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In the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the MTC (Metropolitan Transit Commission) bus drivers, et. al., are on strike because they face the horrible prospect of {gasp} actually having to provide for their own health care after retiring, like private sector workers have always had to do. MTC management doesn't want to take that beneift away from existing workers, mind you, they just don't want any new, incoming employees to be eligible for it.

This from a government entity that never, ever comes close to breaking even, to say nothing of turning a profit. A local radio show today stated that the annual cost of paying for MTC retiree's health care costs has grown to $255 million, with no end in sight. Oh, and as the strike began, they were just putting the finishing touches on an unwanted, unneeded $800 million commuter-rail line that runs all of ten miles from downtown Mpls to the Mall of America. Said rail-line has yet to haul a single, paying passenger, and now sits idle because the underworked whiners who should be running it are on strike.

One of the bright spots of the strike is that the Mall of America has reported drastic decreases in shoplifting since the buses stopped hauling people down there.

Negotiations are almost non-existent due to the unreasonable demands of these government 'workers'. I say fire the whole lot of them immediately and start over with people who know what reality is all about. When the government gets too bloated and it's employees start earning more in total than the people paying their salaries, trouble is afoot.

Negotiations are almost non-existent due to the unreasonable demands of these government 'workers'.

Good post.

What is ironic here, is that in the past 4 or 5 years, most of the hard working, non government employed citizens, have had to take cuts in their benefits, or pay more for them *while* still working. And many have had their medical benefits cut all together.

Something is very disturbing about this picture.