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The Reason for Striking?

So many of you know that I live in Milwaukee, which for me I am still trying to get use to. Why? Because having to live a long time in Chicago and have lived in Istanbul, Turkey, can you now understand the small factor here?  If you have read Research this Dum Dum! then you can understand why I am still trying to come to terms about the size of  the city.  Any how, for a while the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) and the County of Milwaukee have been in talks regarding the bus drivers contract. There were so many things that did not know make common sense to me at all and has made me mad about the whole thing in general.

Now for those of us that take public transit to and from work/school, we know from first hand that sometimes the bus drivers will ask to be excused for a moment while they run to go to the washroom.  After all they are driving those buses for well over an hour time in one direction.  Of course they got piss or whatever, even I may need to take one after being on the bus for more than 30 minutes.   So I am wondering how insensitive of the board of directors to not allow them (the bus drivers) to have ample amount of time to use the wash room let alone have a decent lunch or dinner.  Those wide asses take an hour lunch, why can't they?   They are really the one who are providing that service and have to deal with the public on a daily basis.  But this is one small reason of many as to why the buses drivers are in an uproar.

Image your company telling you that they want to hire 100+ more part-time drives who will not be obligated to participate in the retirement fund pot.  Giving employment is always a plus however sacrificing your current employees is not.  Then to understand that they (the board) wants to change the current retirement benefits that is in place by ending it soon than the expire time and extending it as to when you can retire to receive the full benefit package.  I can see where this double punch can be a threat for the full-time employees especially since they are working really hard for their retirement fund.  From this last part of the sentence, since after July 4th about 22% of the MCTS drivers (those who have been there for more the 10+ years) have cashed in on the current retirement plan and quit all together. 

Now from what the news has been reporting that the average bus driver in Milwaukee has a salary of $62,000 a year. WTH!  I want to make $62,000 a year and all those who also would like to make $62,000 a year raise your hand!  But after talking to some of the drivers on the routes that I catch to and from work, many say that it only possible because of the overtime they often have to do.  There are some complaints in regards to the part-time workers who there now because some of them have called off work simply because they want the day off.  Well hell, let me do some overtime like that too.  But the bus drives are not just complaining about what they are asking for; it is because the board of directors are not willing to at least compromises on them.  And because of this non compromising mentality the bus union had declared a 72 hours strike on July 1 at exactly 3:00 am to July 4 at 3:00 am. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the action which I describe in the previous paragraph caused three things for us everyday people.  One, we had to scramble to fine other means to get to work which include many of us having to walk a great distance to work.  Two, some of us lost three days of pay, and three, a few of us simply lost our job.  And what was the two things that board of directors thought they could do for us everyday people to try to smooth things out.  They give us one day of free access on the bus system and depending on what kind of bus pass you had, you were compensated as much as $10.50 for those three days.  WTF!  Let me get personal for second (*sigh*). . .and say $10.50 does not compare to the fact that for those three days I lost $432.00 in wages.  Them f**kin fools played with my rent!

Now the two main men who are doing these damn negotiations are J. B. for the Bus Drivers Union and C. A. for the Milwaukee County. (For the protection of the two parties involved and two I do not want to be sued for having an opinion that comes along with freedom of speed!) Ladies and gentlemen, excuse me for a minute for I am about to get real on this one.  If I was Mr. J. B. (yes I got some inappropriate thoughts regarding this man) I would tell C. A. pussy ass to man up since he is always talking about what is good for the people of Milwaukee and that the money that he is dealing with belongs to the people of Milwaukee.  And as for J. B. with his pencil dick ass, needs to stop playing around with people's jobs.  The bus drivers themselves do not want to strikes because they got bills to pay and that mistress to suppose.  But wait, gets even better, towards the end of July, in the mist of negotiations, these two fools here said they will resumes talk on August 10th and the first thing that came out of my mouth was "Which one of these two asses is going on vacation?" 

Ladies and gentlemen, I do apologies for my insensitive speech in this piece, however no body likes it when someone else is missing with your money.  Can I get AMEN?  We all got bills to pay and mouths to feed.  We don't have time for stupidity nor can we ignore coming to compromise in the work place to get your employees to provide better services to your every day paying customers. 

Now negotiations here in Milwaukee are still on going between the County and the Union.  And I take it that things are not going well because I keep getting a different bus driver on my way home.  It is as if I am doing speed dating Monday thru Friday with a hint of Russian Roulette!

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