The transit workers initially sought a 24% wage increase over three years; the MTA offered them 10%. State officials also want future transit employees to pay for part of their health benefits, a proposal the union staunchly opposes. No money is taken out of workers' paychecks for healthcare now.

Those poor, poor down-trodden union workers were only offered an average annual increase of 3.3%. How could they ever survive? Why, you'd almost think that 3.3% is about normal for most employers to give each year! Seriously, it's very common for good employers in Northern Virginia to only pay around 3-4% for salaried employees such as human resources, software developers, engineers and other white collar positions after the first one to three years. For that first year to three years, five to six percent may be reasonable... but eight?! Think about this for a second. That average increase of eight percent a year for three years would jack a $50,000/year salary to nearly $63,000/year and with the cost of living being what it is New York City.

Ever argument that can be used against capital monopolies can be used against these labor monopolies. They come in and keep other workers from selling their labor to an employer and for what? To keep their power and control. Is it any wonder that union jobs were the first to go overseas? Of course not, when you have the kind of extreme price-gouging that is the hallmark of unions like the United Auto Workers. Don't even get me started on how much I oppose the unionization of government employees. The job security that the average government employee alone is worth a great deal, yet many of them are just never satisfied with what they have, and every additional concession that they get comes at the expense of the taxpayers.

Thank you Difster for getting me worked up about this. here's the original article.