Ok I’m a bus driver and have to admit, I hate this striking bullshit period. I wanna go back to work so bad you have no idea. All the higher ups are sitting on their asses twiddling their thumbs waiting by the phone to see who’s gonna call who first… who’s gonna cave in first. This is all just a big huge pissing match to see who gets the last laugh. I’m sure I speak for a lot of my fellow drivers when I say this: It’s been 12 days now, enough is enough. Grow some f**king balls and make a friggin deal already, it’s not rocket science. The drivers, mechanics, etc all have families to feed, I’m sure everyone is sick and tired of waiting on whose got the bigger balls. For god sake hurry the hell up and get together and sit down and act like adults and make it work. You’re holding everybody up including the public. —Pissed Off Bus Driver Waiting To Go Back to Work
This article appears in Feb 9-15, 2012.
You can go to work at any time ….. Walmart? McD’s? Limo Driver?
You don’t like things the way they are and the shift bullshit got ya in a spin? Change jobs ….. it’s not like you picked a career or anything…… you applied for a JOB and all that this entails ……… maybe ya should have thought things out earlier in life …….. your problem not ours!
I don’t feel bad for you, OB. I feel bad for the low income earners and students that can’t get to work and school because of this strike. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t something like 98.4% of transit workers vote to strike?
You tell him to switch jobs but I wouldn’t if i made them money he made. I actually am starting to feel bad for these guys. i didn’t until a few days ago. a man i know who workers for transit has to go on strike and he’s not even a driver. 2 in the morning is when he had to go picket. Most of them obviously wants to go back to work. it messes with their lives just as much ours
It wasn’t there choice to go on strike but somebody hire up. Be unhappy with the ones making the decisions not the ones that have to suffer it.
Yes lots of people are suffering. Those minimum wage workers. I am one of those minimum wage workers. I walk 2 1/2 hours every day i work just to get there. Just because buses aren’t running doesn’t mean we can’t get to where we need to go. Yes it sucks and we’re unhappy with it but there are ways around it.
Well said, OP.
Lol, at quick glance I though the title read “Sick of STREAKING”. A chilly time of year for such pursuits, me thinks. Oh, my overworked brain is needing a break from reality, or might already have stepped away from it ….
Careful OB, the union might get a subpoena to find out who you are and blackball you for making sense.
i feel for you bud, as i do for all those that are fucked over in situations like this. the only way to go back, would be to give in to what the other side wants, and eat humble pie. but that could be a big mistake on your and other drivers fates. if they know that one is not happy, they will weedle their way thru the ranks, and then stab you in the back, quick as a wink.
Bitching here isn’t going to help you. Go to the media and let it be known.
Hey dumbfucks. The reason why you make a 98 percent strike vote is to send a message to the city. It is a vote of support for the bargaining commitee. It tells the city that they better start taking the bargaining committee seriously. And, if the city doesn’t, the committee has the membership’s permission to take everyone out on strike.
Friday Guy: The Coast *is* a medium.
It’s hard to feel bad for the drivers, but when you read their point of view, it’s hard *not* to feel bad for them—they’re victims, too— plus their neighbors must hate them and give them the stink eye and let their dogs crap in their yards and stuff.
So if the commuters are the victims and hurting and the drivers are the victims and hurting WHO IS WINNING RIGHT NOW? Who is benefiting from this extended strike? And word up this is just a kerfluffle compared to a water strike…
“Who is benefiting from this extended strike”
Transit is a subsidized service. The city budget benefits from the strike.
I have a friend who’s sig other is on strike and he’s not a driver, either. He does maintenance on the Ferries, I believe.
🙁
This bitch just furthers my argument that Ken Wilson is doing what’s best for Ken Wilson, not the ATU membership.
Actually OB you don’t speak about a lot of drivers. I know for a fact the people on my line support our union. The city is the ones that are F***ing us they need to save money and will do it with a strike. Remember some one has to pay for the concert scandal and some one has to balance the books might as well do it on our backs!
Well OP if it makes you feel any better bus drivers aren’t the only ones losing money. The difference is, for you this is a bad patch. Most of the others losing money are doing so because they’ve been fired for not being able to get to work.
I don’t mean to make you feel bad man… because it sounds like you’re one of the people who gets why this is so devastating. But if anyone dies as a direct result of this strike, I will go to the media and tell it exactly why i choose to excommunicate myself from halifax and start moving west.
You must have a lot of seniority, Artic.
Also: the concert scandal cost HOW much and your union’s contract is going to cost HOW much?
Hmmm….
Hey ARTIC, if you weren’t on strike, and sitting at the bargaining table working out a deal, they wouldn’t be “saving money”. This saving money thing is total bullshit, if MT loses any ridership, they will lose more money than they are saving in the long run. Not to mention all the “salary” paid positions in management and supevisors they are paying out and not getting any production value. That is a stupid argument, made up by your blowhard union president and jackass Ken Wilson. Just another part of your propaganda machine to wrangle ever dwindling public support. Why don’t you call Kenny, demand he call the city and get back to doing the job you and your members are PAYING him to do.
PS; I bet all your mechanics and service techs are about ready to bury all you whiny little bitches and your scheduling bullshit!!
who has two thumbs and in winning in this strike???
THIS GUY!
I’m loving it.
last time it took 5 weeks… assuming it started near the beginning or end of a month, that’s a couple mortgage/car payments.. enough to realize “oh shit, we’re getting pretty poor here… time to make a deal”
SHITTY-D FTW.
Hey OB, you voted in a democratic system and chose to give the right to strike to your union head Ken “I’m all for me” Wilson, so shut the fuck up and quit your pissy whining. Instead of bitching on here, get all your buddies who feel the same as you, go down to Fuckface Wilson’s office and don’t leave until he gets the ATU back to the bargaining table! If you’re not willing to do that, then shut your mouth and deal with the choice YOU MADE!!!