It didn’t take too long for the great American pretext of race to show its face as the Transit Workers Union in New York City bargains to maintain their quality of life. The city’s Mayor, MICHAEL BLOOMBERG has called the Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers “thugs” and the Governor of New York has deemed the strike illegal.
Mayor Bloomberg’s chief argument against these workers is that there are people that want to sell things to New York City’s consumers whose bottom line is being inconvenienced by the strike. WTF?!? I used to biggup MICHAEL BLOOMBERG to anyone that would listen to me because he appeared to be the most progressive politician I had seen in a long time, but now that all the votes are in the Mayor has sided against his own NYC constituents. MTA workers live in the city, they raise their families in the city and they too consume retail goods in the city. If the Mayor was keeping it real he would have blasted the MTA management for their MIS-management of the BILLIONS of dollars of cash that flow through the system. The MTA attempted to give away their billion dollar surplus in order to wash their accounting books before they sat down to contract negotiations with the Transit Workers Union.
I support the MTA workers and I feel sorry for them that they have to bear the figurative cross for the nations’ workforce. From greedy multi-national telecommunication companies like Verizon to barbarous retailers like Wal-Mart, the American worker has been kicked to the curb by capitalism. Who will stand up for our rights to fair wages? Who will stand up for the families of these union members who must also attend schools and work and consume?
Too bad for America that the MTA is filled with so many people of color that it prevents the proper framing of these workers demands for a fair living wage. Like DE LA SOUL said, “the stakes is high” and we are all at a socio-economic-political crossroads. Your phone is tapped, your azz is in debt and your dreams of entering the middle class are evaporating as quickly as the thin veneer that hides the racial and class schisms of New York City.
