Unless you are here , there is no way that people can truly appreciate what is going on and therefore comments sympathetic or “understanding” of this strike will miss their mark and perhaps just plain piss people off. This is not just an inconvenience. This strike is really actually hurting people, they are spending money and time that they don’t have. In many cases lives are actually at risk, their health is at risk, daily life has become a torture. This is being done by people that have it pretty good comparatively speaking to the majority of “working class” people in New York, people who decided to break the law, who took advantage of the leverage that they have because of what they do. Imagine if cops decided to walk off the job. How about firefighters, nurses, teachers. They turned down a package that is better than most of other packages municipal workers have. That’s okay , it is their right to turn offers down. It is not their right to hurt the innocent in order to get their way. This is in fact an act of terrorism. One thousand TWU workers decided that what their organization was doing was wrong and returned to work today. The TWU’s parent organization must think it is wrong because they are not supporting the TWU. I have no doubt that it is wrong and no doubt that the Taylor Law is a necessary protection. Time will tell if it is enough in its current implementation.

How am I being affected? Well, I’m okay personally. I can TightVNC to work, I use Skype for daily meetings. Our bug tracker has a https interface etc. However, my wife works in retail and a strike on Christmas week will probably kill the chances of making her numbers for this year. The real issue is the personal ordeal of getting to and from work. She has it bad but many have it much , much worse.