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[meruvingian]

It's also a high stress job.  The average train engineer will drive over three people in his career.

To be fair Kicsi, I think you're underestimating a bit.  They probably drive WAY more than 3 people in their careers.

[Mortal Wombat]

Isnt train driving a skilled job? 50k dollars isnt a lot for something skilled. I wouldnt get by on 50k dollars very easily with a mortgage and family to consider. Also I kind of expect a rate of inflation wage rise, whatever my job is at whatever level.

I agree strikes should be a last resort, they fuck everyone up, but sometimes asking for whats right doesnt work. Lets not pretend this can be boiled down to "striking is always wrong or always right." I dont know enough about the profession to see if these guys demands are worth striking over, but does anyone else here making bold statements?

I admit I don't know about the Septa system but the BART system is almost completely automated and basically what the train operator does is they open and close the doors at the station.  I'm sure they're also responsible for hitting the emergency brake if they see anything.  That's about it.  $65,000 a year, $95,000 with benefits.  The SkyTrain in Vancouver is completely automated and there aren't even any operators on board.  Unless Septa is completely behind the times in technology it must be at least fairly dumbed down by now.

The BART strike was also about (among other things) making sure salaries went up by a set amount per year, at a time when people were losing their jobs.  Not good timing.  These guys are asking for more than the BART guys.  (They make less than them to begin with but when you account for cost of living in Pennsylvania vs the SF Bay Area they are probably doing better than the BART guys.)

Union workers, who earn an average $52,000 a year, are seeking an annual 4 percent wage hike and want to keep the current 1 percent contribution they make toward the cost of their health care coverage.

Maloney said SEPTA was offering an 11.5 percent wage increase over 5 years, with no raise in the first year, and increases in workers' pensions.

[fuzzywazzy]

Well things just keeping getting better in the City of Brotherly Love.

Not only that, but this follows another incident on Septa's only running rail line yesterday.

Traffic is clogging the highways of the Philadelphia regions like cholesterol from too many cheese steaks.

[Flying Deer]

Last year public transportation employees went on а strike here too. They wanted a raise and a week later they got it.

[Chairman_Meow]

This could all be solved by an old man with an onion tied to his belt.




Which was the style at the time.

[MikeSC]

Fair play to them, I suppose. Workers negotiating wages with bosses- Adam Smith would be proud. Their wages do seem excessive to me, but so do lots of wages and lots much higher than that. This is them working in their own interests- and why not? We all do.

It's not cool for people to be inconvenienced, of course. But it all just seems hypocritical to attack uppity working oiks for having the same aims as their bosses (to make as much money as they can barter for).

[Ryzhaya]

Sure, $65,000 a year, $95,000 with benefits, no actual work . . . but that doesn't end the loneliness.

[j mcfarl3]

Sure, $65,000 a year, $95,000 with benefits, no actual work . . . but that doesn't end the loneliness.

I appreciate that the gentleman asked to "fondle" the passenger.

"Yes, this is the green train to 34th, and pardon my imposition, but may I fondle you?"

I don't believe that driving a train is a skilled job. I DO believe that it's a municipal job, so it's done in the most fucking retarded, lazy-as-shit fashion possible. Call me a Republican, but most city workers (excluding the unavoidably municipal like police and judges) are a blight on society and a contradiction of the principles America was built upon.

[Sa9jev]

I would never make the statements that striking is either always bad or always good, but in this scenario, I can't think of it as anything but a dick move.

Is your workplace particularly dangerous or unhealthy, and you want things changed? Strike. Are you not making anything close to a realistic livable wage (and "what is livable" is another debate altogether)? Strike. Want a guaranteed raise every year no matter how you perform (and let's not pretend you're anywhere near the poverty line as it is, ridiculous though the defined poverty line may be) and you're willing to bring a major metropolitan area to a standstill unless you get it? Eat a dick.