800-900 MTA Strikers Cross Picket Line....

This supports other stories I've read about dissention re the strike. Sounds like it's already starting to break down. You just knew that all those workers couldn't have been behind the way they were doing this.

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I wish I could have a job that guarantees raises too! Must be nice. Dreaming of at least a holiday bonus. last year it was $50 - taxes.

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This is the one time I've been glad I'm commuting from Yonkers - if I was still in Manhattan, I don't know how I'd get to work!

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It won't cross the picket line.

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YOU bought it! It was my Christmas gift last year, remember??

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THEY have it made? A TEACHER?!!! Are you completely insane?

(on that ridiculous note, I have to go to work. I'll take our working subway to get there...)

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let me just say that i would never want to be a teacher since they have the hardest job in the world and all my respect but they are also guaranteed raises. at least in nj, they have it pretty sweet.

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Please...Income deficit, in NJ? You're nuts. My sister just started teaching 2 years now. She's making 42,000 for 9.5 months of work. I hardly see that as an income deficit. Also, the teachers also have the option for "summer savings". This money is put aside each pay and is payable over the months they do not work. Come on. Teachers do have big responsibilities, but they are fairly compensated for it.

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my aunt who just recent retired from teaching kindergarten in upstate NY was making $80,000 a year!!!

i know locally most start mid $30,000s

wow too bad i graduated on saturday with a degree in english and no job prospects ever
atleast i minored in communications, so i can write a press release!

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I spent most of the day yesterday looking at a few documents and comparing them (mostly budgets). Without going into a lot of detail, the TWU isn't asking for anything that is unreasonable. For example, for the MTA to keep things like the cheap $1 rides every year, but not pay the 7% raise is ridiculous. Also know that the MTA has a history of lowballing numbers, so the notion of a deficit in a few years is (if history proves to repeat itself) hogwash.

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My commute was an hour and a half each way -- i stayed home today and won't get paid. So, I'm pissed, too. I'm just trying to not let the mayor and governor and the media that has tended to skew it agaiinst the TWU to affect my judgement.

I just know a lot of people are blaming the TWU (and they don't get that the MTA has some big republican dollars backing it -- note who is speaking out for the MTA versus who speaks for the TWU).

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What business model is anyone looking at in which a 7 percent raise is truly reasonable? Business standard right now is between 3 and 4%. That's what I get...even when my company pulled in a billion dollar profit last year, no one received more than a 4% raise (most received between 3 and 3 1/2%). And we have a very small pension plan, but a 401(k) to which we can contribute anywhere from 2% to 6% of our salaries. And, in the end, we'd still have to work till 65 before retirement and I highly doubt that my 401(k) will end up being half my salary for the rest of my life. Hell...401(k)'s could end up tanking in the end. I'd love to have a set pension at 55.

Look, I hate the MTA...they're a bunch of crooks. But I haven't met too many friendly TWU folks in my life, either. Frankly, I can't stand any of them. But the fact that they'd go out on strike after such short talks is reprehensible. Most in the TWU make more than me and have better benefits. Know what would happen if I made a sign and picketed the front of my building? I'd have no job.

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