Tentative Bus Strike Deal- Minnesota

[Supormom]

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_104083304.html

<< Apr 13, 2004 7:31 am US/Central
St. Paul (AP) A tentative settlement was reached in the Twin Cities bus strike shortly before 5:30 a.m. Tuesday after more than 15 hours of talks, said Metro Transit spokesman Bob Gibbons.
The marathon session was the third between Metro Transit and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 since the strike began March 4.

The strike, which entered its 41st day Tuesday, has left 75,000 daily riders without buses, roughly one-third of whom transit officials say had no other way to get around.

The sides had been split mainly over proposed changes to retiree health benefits, but also had sparred over wages. >>

According to Union leader Ron Lloyd, details of the agreement will not be revealed until after it has been presented to the union members.

[qb]

1. This strike has been so tragic, and I'll bet the union gets the short end

of the stick. Metro Transit is reportedly saving busloads of money by not operating the buses and there has been almost no media coverage of its impact on low-income people and those who are unable to drive. I guess since the impact on rush hour traffic was minimal and car commuters are happy as clams, there's nothing to report.

[Randomthought]

9. minimal?

35W has been bumper to bumper for 6 hours a day. Lyndale Ave is impossible. I can't even get out of my driveway during rush hour.

[jean]

2. Businesses complained last week and voila! Pawlenty got his butt involved

[Puglover]

3. Pawlenty coined a new phrase

during this whole debacle...."The Transit Dependent" referring to people who use the bus system. What a total asswipe he is!

[jean]

5. Right - my kids commute to UMn - hopefully they and all the other

Transit Dependent college kids will wipe the streets clean of this idiot administration and Republicans in general in November.

How many major cities in the country, no, the world don't have mass transit? Pawlenty is like bad breath from about the 1950's and he can't manage anything that is on his plate.


Edit: Yes, I know Pawlenty is not up for re-election this year.

[northernsoul]

6. a DFL majority in the State House will

go a long way towards trimming Governor Gimmick's sails!

I hope your kids have some time to help out with some legislative campaigns this summer - that's the best way they can stick it to Timmy and his bosses at the Taxpayers' League.

[jean]

8. Have no fear: they are up to their energetic ears in the DFL

[northernsoul]

4. two of my neighbors are ATU members

I hope everything works out for the drivers and riders.

Pawlenty can saddle up his high horse and ride it backwards, if you catch my drift.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. I do hope that this is true

I moved to this neighborhood because it had good bus service for going downtown, to my church, to the gym, to a major shopping mall, and to a neighborhood with two major movie theaters and lots of restaurants, so that I could get away with driving as little as possible.

I was okay, since my mother gave me her old car, but I truly hate to drive, especially when it involves finding parking places, so I have been going out LESS than I did when the buses were running.

[northernsoul]

10. see! public transportation is GOOD for business!

Stick that in yer crackpipe and smoke it, Taxpayers League!

glad to hear you got through the strike in one piece, though.

[KamaAina]

11. You guys only have 75,000 daily riders?!

Honolulu has more than that, with less than half the population.

I thought the Twin Cities were a pretty progressive place (well, before Pawlenty and Coleman, anyway :( ) Boy, am I glad I did not allow my old friend (now a fairly well-known activist up there) to talk me into moving there with her! (it would have been to watch her have a relationship with another, anyway: go figure). I am, as Pawlenty so charmingly puts it, "transit-dependent" (I'm surprised he didn't say "confined to transit" or something) and, apparently, if Iw ere up there, I'd be a fish out of water, uh, ice, I guess.

[Puglover]

12. I don't understand...

you're judging Mpls/St Paul based on how many people ride the bus?

[KamaAina]

15. In general, progressive cities tend to have good transit

SF/Oakland. NYC. Boston. DC.

Conversely, conservative hotbeds such as Phoenix tend to have lousy transit.

Then again, Dallas is probably second only to Phoenix as a conservative hotbed, and it has pretty good transit, while progressive Detroit, due to its long association with the auto industry, is basically transit hell. I suppose the Cities would fall into that latter category.

Then again, since I am "transit-dependent", it hardly matters to me how progressive a place may be in other respects; if the transit sucks, I'm basically, pardon the expression, frozen out...

[truthisfreedom]

13. it is pretty ridiculous, but when it's 20 below outside it's hard to sit

on an unheated bus bench with a -40F windchill on your face.

[Lizz612]

16. If there is a bench.... n/t

[northernsoul]

14. that's just 75,000 on the Metro Transit system

people in most of the 'burbs ride on different systems. However, I think that our public transit in generally has not even been close to keeping up with what the population in the Twin Cities really needs.

I heard once that the 16A route is actually the busiest in the nation.