Woah. Holy mackerel.

It's gotta be a bad day to work in Manhattan today.

Subways and buses across the nation's largest city shut down Tuesday morning as transit workers walked off the job following days of acrimonious labor talks, stranding more than 7 million daily riders and threatening the city with a $400 million a day financial hit.

I heard about this on Fox this morning and thought somehow it was a joke or they were kidding or something. People are walking. Twenty blocks. To work. In the cold.

"This is a fight over dignity and respect on the job, a concept that is very alien to the MTA," union President Roger Toussaint said in announcing the strike. "Transit workers are tired of being underappreciated and disrespected."

Give be a big, fat BREAK.

I heard someone important (don't know who it was, sorry, wasn't paying THAT close attention but I'm pretty sure it was Mayor Bloomberg) state for the cameras that the transit workers decided to basically screw everyone else because "their needs trump the needs of other citizens". Um...yeah. Duh. And around Christmas?

What is WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? Oh, boo-hoo they feel underappreciated and disrespected. Boo frickin' hoo.

Update: An alert commenter (thanks, PCD) reminded us of what happened to PATCO under Reagan....perhaps a PATCO-esque smackdown is in order once again?

PATCO's leader, Robert Poli, still naively thought that he could shut down the nation's airports and that the administration would have to give in to their demands. But instead, the government scrambled to hire more controllers (many from the military) and the disruption to air traffic proved to be brief. And amazingly, the American people stood with Reagan in large numbers. It wasn't too long before air traffic was back to normal, fears of disaster having been unwarranted.

But on the second thought, just imagine what would have happened had one accident occurred during this time. The blood would have been on many hands, including Ronald Reagan, himself.

As D'Souza notes (he was a Reagan aide at the time), the president adopted this stern course of action without consulting any polls. Yet, much to the surprise of many on his staff (who were often incredulous at some of his actions), the American people supported him because they were convinced that principle mattered, especially in the face of threats and intimidation. By this one incident, which set the tone for the whole presidency, "Reagan proved that the right thing to do can also be politically advantageous."

It took two years to fully train the new controllers, but we all survived, disruptions were few and PATCO was dead. The American labor movement had suffered its worst defeat in decades and the balance of power in labor disputes shifted towards management. Reagan's image as a courageous leader was burnished.

Also see GOP and the City for NY Strike Blogging...

UPDATE: This is disgusting. Via Bloomberg News:

Transit workers want 8 percent annual raises over three years, while the MTA has proposed 6 percent raises spread over 27 months. The union later indicated that it would accept smaller raises if the authority agreed to decrease disciplinary actions against workers.

Subway operators earned an average of $62,438 a year, including overtime, under the previous three-year contract, which expired at midnight New York time, the MTA said.

Train conductors averaged $53,000, subway booth clerks $50,720, and bus drivers $62,551, the state agency said. The MTA wasn't immediately able to provide the average amount of overtime.

``The MTA's position has been clear from the beginning,'' Gary Dellaverson, the transit authority's chief negotiator, told reporters outside the talks late yesterday. ``There are no cuts in health benefits on the table.''

Employees yet to be hired by the MTA would have to pay a ``small portion'' of their salaries toward health care.

ANOTHER UPDATE 4pm 12/20: Via Drudge

The city's subway and bus workers went on strike Tuesday for the first time in more than 25 years, stranding millions of commuters, holiday shoppers and tourists at the height of the Christmas rush. A judge promptly slapped the union with a $1 million-a-day fine. State Justice Theodore Jones leveled the sanction against the Transport Workers Union for violating a state law that bars public employees from going on strike.

Good.