The fact that people buy into their dog whistle politics are whats wrong with this country. It hit me very hard while enjoying a cup coffee with a few old friends, when unexpectedly the conversation turned into discussion about the drink tax.
The four of us grew up together in a working-class, (predominantly Italian) neighborhood in the city of Pittsburgh. We were all raised by union families. Many of us went to Catholic schools, paid for by our parents' union wages. Most of our parents are living secure retirements, because of their union pensions. Three of us are union members now. It was therefore, shocking and depressing to me when the fourth one of us, declared that they should privatize the Port Authority and that he didn't think it was fair that the public has to pay for the Port Authority with the drink tax.
It was like my heart broke to hear him say that.
The complete line of bull that is being fed to the people of Allegheny County by the media in this town about the Port Authority & ATU Local 85 contract talks sickens me.
Why is the local media (irresponsibly) feeding the citizens of Allegheny County the idea that Local 85 is going on strike-- like it is inevitable?
Why is it OK for the media to fill the heads of the tax payers of this region with lies?
Why is it OK for local news papers to print "plant stories" by Port Authority Management?
Why is it OK for all the mismanagement over the years to be taken out on the workers?
Fear, Jealousy, and Misinformation is the key to their success. Just when ridership is on the steady up rise they want to put the fear of a work stoppage in the public's head.
They try to make people jealous by posting salaries of drivers and maintenance workers, because they know that many people who ride public transit are victims of our low-wage economy. To people who are struggling to make it in a non-union job, our salary can seem like a lot. In reality, bus drivers are making enough to live a decent life, not an extravagant life. Very few of us are able to sacrifice our personal and family time to work the amount of over time you have to work to exceed than the 40,000 average salary.
They constantly give misinformation on ATU member's pensions and the supposed cuts in management jobs.
Why are Jake Haulk of the Allegheny Institute and Ken Zapinski of the Allegheny Conference so motivated to constantly take a one sided approach to this topic. What is their motivation to rip off the blue collar, hard working, people of Allegheny County who use public transit.
Or, maybe it's just the (over-paid, lazy) Unionized workers that they're after.These people are here for good old fashioned UNION BUSTING, and they need your help. They want to enrage ordinary people to help them further their agenda:
The complete line of bull that is being fed to the people of Allegheny County by the media in this town about the Port Authority & ATU Local 85 contract talks sickens me.
Why is the local media (irresponsibly) feeding the citizens of Allegheny County the idea that Local 85 is going on strike-- like it is inevitable?
Why is it OK for the media to fill the heads of the tax payers of this region with lies?
Why is it OK for local news papers to print "plant stories" by Port Authority Management?
Why is it OK for all the mismanagement over the years to be taken out on the workers?
Fear, Jealousy, and Misinformation is the key to their success. Just when ridership is on the steady up rise they want to put the fear of a work stoppage in the public's head.
They try to make people jealous by posting salaries of drivers and maintenance workers, because they know that many people who ride public transit are victims of our low-wage economy. To people who are struggling to make it in a non-union job, our salary can seem like a lot. In reality, bus drivers are making enough to live a decent life, not an extravagant life. Very few of us are able to sacrifice our personal and family time to work the amount of over time you have to work to exceed than the 40,000 average salary.
They constantly give misinformation on ATU member's pensions and the supposed cuts in management jobs.
Why are Jake Haulk of the Allegheny Institute and Ken Zapinski of the Allegheny Conference so motivated to constantly take a one sided approach to this topic. What is their motivation to rip off the blue collar, hard working, people of Allegheny County who use public transit.
Or, maybe it's just the (over-paid, lazy) Unionized workers that they're after.These people are here for good old fashioned UNION BUSTING, and they need your help. They want to enrage ordinary people to help them further their agenda:
- They want you to write letters to the editor, send emails and and write comments agreeing with them on their blogs about the overpaid bus drivers.
- They want you to stand around the office water cooler with your co-workers and bad mouth "Union Workers".
Come on, who are the Allegheny Conference, or groups who want to privatize transit like the Allegheny Institute looking out for?? Is it you? Is it me?
Most union members appreciate their union and would not deny another worker the right to have a union-- that's why it's called the Labor Movement. But the Allegheny Institute and the Allegheny Conference want you believe Unions are what is destroying America. They are pitting us against one another while every day their Big Business, Corporate backed Think Tank mentality tears the middle class apart.
