Fun with Strikes December 22, 2005 ~ 9:56 am
Posted by Julie in : Academic Office Monkey, In Da Hood , trackback“On the third day of transit strike, the MTA gave to me…15 bikers sighted, one near-collision, and a grouchy union shop steward.” Yeah, I don’t think that song will catch on, either.
The bikers are taking over the streets here, and I love it. I counted 15 of us this morning on the bike path (yes, we have bike paths in Brooklyn). And we’re getting assertive. Some guy jumped onto the bike path in front of me without looking, and the biker behind me and I both yelled at him (I have no bell on my bike. Yelling “watch out” was my substitute bike bell.). Last night, a biker in front of me yelled at people who were walking on the bike path (there is a pedestrian path right beside the bike path, but they don’t want to walk there, oh no). I love it.
Speaking of yelling, I yelled at an SUV driver this morning, who decided that he was bigger than me and he was turning even though I had the light. I don’t know if he thought he was going to beat me, or turn through me, or what, but I used my New York City driver prerogative and yelled at him (there is a lot of yelling going on these days. Also a lot of speaking in parenthesis.) “You stupid fuck, what the hell do you think you’re doing when I’ve got the light?” He yelled back and I flipped him off before riding on. My only regret is that I was wearing mittens, so I don’t know if he realized I flipped him off.
Perhaps the most fun that this transit strike has brought me is hearing Fat Ass next door badmouth the TWU. Fat Ass is the shop steward for the part-time employees, by the way. She spent yesterday railing against the TWU, saying they were “too strong” and had no right to paralyze the city like this. Why would a shop steward say this about another union? You guessed it, Fat Ass has been inconvenienced. And her comfort must come first. To bastardize the old saying, “If Fat Ass ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” I laughed and said that I respected the TWU for not selling out its new-hires when so many other unions, including mine and hers, had. Really, I think her irritation can be summed up by what she said to someone else when she thought I was out of earshot: “If our union did this, no one would care.” You’re right, Fat Ass. And that’s your problem. You don’t belong to a powerful union and resent it. Leave the TWU alone.
They’re saying that the strike will probably be resolved today, and as crazy as it sounds, I’ll actually be a little sorry if it is. I’m now enjoying my rides to and from work in spite of how my assbones ache when they touch the bike seat. I’ll probably bike to and from work when it warms up in the spring. It’s certainly faster than the MTA. But more than that, I like being a part of the history of New York City. This is another memory that people will be talking about years from now, like the blackout or 9/11. It’s another example of how New Yorkers don’t let anything stop them. Doesn’t matter how tough things are, we just put our heads down and keep going. I love this town.
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