MTA CEO Does Not Rule Out Fare Hikes
The following story in today’s New York Daily News is just the type of piece that will have the masses screaming bloody murder over the raises awarded to MTA workers via an arbitration panel. The piece focuses on how interim MTA CEO/Executive Director Helena Williams can’t rule out fare hikes due to the 11% raises awarded. Pete Donohue & Adam Lisberg of the New York Daily News have more:
The acting head of the MTA said on Tuesday she can’t rule out a fare hike to pay for raises granted to bus and subway workers, which hiked their pay 11.3% over three years.
“That’s a question that we’re going to have to look at,” said Helena Williams, the MTA’s interim executive director.
“We very much want to maintain an affordable system for our customers … but it’s a challenge.”
Click here for the complete report.
This kind of sentiment echoed already from MTA brass screams of a PR battle between itself & the evil doers who in this case will be the blue collar force that keeps the agency moving on a daily basis. Instead of taking a hard look at how to minimize the effects of these raises before sharing their position, they are quick to cry about how this was not the right decision. It is a foregone conclusion that the general riding public will actually agree with the MTA on this. The negative sentiment shared by many towards the blue collar force of the MTA has always been known & with it comes the attitude that they are undeserving of their salaries. When times are tough economically, the sentiment shifts even further to the belief that if they can’t get raises, no one else can.
I will continue to follow this story as it unfolds & comment on the expected backlash that will ensue.
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
Richard you are correct about “powerful” unions getting things for there members but keep in mind that the TWU is the weakest large union in the city. Along with being the weakest it is also the most disrespected and unappreciated by the public, press, and it’s own employer.
There is no animosity towards LIRR, MNR, MTA bridges & tunnels, or MTA police who all get much better contracts make alot more money and have way better benefits. That’s the strange part to me. When I get on a LIRR train and see a conductor in just about every car I think how does nobody cry about this but they cry about 1 conductor on a much more crowded subway train.
Richard THAT WAS YOU? lol j/k….but on a serious note,Sanitation-they pick up your trash so it doesn’t stink up your penthouse and neighborhood get 4% raise.Firefighters-they put out fires in yours and everyone elses neighborhood get 4% raise.NYPD-supposedly the best in the country fight crimes and in the line of danger everyday get 4% as well.Follow the trend so far Richard?Teachers-they provide your kids with an education to succeed in the world after we are long gone get 4% raise as well,DC37,Nurses get raises as well.Now the NYC Transit workers-We get you,sanitation,NYPD,FDNY,teachers,tourists and nu yawkers alike from point A to point B with professionalism and courtesy and yet we don’t deserve a raise in your eyes.Most people are not aware of the life and dangers that exist inside a transit workers mind unless you laced our boots.Want to see transit workers work,take a trip to Times Square avd visit the main booth for about 3 hours and watch the cleaners pick up after the pigs who either have no idea what a trash can looks like or they do the same in their very own house.
“from point A to point B with professionalism and courtesy and yet we don’t deserve a raise in your eyes”
No, your union does not do this. If we saw efficiency we would be in favor of a raise. But we see people (today two people) sitting in booths doing nothing. This is so common. I ask you, how many people were replaces by the metrocard? None?
You compare yourselves to the LIRR and see less animosity towards the LIRR. Ask yourselves “why?” Have you ever been on the LIRR, it is spotless, the people who work there are polite, and it is on schedule constantly. The subway system is terrible, sometimes you wait forever in 110 degree heat for a train. The homeless sleep on the trains and ruin them. If you ask a booth person, when there is a major issue, like a train not running, what is going on, they tell you that they do not know.
The subway system gets messed up every single time there is a heavy rain. RAIN, can they not plan for rain? Rain is not an unforseen event. I would bet it will continue to rain.
Honestly, do you think people arbitrarily don’t like subway workers for no reason. Keep in mind this is also before they decided to cripple the city with a strike which was illegal.
Amazing, the world is cutting back trying to make ends meet. They issue a 11% raise over three years, cut back health insurance contributions and just decide to make the commuters pay for it.
I wish I had a business with no competition, endless sales, government help and no incentive to keep fares low.
The reason there is animosity towards the workers is not misplaced.
We see them. We see them doing nothing, we see them in their booths angry when people ask them questions, we see how the Metrocard replaced there usefullness yet they retained there jobs. At my station I see a guy there, once in a while, who does nothing, half the time he is just walking around the station.
If there is an outage they don’t care. They get mad when people ask what is going on.
We know how powerful unions reward the members with raises above what the rest of the world gets. We know how hard it is to fire teachers and MTA workers who do nothing. We saw the scandal with disability on the LIRR and we know there is corruption.