NY strike union fined $1m a day

Sangre

Having studied labour law unions are only needed to ensure reasonable pay. But then again in a capitalistic society surely demand for work should ensure that?
Anything else is adequately covered by Irish and Eu legislation.

If in fact the workers are breaking the law then injunctions etc., including fines would be imposed here so its not too unusual.

Sangre

AngelofFire wrote:

They dissmissed two employees back in June because of Union activity.

So?
You don't need a union to ensure protection from that. Its a Constitutional right.

DadaKopf

The 'laws of supply and demand' aren't sacrosanct. If there weren't organisations out there to challenge companies' attempts to maximise profits by constantly depressing workers' wages, things would be as bad as the industrial revolution (and people are talking of a race to the bottom again).

See, for some workers, what you say works - the demand of companies for certain jobs, and competition among them, will raise incomes (but companies will still try to recapture costs). But there is a whole other side of the labour market, on which the higher earners, and economy in general depends, ranging from menial service employees to civil servants, who companies and paymasters would love to squeeze if they could.

How do you suppose labour rights legislation got enacted in the first place, because it wasn't due to the good will and moral rectitude of the politicians or greedy capitalist pigdogs.

Nox

Sangre wrote:

So?
You don't need a union to ensure protection from that. Its a Constitutional right.

Yes ... but not on company time.

Nox

Dub13

starn wrote:

CIE has a driver to clerical staff ratio of 1: 8. So for every driver the company has 8 people working an office job. WTF?????????

This could not be true.....for example I believe Dublin Bus has 1000 buses and 3000 drivers,by your numbers that means they have 24,000 office staff.

billy the squid

starn wrote:

I hope they make the fine stick. There is little or no reason for unions in this day and age. There is more then enough legislation in place to protect workers. It seems to me that unions that the only driving force in unions nowadays is enlightened self intrest.

not in the US there is not.

All a company has to do in the us to avoid paying out pensions in the US is apply for Chapter 11 bancruptsy.. or if it wants to renage on agreements made with its workers.

when it is free of its obligations it can then come back out of chapter 11.

lazydaisy

BTS,

How is the MTA going to file for bankruptcy with a billion plus surplus?

Manic Moran

Easy. It looses the $1bill surplus next year, then files.

NTM

lazydaisy

Thats going to be pretty hard with 7-8 million people buying metrocards.

starn

Dub13 wrote:

This could not be true.....for example I believe Dublin Bus has 1000 buses and 3000 drivers,by your numbers that means they have 24,000 office staff.

It is true.
I'am refering to the group as a whole. When I can get the exact figures, Ill post them

Victor

Manic Moran wrote:

Easy. It looses the $1bill surplus next year, then files.

But it still has all those assets it could easily sell. I imagine most judges would refuse court protection in such a case.

lazydaisy

Right. Additionally the MTA is run by New York State, so how would it file bankruptcy with itself? And NYC would pretty much grind to a halt, which means the economy would be f******.