If you take a look at the plight of US auto manufacturers due to the cost of labor and the strength of the United Auto Workers (UAW), you may see my point.
I understand this time, the union wanted more than an annual 3% raise, and didn't want to fork over 1% of their salary to contribute to health care benbefits...they currently don't contribute one dime toward the premiums, and wanted to increase the retirement age on new hires from 55 to 62.
Personally, I think the city has had a lot of time to reach an agreement and declined to bargain.
What I don't like is that everyone...every business suffers, but the acrimony should be targeted toward BOTH sides, IMO.
But why the should they have? These people make a good salary for not a lot of skills. They can't pay 1% toward health care? Let 'em go pound the pavement for comparable pay. They won't find it. The city should stand firm and fire anyone who doesn't show up to work tomorrow. End of story.
No one likes a strike...Employer, or employees...
The employees obviously feel the issues disputed are worth losing their jobs over...And the media rarely informs the public what labor issues are really at stake...
What we know is the employer wants concessions...In my view, if the economy is doing as well as Bush says it is (which I don't believe for a minute), I don't see any reason for any concessions to the employees...
Wrong.
Every private sector worker contributes to their own health insurance, usually about 6% of each paycheck.
The TWU worker pays nothing. The city suggested that new hires, and only new hires, pay 1%.
The TWU's response: "We want increased benefits with no contribution from any worker."
The city wanted to shift retirement age from 55 to 62 for full pension benefits.
The TWU's response: "Not only do we reject a retirement age increase, we demand a reduction in retirement age to 50 will full pension."
The city suggested that future wage increases be tied to inflation.
The TWU's response: "Not only do we reject wage increases indexed to inflation, we demand a wage increase 8 times the current inflation rate."
The city was more than reasonable, but the TWU are unreasonable, disgusting, greedy, lazy, scummy bastards.
Period.
No rational person can possibly think otherwise.