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    SweetCaroline12Hamilton Nolan
    3/02/16 9:36am

    Sometimes you people make me feel like the worst liberal in the world. NJ Transit is a goddamn JOKE and the conductors are rude, unhelpful, and lazy. If they go on strike it’s going to affect thousands of people who are more than glorified ticket takers who don’t have the luxury of being in a union that will protect them when they choose to be rude, unhelpful, and lazy at their jobs.

    You know why I know public-sector unions don’t work? Because your train conductor probably makes more than your child’s teacher and if that’s what’s fair in this world then it’s time for me to reevaluate what I’m doing here.

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      Hamilton NolanSweetCaroline12
      3/02/16 9:39am

      Did you know that teachers are also unionized, and they have to bargain with the same people that the unionized transit workers do?

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      AlainProstIsNotTheDevilSweetCaroline12
      3/02/16 9:42am

      When they have the middle class left fighting for the leftovers against each other, you know that the 1% has won.

      You can have well paid teachers and well paid transportation workers and the walls won’t fall down.

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    GeorgeGeoffersonLivesHamilton Nolan
    3/02/16 9:28am

    How does one prepare one’s self for something they already live in?

    Hell is other people (on the train)...and New Jersey.

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      Hamilton NolanGeorgeGeoffersonLives
      3/02/16 9:31am

      This headline should not be construed as implying that New Jersey is not already hell.

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      ARP2GeorgeGeoffersonLives
      3/02/16 9:35am

      Star only because of your riff on “No Exit.”

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    SansPanticlesHamilton Nolan
    3/02/16 9:28am

    Shouldn’t these be the best trains in the world? They carry people to and from the bell cow city of our great country and yet they suck compared to trains elsewhere in the world. Why is that and where would be a good place to start reading about why the trains are the way they are?

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      snoop-a-loopSansPanticles
      3/02/16 9:43am

      You must be new to America, where a certain segment of the population thinks mass transit is a corrupt enterprise designed to subjugate the citizenry.

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      Stephen Dowling BottsSansPanticles
      3/02/16 9:53am

      I can actually answer that: scale. All—all—rail is subsidized, everywhere in the world, even in Japan. But to take Japan, you are talking about a much smaller land area, and a much greater population density. It's an easier lift. And I say this as someone who loves rail, and wants high speed yesterday. But the $$ are hard to pry out of the G. Maybe if they make flying so shitty that death is preferable, we'll get better rail.

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    Indiana van der RoheHamilton Nolan
    3/02/16 9:23am

    Q: Why are so many New Yorkers depressed?

    A: Because the light at the end of the tunnel is New Jersey.

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      HooneriphicIndiana van der Rohe
      3/02/16 9:25am
      GIF
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      Indiana van der RoheHooneriphic
      3/02/16 9:28am

      I can’t help hearing that joke in the voice of Fred Arminsen’s David Paterson.

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    Rom RombertsHamilton Nolan
    3/02/16 9:34am

    We should embrace our work-from-home future. For example, I’m a welder and it’s quite easy to set up shop in the spare bedroom at my home and get all of my work done. I got a cheap, effective web cam. I got a wireless mouse. I got an Internet. And I sit there welding. Sometimes I do it in the clothes I wore to bed (100 banana peels and one of those cool welding helmet things) Right in the comfort of my own home! I broadcast those welds over my wi-fi to whatever it is that needs welding far away at the job site: birds, shoes, a metal part of a building that’s sort of like its skeleton but it’s not bones it’s metal, doors, ham, my boss’s enormous metal mouth, a packet of potato chips, the economy. You get the picture. It’s a brave new future and I will weld your hands to your keyboard from across space and time if you disagree.

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      Jujymonkey3Rom Romberts
      3/02/16 9:39am

      Dogwelder, is that you?

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    ChicagoHotdogManHamilton Nolan
    3/02/16 9:28am

    I work in the field and offer this as a counter point to the NYT article and Gov. Christie. This has been a long process with two Presidential Emergency Boards essentially offering contract deals the unions are willing to go with. NJ has not agreed to those and instead threw in health care sharing at the last moment. Mind you, this health care would serve to take away pay raises.

    http://www.bmwe.org/secondary.aspx…

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      BCDFGChicagoHotdogMan
      3/02/16 9:48am

      What is often overlooked in railroad strikes —not the NYCT, which isn’t considered a railroad under the federal definition— is that the feds give multiple cooling off periods, where the agency gets a chance to put its ducks in a row, and it’s only after those time-outs are through that a strike can happen. If you get a strike, it’s entirely on the employer at this point.

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      ChicagoHotdogManBCDFG
      3/02/16 10:02am

      You are correct. The Railway Labor Act only applies to railroads. Subway systems, and other modes of transit that you might think qualify do not. They likely fall under the scope of the National Labor Relations Act.

      You are also correct regarding the right to seek self help. Though I’d caution you to say that either side can seek self help (strike or lock out - they are different) following the conclusion of the cooling off period

      Ultimately, if self help occurs, history tells us that Congress will swiftly move to enact the recommendations of the PEB. Via the RLA, Congress will take the PEB recommendations and essentially make it the new contract between the employer and employes.

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    ARP2Hamilton Nolan
    3/02/16 9:28am

    I find that strange that those who get rich off of taxpayer money, subsidies, TIFs, tax avoidance, etc. are to be admired for their business acumen and anger at them is “class warfare.” However, it’s A-OK to hate unions and union workers for getting the pay increases and benefits you don’t get because you’re NOT in a union.

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      ManchuCandidateHamilton Nolan
      3/02/16 9:38am

      If Christie handles it as well as he handles bridges and helos things should go swimmingly.

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        1llamarampage will write againManchuCandidate
        3/02/16 10:29am

        It is true, swimming is probably the best option open to NJ commuters at this point.

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      puncha yo bunsHamilton Nolan
      3/02/16 9:28am

      NJ is the most densely populated state in this country. If this strike happens, it is bound to be a shitshow for people commuting to work. I’m sending in my absentee empathy now, as I got out of that state about 4 years ago. I’m imagining all out wars during the morning commute.

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        DJ NinjahHamilton Nolan
        3/02/16 9:31am

        Really the transit workers should take all they can get now, they’ll all be out of a job then the current tunnel collapses and everyone is fucked because Christie balked at the ARC tunnel...

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