MTA Workers Fearing For Their Jobs
One of the biggest positives that draws people to the MTA’s blue collar employment ranks is the job stability & benefits that one receives. However that sentiment will change for a few thousand employees who face the prospects of being jobless if the “doomsday scenario” goes into effect.
While the main coverage of the budget passing focused on the massive fare hikes & service cuts, the amount of workers that would lose their jobs has taken a backseat. Henrick Karoliszyn & Pete Donohue of the New York Daily News take a look into this:
Yvonne Caraballo pulled her bus out of a Queens depot Thursday night and headed into an uncertain future.
Caraballo, 38, a single mother of three, became an MTA bus driver because it paid better than her previous job, came with good benefits and, she thought, promised job security.
Now, just two years later, she worries about being laid off because of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s fiscal crisis – and the state’s failure to agree on a transit-funding package to plug massive budget gaps.
“To even imagine there is a possibility that I could even lose my job, something that you count on, something I use to feed my kids, is not a good feeling at all,” said Caraballo, who worked as a school bus driver before joining the MTA.
Without a state bailout, the MTA plans to cut about 3,000 positions. Transit managers hope that most positions can simply be left unfilled when workers retire.
But officials estimate about 1,100 workers will be laid off. Many service and job cuts in the MTA’s doomsday budget involve the elimination of bus routes or running buses on routes less frequently.
Workers with two or fewer years on the job are most vulnerable.
Click here for the complete report.
Coming from a son & grandson of retired MTA bus drivers, I understood why they were originally drawn to the jobs. During my years of existence, I have become friends with many MTA employees including many who have little tenure within the agency. I am concerned at the prospects of seeing them or any hard working MTA blue-collar workers losing their jobs.
This is yet another indicator of how real this financial crisis is for the MTA. The facts of this reality hit you from every direction regardless of the asinine sentiment that the MTA is a boy crying wolf here. Maybe those who echo these sentiments should try pouring over the data like us advocates do & show us where the agency is hiding the money at. I mean it is a fact that the MTA keeps double books (sarcasm folks) so the money is there somewhere.
Seriously, this is a scary time to be someone who lives in this region & uses mass transit. We might actually bare witness to the collapse of our transit system & infrastructure. Regardless of how you feel about the MTA, this is something we can’t afford to have happen.
xoxo Transit Blogger
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment