SHAME ON YOU TWU

So my venture into work this morning started with the morning news "TRANSIT STRIKE
2005". I sat with G who ran into the next room hissing "yesssssssssssssssssss" after the announcement of the two hour delays for New York City public schools. My first instinct was to say "fuck it, Im staying home" Then they started showing clips of each side's heated words towards one another (The TWU and the MTA). The TWU wants a 10.5% raise- not settling for 9%- instead of having to contribute 1% to health benefits they do not want to contribute at all. Toussant is quoted as saying "the MTA is trying to keep the MTA workers in the middle class and we will not tolerate that". So, I got annoyed and off to Craigslist I went.

I checked the "rideshare" section and found someone who needed two other people to meet the 4 person minimum to get into the city. They were going to 55 and lex not far from my office. SO I called and a very nice young man named Jason answered. I explained to him that I was in Astoria, not far from the 59th street bridge. I told him I would try to get another person to come in, but if not we still had enough people. We agreed to meet at Ditmars and 21. So I dropped G off at school, and bundled up (because if course its BITTER cold out today)and waited on the corner of 21 and Ditmars (at a bus stop). Traffic was horrible throughout Queens and they got held up somewhere around Northern Blvd. I offered to get everyone coffee but they all declined. So I sat on that corner with my cup of coffee waiting. "Hey you know the Busses are not working, they are on strike" at least 4 people said to me. Wow, New Yorkers are so helpful sometimes. SO I waited until the blue audi station wagon pulled up and called my cell phone 3 men were in the car waving excitedly at me. I ran over to the car. All three were very flamboyant gay men, all with southern accents. Oh, god that made me miss my mom and her friends in New Orleans. For some reason black gay men and Latino gay men just make feel like Im with my people. I guess its the way I grew up, with my mom and her friends and most of my highschool friends were black or puertorican gay men, so I was thrilled. We get into the car and they are blasting Mariah Carey, and all get to chatting. Down 21 street traffic is clear. So we start all singing "Vision of Love" with the windows down inbetween asking what each person does and descriptions of how Mariah Carey has morphed into a tacky yenta. The two men in the front were engaged and the guy in the back was a co worker. They all work at a cd store right by my office. We get to 59th street bridge upper level and its totally CLEAR. By the time we reached 55th and lex we were pumping "dream lover" and exchanging numbers. I offered to give our driver, Jason 10.00 but he declined. So, Duane or Jason if you are reading this, THANK YOU SO MUCH! God, I love NYC when shit happens.


Fuck you TWU. That is all I have to say, you greedy bastards. Toussant is a babbling moron. What the hell kind of statement is it to say "they are trying to keep us in the middle class?" Dude, your a fucking buss driver, or booth clerk. Give me a break. Not to mention when do you ever see a nice booth clerk? When?!? And you want a 10.5% raise? Are you smoking rock?!? Here is a newsflash- there are thousands of people chomping at the bit to get your job- you are sooo replaceable. And who was the idiot that made the contract end right before Christmas? My Christmas shopping is no where NEAR done, and there is a strike, this is horrible. So TWU, you get bad karma, bad bad evil blue Karma for this stint. Fuckers. Now before I get hate mail, I am all for workers rights, and the right to strike, but the fuckin TWU- these people make decent salary and get better benefits than most of us who work in the private sector. I mean they get better benefits than doctors and lawyers that I know! So, to use their power to hold the city hostage right before Christmas to get its ridiculous demands met just screws the middle class working New Yorkers.

Shame on you, TWU.