McCrory’s Cozy Union With Occupy CLT
Former Meck Deck chieftain and guerilla blogger Jeff Taylor dissects the gross hypocrisy inherent in Pat McCrory’s recent criticism of the Occupy Charlotte movement and the former mayor’s previous propensity to embrace the Teamsters occupation of Queen City transit ops.
The fact is that one of the greatest bumps ever given to organized labor in North Carolina — and hence to Occupy movement writ large — came by the hand of then Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory. McCrory was the prime mover behind Charlotte’s $1 billion, then $6 billion, then $9.5 billion transit plan. The plan kicked off with a half-cent sales tax hike in 1998 with millions — $50 to 70m. per year — initially flowing to build up the city’s bus service. But there was a hitch. In order to maximize the city’s take of “free” federal dollars for transit — both bus and rail — the city had to dodge the state’s prohibition on public sector unions.
Enter the Teamsters. Or rather, enter a private company which would serve as a pass through to the Teamsters. Problem solved. Hundreds of Teamsters were hired by the city (wink wink) and hundreds of millions in federal transit dollars flowed to Charlotte. Wins all around, except that back in June — in one of those sporadic intra-union scuffles — the bus drivers voted to leave the Teamsters and hook up with the United Transportation Union.
The representation change could be a prelude to the UTU attempting to organize the system’s rail car operators, which could prove very interesting.
In any event, McCrory was not so concerned about setting precedents back when powerful local business interests wanted to land all that “free” federal money. Hike taxes? Yep. Get into bed with the Teamsters? Fine. Now maybe if it had been a messy tent…
Taylor concludes with a challenge for local media to try and unearth the salaries of the top 10 highest paid CATS bus drivers, which might as well be an open invitation for reporters to beat their heads against a brick wall.
I ventured down that twisted path back in the day with The Rhino Times, and the journey left me bleeding from the eyeballs in a catatonic stupor, reeling punch drunk from the circular illogic CATS used to deflect basic questions about bus driver compensation.
Just as McCrory and his union buds prefer.
We need your help! If you like PunditHouse, please consider donating to us. Even $5 a month can make a difference!
Short URL: https://pundithouse.com/?p=7690
