--- And without further ado,

--- And without further ado, here is Mr. H's commentary about the bus drivers' strike here in the Twin Cities.
- Okay, Mr. H. Here. I’m a little overdue on my “rant” about the
bus-strike here in Minneapolis. Sorry about that. Do I want this strike
to be over? Yes. Will I ride the bus again? More than likely. I moved
into a new place in the middle of January. I rode the bus to and from
work everyday. It made my life easier, I didn’t have to deal with
traffic and parking, and it saved me money. It saved me a lot of money.
When the strike started, I was keeping track of how much it cost me. I
was keeping track of how much MORE money I was spending (Parking, gas,
etc) because I couldn’t take the bus. I stopped keeping track when
the amount hit $150. That was back in mid to late March. It’s the
middle of April, and I don’t even want to know now. I do however feel
it when I am trying to make a decision about going out or buying
something. We here at work have been carpooling. So that has kept the
cost down, but it has its downsides. I’m an independent person by
nature; I don’t like being dependent on someone else. I especially
don’t like waiting. I get up in the morning, do my thing, and when
I’m ready to leave, I want to leave. Now, I have to wait – wait for
the person who meets me at my house every morning. I “can” be a
morning person, but I get really crabby when I’m standing around
waiting for someone in the morning. I hate wasting time. Then it’s
the same thing in the afternoon, but now we add one to two other
people. Waiting again. This thing has gone on for so long now I’ve
almost forgotten about it. I’ve kind of gotten used to the
Carpooling. I don’t like it, but what does that matter? Other than
seeing “LOT FULL” signs at almost every parking lot downtown and
seeing the picket line when I go to visit my friend who lives near
MTC’s main building, it has vacated my everyday consciousness. Now
– trying not to think of MY money and MY time, I don’t like this
strike. I don’t like it at all. I have a hard time feeling sorry for
a group of people whose starting salary is higher than mine (not much,
but still more). I have a hard time feeling sorry for someone who has a
right to yell at people, honk their horn, be downright nasty and still
have a job. There are some really friendly drivers but the bulk of them
are rude. Now, I don’t want their job. I don’t want to deal with
the people they have to deal with, but really, don’t take it out on
everyone. If I smile at you and say hello – respond. Your job is
technically a customer service job, but because you work for a union
AND the government, you think that you can be a prick and nothing will
happen. I plan to make good use of that comment line when you get up
and running. They were offered a raise---albeit a small 1%---but it was
a raise. We aren’t getting one here. We are all thankful we still
have our jobs. Their health insurance premiums are going up – well,
so did mine, so did my co-workers, so did my parents. It’s part of
life, expenses go up. What I have a problem with is unions in general.
I don’t like them, and I grew up in a union home – my father
retired at 50 – I know they have some good points. I do however,
believe the union’s time has come, and gone – I think it’s been
gone for a long, long, time. There are employment regulations right
now, there is a minimum wage, there are employment laws, age limits,
etc. What are they there for now? I’ll tell you they are there for
the easy money. Does a union care about its individual members? NO. Do
they care about their families? No. Do they care about your benefits?
No. Do they care about your wage? YES – BUT do you know why? Do you?
It’s simple – they want your dues, and the more your wages are, the
more your dues are. That’s what they want, so the Union guys can earn
a salary for working for “you”. Ha – they work for themselves. It
makes me sick really. I deal with a Union at work. The Union
“representing” Actors. Do they care about their actors? No. Do they
care about the financial state of the theater? No. Do they get their
undies in a bunch when I miscalculate their pension/health and dues
payments? Oh yes. If it doesn’t have anything to do with money coming
in to them, they don’t care. There are a few plusses to this thing
though: It’s amazing to me how clean downtown has been without the
busses. I never would have expected that. The people walking on the
streets have places to go, things to do and actually know how to use a
trashcan and an ashtray. The panhandlers actually seem to have almost
disappeared. I have been hit up for “spare change” (if I had any
spare change, I’d consider myself rich, I’m only a couple hundred
dollars away for asking for change myself) three times since the strike
started. On any given day, that would be the amount of times I’d get
hit up walking from the bus stop, to the coffee shop and then to work.
I guess without the busses running they can’t come downtown. I am
even finding that traffic is better WITHOUT the busses. Traffic down
Hennepin Avenue almost flows. When I drive into the office, or driving
home, it takes me 5-10 minutes LESS than it used to. It will be
interesting to see what it is like to drive around the city once the
busses are back running. When we have to deal with them cutting us off,
stopping a complete lane of traffic, pushing their way through red
lights, and just sitting on the side of the road, holding up traffic
and being rude. I guess we’ll have to see what happens today – when
they meet again. At this point in time, the drivers should be hurting
enough to come back to work. If they or their Union don’t want to
come back to work, hire someone else. There are plenty of people who
need jobs – and don’t forget – this is a “customer service”
position. Keep the shitty attitude for the airlines.