Turnpike
Any day now, maybe even today, tollbooth workers along the Pennsylvania Turnpike might walk off the job. It’s a feat that hasn’t occurred in the turnpike’s 64-year history. And for more than a year toll collectors, maintenance workers and office employees have been on the job without a contract. They would serve themselves better to stay there. Perhaps the workers believe that a strike will earn them the provisions that they are seeking. It is doubtful though that they earn anything more than the public’s wrath. Inconvenienced drivers already are ticked with recently hiked tolls and doubt that the increase will go toward road improvements. If they are stuck in a long line of traffic waiting to enter or exit the turnpike to make it on time to their less-than living-wage job, they won’t muster too much sympathy for collectors earning upward of $18 a hour. Already we can hear the cursing, “They are nothing more than glorified clerks,” and “Anyone capable of working the checkout at Walmart for $5.15 could handle that job.”
Surely there is more to the job than that, but drivers won’t care especially if they are charged $2 to travel just one exit. That’s part of the contingency plan the turnpike commission is forming. Should a strike occur, management will staff some booths and charge a flat $2 fee of drivers regardless of how long or how short the trip. Those drivers using the EZ-Pass system would be billed the usual rate.
If a strike runs to any length of time even more drivers will opt to purchase EZ passes, thereby eliminating the need for toll collectors. The more drivers floating through unmanned EZ lanes, the fewer people the turnpike will need to keep on the payroll.