Thursday, December 15, 2005

Grinches and Scrooges

As of 5 PM today, news bureas covering MTA and Union negotiations report that " ... chances of reaching deal is less than 50/50." So the planned strike is getting closer to reality.

Last month, the MTA announced selling of holiday travel cards with extra days. This is all well and good except they wanted you to pay cash upfront. In my case, I'd have to pony up $76 immediately, and that means finding a manned booth (after they closed a lot of them). Yeaaaah sure. For this Christmas "gift", the MTA wants their costs covered immediately, which is different if people paid by credit cards. I protested by not availing of it.

Now if the strike goes through, and say it goes on for more than a couple of days, what happens to our current monthly or weekly travel cards? Do we get credit for the days that we couldn't use it because there are no subways or buses? Do we??? I am not paying for taxi or car service just to get to Manhattan for work. But at the same time, not having subway service (e.g., not getting to use the travel card), is a waste of the money I paid (whether it was credit or cash) for the card.

I hope this is a wasted rant, and they'll all kiss and make up by midnight tonight. I'll reserve my 2-word expletives for later.

(hmmm ... if the weather forecast for tomorrow holds true anyway, there'll be snow and icy rain, so who would want to go out and trudge to work?)

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