One thing I found to be interesting about subway culture here is the way in which people try to make money on board. On New York City subways, people sing, they breakdance, they do backflips inside moving cars, they play guitar, they stand up and tell you that they have no job and a pregnant wife...all kinds of things. But in NY, they DO NOT do what they do here in BA.
People buy things in bulk -- like packages of travel tissues, socks, candy bars -- or illegally reproduce movies, CDs, etc. They carry the items onto the train, and walk around setting one pair of socks on everyone's lap. They cover the entire car, wait for a moment, and then go back to where they started from and either pick up the socks or the money if you want to keep them. Here, if you are planning to get off the train while you still have a pair of socks on your lap, you just leave them on the seat when you get off. I have a feeling if someone walked around and put socks on New Yorkers' laps, they'd just keep them when they jumped off the subway. It has been funny to see the small differences here...
And then the strike began. Yesterday was the first day the subte reopened after a 10-day strike. Subway workers striked for a pay raise to match the 28% inflation rate. The cost to riders nearly doubled shortly before I arrived in Argentina, but apparently none of this increase in price for riders was transferred to workers to increase their salary.
When the strike began, I could immediately see it everywhere in the city. Everyone who normally took the subway was now above ground -- standing in lines a block long waiting for city busses; crammed into busses like I've never even seen people crammed into NYC subway cars at rush hour; bringing cars into the city and increasing the traffic volume; and cabs became impossible to catch (because everyone else wanted one), and once you finally hailed an empty cab, you could probably walk faster than the driver could creep through the outrageous traffic. I'm certain the cab drivers loved this.
The strike lasted so long because of a political power struggle between the local and national government. The city of Buenos Aires is an autonomous city, similar to how DC isn't actually a state, so it's confusing as to who has the responsibility to regulate what within the city. To make this more complicated, the local government is very conservative, while the national government is 180-degrees in the other direction. This made resolving the strike a messy situation.
Thankfully, the subway reopened yesterday. I still haven't heard about how exactly it was resolved, so I will have to add more on that later. I was glad that I would at least be able to use some of my 6 remaining subte tickets that I had already purchased...
More details on the drama here.
When the strike began, I could immediately see it everywhere in the city. Everyone who normally took the subway was now above ground -- standing in lines a block long waiting for city busses; crammed into busses like I've never even seen people crammed into NYC subway cars at rush hour; bringing cars into the city and increasing the traffic volume; and cabs became impossible to catch (because everyone else wanted one), and once you finally hailed an empty cab, you could probably walk faster than the driver could creep through the outrageous traffic. I'm certain the cab drivers loved this.
The strike lasted so long because of a political power struggle between the local and national government. The city of Buenos Aires is an autonomous city, similar to how DC isn't actually a state, so it's confusing as to who has the responsibility to regulate what within the city. To make this more complicated, the local government is very conservative, while the national government is 180-degrees in the other direction. This made resolving the strike a messy situation.
Thankfully, the subway reopened yesterday. I still haven't heard about how exactly it was resolved, so I will have to add more on that later. I was glad that I would at least be able to use some of my 6 remaining subte tickets that I had already purchased...
More details on the drama here.
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