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As we head into the last of baseball season, prepare for the beginning of basketball season, and make the transition from summer to fall, we have all been sucked into the most unwanted of seasons, strike season. It is neither a regular or desired season, but every once in a while it is inevitable that it rears its ugly head.
Most times it doesn’t impact our lives directly. It usually takes on a peripheral effect that is more of an annoyance than something that interrupts our day-to-day lives.
As an example, when the writers guild or the screen actors guild goes on strike, unless you work in the entertainment industry, it equates to nothing more than fewer movies for a while or a delayed start to the TV season. Both of which fall into the “Oh Well, I’ll Live” category.
Unfortunately, this strike season is a bad one, consider it the El Nino of strike seasons. It started back in July with the LA Sheriffs suffering from the “Blue Flu.” While the Sheriffs went back to work, not by their choice but by a mandate from a judge, they are still working without a contract. Apparently the threat of docked pay or suspension didn’t have much of an effect since the flu is still affecting many sheriffs.
Then the clouds began to roll in as we started hearing the rumblings of a distant thunder. It was not as though we weren’t warned. The news anchors, acting as our weathermen, were prepping us every day of the impending storm. As with any looming disaster people started stocking up on food as the day grew nearer. Suddenly it was upon us and there was no escaping it.
The three major grocery chains in our area went on strike. Well actually Vons/Pavilions went on strike, Albertson’s and Ralph’s were locked out by their employers, which means that all three chains have picketers outside and no fresh meat inside. Well let me rephrase that, there is fresh meat inside in the form of what the unions refer to as “scabs,” non-union workers filling in for the union workers who are striking.
At first I figured no big deal. In this area, unlike many others in Southern California, I have a plethora of options. Costco, ValuMart, Sam’s, Trader Joes, The 99 Ranch Market (yeah right), and I’ll be fine. Besides, I’m sure they are justified in their actions. After all it has been 25 years since their last strike, so I guess they were due. Their evil employers were probably trying to cut their wages, kidnap their children, or rape their dogs. So viva la resistance! Power to the people! You go girl!
Then a few days later the second wave of the storm hit. The MTA mechanics went on strike and, as the old saying goes, where go the mechanics so go the drivers. So, for the second time in less than three years, public transportation has come to a screeching halt, stranding some of our communities’ most needy citizens. People who depend on that transportation to get to work and school, many who are making minimum wage and have no other way to get around.
Once again, I was sure that there must be an excellent reason why the MTA workers would subject the underpaid workers and students of all ages to this kind of hardship. The trauma they must be facing has got to be horrendous to get them to turn their backs on their fellow citizens. What could it be?
What do all three of these striking tornados have in common, what is it that has them all in whirl? They are upset because their employers want them to share in the cost of health insurance for themselves and their families. If there is something else that is making them gloomy they sure aren’t making it well known. In fact, in every sound bite that I have heard so far, the strikers are not as bothered by pay freezes as they are about the entire health insurance issue.
Wow, you mean to tell me that there are still employers out there that pay for your families’ health insurance? Hell, I thought those days were gone with the dinosaurs. Even though my wife’s health insurance is paid in part by her employer, for at least a decade, we have had to pay for insurance for me and the kids.
Am I alone in the mind set that unless you are working for the government or someplace like Edison that you are paying for your own insurance, and I’m just guessing on Edison. Even when I wasn’t self-employed, I paid for at least part of my health insurance. I know for a fact that while I was doing so I wasn’t making what a tenured grocery checker or a bus mechanic was making. Unlike what all the strikers claim, we were still able to make ends meet.
Don’t get me wrong, paying for health insurance is no joyride. I wish I could live in a country that didn’t have skyrocketing health costs, but I do. The fact that so many companies are eliminating it as a benefit should come as no surprise to anybody who is not living in Canada whose health program is government subsidized. Everyone in Canada has health insurance, which is one of things that everybody’s favorite whipping boy, Bill Clinton, tried to achieve for our country while in office. Had he not met with so much resistance from Congress we might even have had it by now, thus avoiding these current strikes. Funny, I haven’t once heard Dubya even mention federally funded health insurance. I guess when everybody you know can afford health care it’s not a priority.
It’s not that I don’t respect what you grocery personnel do, I do. If you weren’t there I would never be able to leave the store. I would just be wandering aimlessly up and down the aisles with a full cart. And if there were no public transportation the already nightmarish traffic would be a horror show. But to put you in the same boat with say teachers who are in charge of the education of our children is not fair. To allow you health insurance when teachers have to pay for theirs is not right. The last time I checked, in order to scan groceries or fix a bus, you didn’t have to go to college for five or six years. And without teachers, both grocery workers and mechanics wouldn’t have the basic knowledge to do their jobs.
OK, so you don’t want to move to Canada and you want to stay here and strike for your right to not pay for what most of us are already paying for, that is your right. So far, I am respecting your right to do so. I have not crossed a picket line, yet.
Even though, since day one, on the news and in person, I have seen less than congenial behavior on the picket lines and we are only in day four as of this writing. From picketers kicking at cars trying to enter parking lots, to mean glaring stares if you don’t honk your horn in support as you pass them. I’m sorry, but unless you are going to start paying for my health insurance, I’m not honking.
By the way, you MTA boys couldn’t have picked a worse time to picket. According to a news report I saw today, because California’s oil supply is so low, our recently decreasing gas prices will, if your strike goes beyond two weeks, cause our gas prices to escalate 25 to 30 cents a gallon. So a big thank you from somebody who is not only experiencing increased traffic, but who is also looking at higher gas prices because of your actions.
So the next time you open your door for a passenger who is going to a job that doesn’t pay them enough to have health insurance, or take money from somebody paying for groceries who is in the same boat, remember the times you made them feel guilty for wanting to buy milk for their kids and not drive ten miles out of their way to do it.
The Shrub Speaks: You see, the enemies want to create a sense of fear and intrepidation. Washington, D.C. October 8, 2003
B.D.’s response: Obviously, when Dubya was in college, he did inhale! What dictionary is this guy using?
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