game, and learn how to hustle HARDER. Never begrudge another man for making more than you, or wanting more than you. That's a FEMALE trait.

Very good job writing on this issue, Mark.

I would point out to comrade D that capitalism has to do with supply and demand - not what is fair.

Equal pay for all jobs sounds more like socialism.

Ive read all these comments about how you busdrivers only have a high school diploma and how you are already over paid.Stay on strike and see the worth of your diploma grow exponentionally.
I mak six figures in a state where I can buy a house for five figures. I wouldnt live in NY with my six figures so I definately dont expect you to live there for less.

Now the right is going to burn my card.

Bud: This has nothing to do with race. If these People should strike when their benefits are taken away (which they aren't), if they're working close to minimum wage, or reasons similar to that... not because they want an 8% annual raise instead of 4%. That's greed, pure and simple. If they don't like the raise amount, they should quit and get another job like the rest of us working stiffs have to do... instead of screwing all of the commuters over.

Lots of folks should be hustling harder, not just me. However, I'm not marching with a sandwich sign to say so.

I am a New Yorker, though I left New York early in the morning the day of the strike to go home for Christmas and don't return until January 28 (hopefully the strike will be over by then). It's really hard for me because I'm not exactly sure who to side with. The TWU is really screwing New Yorkers over who have to get to work AND to school and go Christmas shopping and many other things in 20 degree weather. However, when I hear about their new contract's change for their pension plan (you can't retire until 62 or something like that and you have to work for a longer time), it makes me understand why they're striking. But some of this is honestly greed. To ask for a 24% raise over 3 years is absolutely RIDICULOUS, especially for a group of people who are blue collar workers. Yes, your job is very important, yes your job makes the city run, but such is the case for Garbage Men and Postal Workers. That doesn't give you the luxury of asking for ridiculous demands and overestimating your worth. A raise? Yes. 24%? Outrageous.

Pretty difficult to support a family in NYC on $47-55K. The rents are very high in the city.

8%/year over three years actually compounds year-over-year, so it becomes more than 24%. It's too much, IMHO.

Most city employees aren't making a killing or getting rich. Like the rest of us, they're just trying to get by.

In this age of disappearing unions and the non-union employee, I kind of like to see them hold strong and not give anything up.

But I do know also what it's like to do back breaking work in NYC and have to support two on $20K, coming home dog-tired and beat.

Health care was something imaginary and alien to me and a lot of guys who worked a lot of the same jobs.

On 20K a year, you either have to live really far away, or closer, but in a crappy, scary neighborhood.

Either way, you probably wouldn't have a car; it's public transportation or nothing. 15 mile walks across suspension bridges and through warehouse districts and slums just aren't on, even in warm spring sunshine.

So the average joe in New York simply wasn't feeling much holiday cheer towards MTA or TWU; not after getting dumped off in the cold, abruptly. And not with the mayor lividly shouting words like "illegal" about it.

The loser in all of this are the long-suffering but stoic and brave New Yorkers; who had to get to work by either wit or sheer force of will.

The union, by going on strike, cut the jugulars of the city; people simply couldn't get to work, and endured a lot if they tried.

The MTA is already assumed to be weasels by most New Yorkers, although they gained goodwill for their mostly-excellent post-9/11 efforts. The union isn't starving; the New Yorkers who live the farthest or in the most impoverished areas, and need the transportation the most, and had their very Christmas messed up, are liable not to be in a pro-union spirit at the moment, even Democrats. Because many who vote Democrat in New York aren't members of unions, and never will be.

It's not ironic in any way; it's very logical.

Smart move by all concerned to get the city moving again. There could have been mobs with torches on Christmas Eve. Bad move by the union, on a public relations level.

I left New York in 1979 to pursue greener pastures elswhere (and wound up with manure for six years).

I remember being cheated out a victory celebration in January 1966 by Mike Quill, but I rapidly saw what kind of man "I am the mayor" John Lindsay was. I did not make the mistake of supporting him again. In my eyes, Mike Quill got what was coming to him, though. That transit strike in 1966 was his last.

I can't comment on the issues in this strike, but can honestly tell you all that from what little I remember of prices in NYC, $55,000 a year is a reasonable wage for a bus driver.

In principle, I suport unions, but in my eyes, the unions should be on the MTA board and be held partly responsible for the performance of the city's transit system. It would be very clear that way who was throwing the shoe in the works if the transit system didn't work properly.

I would apply that same principle to the teachers' unions and the Board of Education.

Finally, being a Democrat in NYC is not a meaningful statement at all. At least a card carrying Republican can make a few dollars on primary and election days.