EDITORIAL STRIKING OUT.THE next time public employees in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. or California want to go on strike, they ought to reflect on what just happened to transit workers in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of - and reconsider re·con·sid·er v. re·con·sid·ered, re·con·sid·er·ing, re·con·sid·ers v.tr. 1. To consider again, especially with intent to alter or modify a previous decision. 2. . Although union and government officials are careful to say that the 60-hour strike had no winners and losers, the evidence suggests otherwise. The union struck, demanding a contract - it now returns to the bargaining table without one. As one of its executive board members complained, ``We got nothing. Absolutely nothing.'' So what happened? Well, times and circumstances have changed for public employees. In this day of wireless communication and telecommuting telecommuting, an arrangement by which people work at home using a computer and telephone, transmitting work material to a business office by means of a modem and telephone lines; it is also known as telework. , more New Yorkers were able to make do without transit access, thereby weakening the union's hand. And those forced to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge Brooklyn Bridge, vehicular suspension bridge, New York City, southernmost of the bridges across the East River, between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn; built 1869–83. The achievement of J. A. Roebling and his son W. A. Roebling, it has a span of 1,595. in the December cold weren't exactly feeling sympathy for the strikers. That's especially true seeing that the strikers were fighting to preserve benefits that are practically unheard of Not heard of; of which there are no tidings. Unknown to fame; obscure. - Glanvill. See also: Unheard Unheard in the private sector - generous pensions and premium-free health insurance. The union was losing the battle of public opinion. Public-employee strikes are tricky business. By their nature, they punish the very people whose support public unions need to prevail. And at a time when government workers tend to do better than the rest of us, that's going to arouse more anger than support. If local public-employee unions want to know how not to handle their next contract dispute, their counterparts in New York have provided the perfect example. |
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