Rumblings: It’s Gettin’, It’s Gettin’, It’s Gettin’ Kinda SEPTic
>>> Oh, hi! Did you make to work OK today? Isn’t it nice outside? How are you fee– oh, what’s that? The man above staring at you? He’s making you feel intimidated? Oh, don’t worry, that’s just good old Mario Edney, who threw a SEPTA patron off of a bus a few years ago. And when I say “threw a person off of a bus,” I don’t mean that he was all like, “Ma’am, you’re being disruptive, would you please leave?” That is not what I mean. What I mean is that, he grabbed this woman, knocked her head against a pole, and literally threw her off the bus. It’s OK, you don’t have to be afraid, he’s in jail now (maybe — but he will live free forever as one of Olbermann’s Worst Persons In The World). Why am I talking about Mario Edney so much? Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s just because Mario Edney is the central metaphor for all SEPTA employees everywhere today: entitled-as-fuck, hateful towards the people they serve, more than a little sketchy, and prone to hair-trigger tempers. Is that a bit much? Yeah, probably, but then again, so is this Willie Brown guy, who picked up his toys and went home when he didn’t like the prospect of an 11-percent wage increase over five years, an 11-percent increase in pension contributions and no increase in worker contributions toward their own health care. And yeah, Nutter is pissed. Hell, we’re ALL pissed! Weeeeeeeee! (Can you give me a ride to the store and then the bank?) [GoogleBooks/MyFoxPhilly]
>>> Meanwhile, WHYY is reporting that involved parties are considering a “sympathy cab and limo strike.” Stop laughing. You think you’re gonna get around this SEPTA strike by just hopping into your limo and hiding from the world? With all due apologies to Ed Lover: C’mon, son. Willie Brown knows you got a limo, son. Get the fuck outta here with that shit. [YouTube]
>>> But don’t sweat it: The LUCY is still running. So if you have a job that involves you looping around Center City, as slowly as possible, with some weird tourists and the world’s sleepiest bus driver, you, yes you, will not be affected. On a related note, the Fox 29 morning show ended this morning with someone actually saying, “If you go to our website, you can find a link to the SEPTA websites.” That’s right, folks. Willie Brown is not just fucking up your morning commute: HE IS EATING PEOPLE’S BRAINS. BRAAAAIIIIIINNNNSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAH! [SEPTA]
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:56 pm
LUCY is a University City bus loop from 30th street mostly for hospital and college employees.
November 3rd, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Septa bus drivers start at around $12 an hour (they bump up to around $23 if they stay 4 years), get full benefits, including 401k, and are allowed to be as surly as they wanna be. I am un-fucking-employed and officially calling these bitches out.
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:21 pm
boggle
do you think $12 an hour is good pay?
I know its not.
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:39 pm
julia:
Not good pay? You know what is? Why don’t you tell everyone without a job.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:14 pm
12 an hour is a living wage for a single adult, and well above the poverty line for an adult with a child. It’s not great, certainly. But a living wage. And considering the huge bump after 4 years (to more money than comparably-experienced employees at my college education-requiring office job make!) I have zero sympathy.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:45 pm
and all you closet republicans can just fuck right off. workers have a right to strike, don’t you even know what a union is? you wish you could fight for your rights and that you had the chance to make something better for yourself….
i do not work for a union, i work for the upenn empire and guess what, there are way more surly assholes here than there are operating septa.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Julia, $12 an hour is roughly 12x what I make right now, with a college degree, so shut it.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Workers have the right to unionize and strike and consumers have the right to tell them to fuck right off. It’s one of the more beautiful things about the US.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:03 pm
So you are unemployed everyone should suffer?
excellent world view, every man for himself.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Absolutely Julia. It is that simple. I want everyone to suffer because I have no job. You are so fucking smart, you should become a rocket surgeon.
But on the other hand, it is really discomforting that a group of people, who at the lowest level are making at least 50% above minimum wage, with great job security, extras like health care (which, I may point out–unlike 99.99999% of the active workforce, they are not even paying into) who suffer little recourse for doing their jobs at an absolute minimum capacity, with horrible attitudes are complaining that they are not being compensated fairly. All that is asked of them is that they sit on a bus and not kill anyone. I would say they deal with drunks and crazies and urine and feces and vomit, but they don’t. The entire system is totally oblivious to the customer experience that they are providing because the lack of competition (which is something they themselves forced upon the consumer) forces the public to take it or go fuck themselves. There is a pervasive and disgusting disregard for order and civility, and there is no accountability or recourse, and they just want more. Fuck them, buy a bike.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
it’s funny watching all the traffic around 11th street approaching vine. All these folks driving their cars, with a look of frustration and impatience, leaning on their horns hoping the congestion would thin out. But guess what- nearly every car, with an occupancy potential of 4-8 riders, was carrying one maybe two passengers. weird.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:54 pm
People are pretty much stupid and that is another part of the problem.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
someone recently gave me some advice… I have set the bar way too high in terms of my expectations of my fellow man. That applies here.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Julia,
What exactly is wrong with the contract the SEPTA workers walked away from as reported by every city media outlet? It lays out guarantees to the workers that are better than any organized municipal worker (one may go so far as to say any worker period) in the state. If you can answer that question, you may well be a master of labor relations insight.
What you would not be is informed by the TWU because they have not responded to a _single_ _fucking_ _inquiry_ _from_ _the_ _media_. Since they walked, they’ve said not a thing. All they’ve done is pre-emptively painted the media adscape with their pale effort to equate themselves to the civil rights movement. Since then, they haven’t said shit to anyone. Why is that?
You never told us in the other comment thread how you get to work.