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]

Oh, I completely agree that workers have a right to set minimum prices below which they won't work. The flip side of that is that employers have the corresponding right to not employ people they deem overpriced. The way this usually works out absent unions is that you agree on a mutually-binding notification period before terminating employment (absent cause, of course); you don't just walk out, or walk the person out of the building sans severance package. With unions, the workers walk out and the unions try to prevent the employer from replacing them -- physically and/or through the courts. Fortunately, there has been no appreciable violence on the picket lines thus far in this strike. I don't know what the court challenges look like.

If the striking workers said "we quit if you don't meet our demands", that'd be perfectly within their rights. If, however, they do anything to prevent the state from replacing them, or if they violated any agreements about timing (probably not but I don't know), that's not. So maybe I don't have enough information; thanks for bringing this up.

I also don't think it's unreasonable for a toll collector to make $50k if he can negotiate for it. (It seems odd to me that we pay toll collectors better than nurses and teachers. Hmm.) But I'm surprised if the market supports that given the number of people working McJobs for minimum wage -- why aren't they beating down the doors to triple their salaries and get health insurance besides?

According to this the average price of a single-family, four-bedroom, 2-½-bath, 2,200-square-foot dwelling with two-car garage in Pittsburgh was $250k in 2002[*].

I'm surprised. That's roughly the going rate in two of the nicer neighborhoods, but way above the goaing rate for most parts of the city. Actually, now that I think about it, I suspect that some neighborhoods just don't have houses that fit that description -- while there are lots of houses of that size or a bit under out there, they aren't necessarily configured that way. (In particular, two-car garages aren't nearly as common as 4BR/2.5Ba houses.)

In any event, you seem to think that it will be trivial to replace those workers for as much or less money per hour; I think you are mistaken in that.

Perhaps you're right; I guess we'll find out. Conversely, though, if the workers were that upset with the package, why haven't they found better jobs elsewhere?