[Mpls] Bus Strike

[Nathan Hunstad]

> Making $20 an hour to drive a bus (a bus!!), and they wanted more from the
> public teat? No wonder we're going broke.

I ride the bus every day to work.  I also ride it to get downtown when going to 
bars or restaurants, I take the LRT to the Mall...you could say I use transit 
more than the average person here.  I see bus drivers have to deal with 
motorists who refuse to obey state law and yield to the bus, I see motorists 
try to run buses off the road when they are on the shoulder on the freeway, I 
see drivers deal with short fares, belligerent riders, and drunk riders.  This 
morning on my bus ride to work a police officer had to be called to deal with a 
problem rider.  Drivers spend several hours a day driving buses over 
pothole-filled streets, shaking and getting jolted in their seats.  While they 
are trying to maneuver 20 tons of metal and get 50 riders to their destinations 
safely, they are getting flipped off, yelled at, sworn at, even called "racists 
pigs" because they won't let a rider on for free.  No, I don't think they are 
overpaid in any way.  I wouldn't have that job no matter how much it paid.  I 
certainly wouldn't start out as a part-time driver for far less than $20 an 
hour, which is how drivers start.

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Nathan Hunstad
CARAG
Minneapolis, MN
PGP DH/DSS public key -- http://www.angelfire.com/mn/freakpower/nhpubkey.txt
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