Toll booth and maintenance workers on the Pennsylvania Turnpike timed their strike to hit at Thanksgiving, the busiest travel time of the year. The idea, presumably, was that public frustration with traffic tie-ups would put pressure on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to settle and meet the terms demanded by the workers' Teamsters representatives.

But the strike is not working out the way the turnpike workers had hoped.

Traffic jams did not materialize over the holiday weekend. And, once details of the lucrative pay and benefits package rejected by Teamster negotiators for the turnpike toll booth and maintenance workers were detailed in the media, public sentiment shifted overwhelmingly to opposition - even outrage - rather than support over the work stoppage by the nearly 2,000 public service employees.

There has been very little support for striking workers in letters to the editor in newspapers across the state or onto talk radio. Few people are expressing sympathy for toll booth workers making about $40,000 in regular wages and receiving a generous fringe-benefit package that most people would gladly accept - especially considering that the job of toll booth workers, at least, requires not much more than making change.

In fact, most of the frustration from the public was directed at toll booth workers rather than the toll road maintenance workers also involved in the strike.

It's not the fault of toll booth workers that their jobs do not require much in the way skills. And making matters worse for the toll booth workers is the fact that technology is rapidly making those jobs obsolete.

The E-ZPass system of automated toll collection has been installed for several years on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and for a few years more on other highways in other, nearby states. Popularity of the time-saving and convenient system has been growing, and applications for E-ZPass enrollment in Pennsylvania nearly doubled as the talk of a possible turnpike strike first surfaced in early November.

Negotiations were reportedly scheduled to resume Monday afternoon, six days after the strike began. Given the public outcry, negotiators for the turnpike workers must now know that there is very little public support for their work stoppage and very little sympathy for their striking over what most people see as an already too-generous wage and benefit package - especially considering the fact that technology making their jobs obsolete. The fact that pockets of turnpike workers are already returning to work suggests some workers are getting the message too.

The turnpike workers, particularly the toll booth workers, have chosen the wrong time to strike and are demonstrating the wrong attitude regarding their jobs and the associated pay. The public does not support further enhancement to the turnpike workers' pay or benefit package. In fact, most people will now support a rapid deployment of E-ZPass technologies wherever possible - eliminating toll takers' jobs.

Not too many years from now, turnpike toll booth workers will see this strike as marking the high point for their union negotiators. Though technology and overly aggressive negotiators are mostly to blame, it is downhill from here for toll takers.

Though this strike will probably be settled, it will be seen as a costly mistake as the public lines up behind further expansion of the E-ZPass system and the resulting elimination of toll booth jobs.