toll-collectors' strike

[cellio]

An open letter to Governor Rendell:

As you know, the Teamsters union organized a strike of the Turnpike toll collectors and maintenance crews to begin on the busiest travel day of the year. The state was forced to let travellers use the road for free on Wednesday, and has been collecting reduced tolls since then.

While many drivers are happy with this turn of events, as a taxpayer I am outraged. In most lines of work, sabotage that costs an employer money would be punished. I have heard nothing of reimbursement from the Teamsters, nor do I expect to.

I read in today's newspaper that the state has hired temporary workers to begin collecting the regular tolls, and that when the strike ends these workers will be laid off. I have a better idea: hire them permanently and fire the strikers. Quickly.

The striking workers are not being taken advantage of, as should be clear from the ease with which you hired their replacements. They make an average of $18.50 per hour, not counting overtime, which is a lot more than other cashiers make. (80% of those on strike make more than $50,000 per year.) Each year they also receive 15 paid holidays and four weeks' vacation. The deal they rejected included fully-paid health care, protection from layoffs for three years, and annual raises.

Their greed is ridiculous, and I urge you to fire these spoiled brats and replace them with people who want to work for the more-than-fair compensation the state has offered. Please restore the Turnpike to normal business as quickly as possible, before even more of our tax dollars have to be diverted to paying for this loss.

Thank you.

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I haven't actually sent it yet, so feedback is very welcome. What's the correct way to address the governor, anyway? I don't think it's Dear Governor".

"Open letter" means I'll be sending copies to the newspaper and my representatives, not just whining here. :-)

Update: I may be making some unwarranted assumptions about the terms of their employment; need to check.

Comments

[cellio]

The article you cite says that a 3rd party agency has been contracted to bring in the labor.

Dang -- I somehow managed to read right past the sidebar. Oops! (The $16.25 was quoted in the print article this morning -- not in a sidebar IIRC, but minor repackaging of information for print and web is nothing new.)

Yeah, they're just going to find 100 people this week dying to work 3rd shift for $16/hr, no benes, and no job security. Riiiiiight.

On the other hand, what I'm suggesting is that they just hire those (up to) 800 people at the offered %16.25 plus bennies and job security (or up to the current rate of $18.50 if that's what the market demands). This is a case where I think it's reasonable to say "you walk out, you lose". This does not appear to be a case of exploitation or unsafe working conditions or some other situation for which a work stoppage is a legitimate response.