East versus West, in several parts (part 4)

Returning to a less relevant topic, here is another east versus west. This time, we’re going to talk about labor, unions and corruption. It occurs to me that this topic may make me unpopular with working folks, so let me make something clear. I think that anyone who organizes for a group’s mutual well-being is doing what humans naturally do and should not be judged for doing it. Everyone knows there is strength in numbers. However, actions have effects and you can see them if things are done differently from place to place. So, without further delay…

The craft of the graft, and the drift of the grift

In the west, we sometimes grumble about the power of labor unions, particularly those who represent government workers or powerful lobbies who pressure the states like California and Washington for pensions, benefits, and more hours. Yes, the budget is a mess as in every other state, but I’ve heard a lot of western politicians complain that unions are the problem. This has spread to other places, like Wisconsin, because organized labor can be powerful and when it appears not to work with governments and industry, it is easy to blame. But, our public works are working, the water and power stays on, the trains are mostly on time, and we can rely on highways that are policed and in good repair most of the time.

Eastern unions have a longer history and a reputation that was quite notorious at some times. But in the east, public building projects are more difficult to maintain due to the different climate (see East versus West, part 2). First, you have to work when it isn’t snowing and the rain comes down so hard and there is so much traffic that potholes develop in a matter of days. Every year, the roadwork and utility building is rushed into as soon as the snow melts and continues well into the rainy season just to keep up. And when the snow falls, municipalities pay for snow plows and salt. Therefore, it is common knowledge that the unions and government work together, if they are not simply the same entity. And it’s true, unions have a reputation in the east for being tied to government contracts that are self-serving, sandbagged, bloated and only marginally legal. However, the roads get serviced, the tunnels get their upgrades, the bridges stay up, the power stays on, and government is a good place to work.

However, it is interesting what happens when unions and government work very close together. The east is also notorious for its crazy highway system and bizarre municipal borders that intertwine like a jigsaw puzzle. Some say this has to do with how townships and roads formed in colonial days, which may have been true. Others say it is caused by the zoning ordinances and political re-districting regularly changes who is in charge in a particular spot, which is almost always partially true. Yet most agree that it is also the grift – the requirements imposed by the unions, which every municipality depends on, and their demands for more billable hours and more projects than maybe necessary. I am inclined to agree, because there are no old towns or zoning laws that can explain something like the two 360degree roundabouts outside the Holland tunnel right now during construction.

Now, I am not saying I know why these extra loops in the freeway detour exist. If anyone could definitively explain to me why many highway artifacts in New Jersey exist in triplicate while entire townships have no freeways at all, I’d be interested. But the fact remains, there are two loops in the road that point you in exactly the same direction you were already going, and these aren’t in the traffic-heavy direction, where a loop might serve to alleviate a glut of traffic from backing up too far. You can clearly see that there are no loops going in the other direction, so what function are these loops serving? If this were an isolated example of extra stuff being added onto a public construction project, I might see it as anomalous, but it isn’t. The freeways in the east are tangles of crazy switchbacks and “creative” toll road doublings with roadside ramp attractions that rival roller coasters. Accompanying them all are road crews, often on break, and this is so common as to be accepted as normal.

In the west, by comparison, there are fewer examples of these additives. For example, the BART system is formed in a star centered on Oakland, and serves two of the three major airports in one system. In New York, you have to ride a train through Manhattan and then loop through Brooklyn before you arrive at the JFK air train in Queens, which you must ride further to get to the airport, and these trains are part of the same system. There isn’t a train to LaGuardia airport, so you take a bus or cab to get there. The BART system isn’t perfect, because Cal Train owns the contract for the peninsula, so hasn’t completed a perfect loop around the bay, but here we see again the influence of contracts that bind counties and municipalities.

I can’t call foul on this. Frankly, government workers aren’t paid very well in the west unless they are attached to something with a concentration of power like a university system. In the west, public works have a lot of oversight because the space and climate are conducive to allowing projects to take a long time and we have a large labor force of undocumented workers that are exploited to great effect. In the east, it is more fair and there isn’t as much time to lolly-gag over minutiae, but the results in some strange developments that you won’t see elsewhere, but where else do you find a public park made out of old elevated train rails?

-Forest F. White