9 comments:
I appreciate your frustration. The truth is that the Allegheny Conference is a big supporter of public transit. The Conference stood up for the drink tax to save transit funding when few others did. And everything we are doing is to save a system and help it be one that the community -- and the employees -- can rightly take pride in.
The unfortunate fact is that there is only so much money available from the state and local government to fund the Port Authority. Without a reworked contract, there will be service cuts and layoffs. I'm not sure whether union leadership doesn't believe the Port Authority's projections, or it feels that more money will come from somewhere to expand the budget. But the numbers are what the numbers are, and wishing it were otherwise won't change it.
I appreciate this opportunity, and I welcome your participation at my blog if you want to engage in a discussion.
Ken Zapinski, Allegheny Conference.
Dear Cowboy Neal,
Thanks for making this blog and this post. I too am grateful for my father's union and the secure childhood I had because of it.
I'm also grateful for Port Authority Transit because of how mobile my city childhood was because of it. (54c forever!)
What can supporters of transit (and transit workers!) do to help save our system?
divide and conquer that's the only way the elite can rule in a democracy. we can only hope that the average joe doesn't allow their propoganda to influence their thinking as fact but unfortunately in today's world the only independent media that exists is the internet. and the newspapers wonder why they lose readership
Sorry MR. Ken you saying your a big supporter of public transit is a lot like a hungry lion being a supporter of an antelope. Just like the lion the conference has their eyes on the prize. And in this case the prize is a public transit system and your food will be an unsuspecting public doling out their tax dollars thru the guise of a public-private consortium. Pgh transportation group(Veolia) will be the beneficiary and the taxpayer will once again be left footing the bill. The conference is in the midst of creating a imaginary crisis thru the BS of a strike by local 85. Funny thing I haven't heard local 85 mention anything about a strike but you guys have every one in fear of just such an occurence. Just like I said divide and conquer. "A crisis real or perceived is the only way to implement change". Milton Friedman said this at the University of Chicago and the Allegheny Conference has every intention of doing this exact thing here.
Thanks for posting my comment. The invitation is always open to come comment and discuss at NoCommuterLeftBehind.com. I'm not sure there is anything that I could say that would change your mind, but the Allegheny Conference has never talked about privatization of the system as a solution.
As for discussion of a strike, please see Pat McMahon's comments in the May 23 Post-Gazette (not to mention this morning's Tribune Review.)
yes when there are absolutely no intentions of bargaining in good faith what is local 85 to do? however as far as strike talk goes the only ones I hear talking seriosly of a strike are the downtown parnership and newspapers. why all the scare tactics when local 85 the only ones who can call for a strike haven't scheduled for a strike vote. but yet for months voices out there have ominously set a strike scenario.Pat McMahon was simply responding to a question of a strike not saber rattling as the opposition has done. There is absolutely no give and take on mgmts.side in these talks just take and hence when one side doesn't budge at all there is no bargaining in good faith. Let's see if there is any common ground from the fact finder but I seriously doubt if the authority will sit down and budge at all.It's my belief political deals have already been done with the county exec. and the fact that the Authority is spending tax payer money heavily on a lobbying agenda to change the 2nd class port authority act will bear this out and that fact can't be denied.
son of the greatest--
can you explain what you mean by:
the fact that the Authority is spending tax payer money heavily on a lobbying agenda to change the 2nd class port authority act will bear this out and that fact can't be denied.
what do they want changed in the legislation?
The port Authority is trying to implement a privitization clause as introduced by state reps (R's- Allegheny County) Mike Turzai and Mark Mustio under the guise of introducing competition in our transit system, making the 2nd class Port Authority act null and void. Also on June 15th 2007, as the yearly service cuts were being implemented a news release was announced by the Allegheny county Port Authority that the transit agencies surrounding us (Westmoreland, Beaver,Meyers,Mon-Valley, and so on)would be allowed to pick up and drop off in Allegheny County in clear violation of the 2nd class Port Authority act. Realizing they had no legal leg to stand on they allowed this to pass, however their intentions were clearly announced with this news release.
Also I must add at the same time Connect "09" was annouced as a transit strategy to be implemented in an 18 month time frame which would begin in roughly Jan. 09 hence the name connect "09"
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