TWU President Attacks MTA CEO’s Salary
As I have said numerous times before, the war between the MTA & Transport Workers Union Local 100 is one that never seems to end. Sometimes it might appear dull & peaceful, however it takes very little to get it going at a fever’s pitch again. The latest fever pitch battle has been over the MTA’s cutting & potentially more cutting of union jobs.
One of the main arguments being used by TWU President John Samuelsen is the hypocrisy being shown by the MTA. His initial point focused on how the agency seems to routinely criticize the union for fighting their battle through the media, yet the MTA has been doing just that lately. His latest point is to attack the salary of MTA CEO & Chairman Jay H. Walder who makes $350,000 annually & has a $5000 per month housing allowance. The New York Daily News’ Pete Donohue has more:
The head of the transit union went on the warpath against MTA boss Jay Walder Tuesday – blasting him as a fat cat “raking in the dough” while he lays off workers.
Union big John Samuelsen railed against the “rich guy’s” $350,000 salary and $5,000 monthly housing allowance.
“I just can’t get over the irony of him talking about controlling costs when he’s raking in the dough,” Samuelsen stormed in a sitdown with the Daily News Editorial Board.
“Not for nothing, he has the best severance package in the history of the public sector.”
Walder, who signed a six-year deal last year, has a generous exit package: If he’s forced out of the job early and without cause, he gets a full year’s salary.
He also could get a six-figure severance payment on top of the year’s pay.
Just five months into his term as president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, Samuelsen is fighting MTA layoffs.
Click here for the complete report.
I have shared my feelings on Mr. Samuelsen before. He does bring up some valid points while defending his workers. However he also has a tendency to find a way to bring a poor argument to the table & focus on it instead of his valid points. I feel this argument is weak as you are comparing apples to oranges.
I am not of the belief like some that most union members are overpaid & lack the intelligence or skills to do private sector jobs. This thinking is of supreme idiocy & those who believe it clearly are lacking themselves, especially in the mental area. However you can’t compare union workers to the actual CEO who runs the show. They are completely different positions & the argument holds next to no weight besides the numbers on paper.
The problem begins when you start to take the argument & break it down. While on paper, a union member making less than 6 figures looks weak versus a CEO making 6 figures. However when you look at how Mr. Walder makes next to nothing compared to private sector CEO’s, you see how the responsibilities he faces are just as important as a private sector CEO’s at a much lower pay scale. Mr. Samuelsen is clearly engaging in a battle of populism.
This is not the time for Mr. Samuelsen to be engaging in a battle that he can’t win. The public already has a low opinion of the MTA & its workers. As I mentioned earlier, a decent percentage seem to think most union workers are lazy & overpaid. So trying to paint a picture of populism between the MTA CEO & its workers will not work. He really needs to focus on the positive arguments he brings to the table, especially the openness to negotiate privately instead of through the media.
So Mr. Samuelsen, I urge you to skip the pride factor & pounding of your chest with irrelevant points while defending your workers. Focus on the real issues as it is clear that the two sides need to meet up privately & see what they can hammer out. The benefits for both sides, & the millions of riders is what is really important. Anything less would be a disservice to every single one of us.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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MTA Looks To Cut About 700 White-Collar Jobs
The big story of late has been the never-ending war between the MTA & Transport Workers Union Local 100 (TWU Local 100). The latest battle has been about the MTA’s cuts & more attempted to blue-collar jobs held by union members.
In my analysis, I repeatedly questioned why we did not hear more about the MTA’s cutting of white-collar jobs in an agency overrun with redundant positions. Today’s New York Daily News takes a look at how the agency is looking to cut 700 such jobs. Pete Donohue has more:
The MTA will lay off hundreds of administrative workers in the coming weeks as it struggles to close a budget gap without slashing service, the Daily News has learned.
Looking to eliminate about 700 slots, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority offered buyouts to white-collar workers at its Madison Ave. headquarters and other offices.
But fewer than 350 staffers, ranging from clerical workers to at least one senior vice president, signed up for the package.
The rest will be axed or reassigned, officials said.
“What we tried to do with the severance is set it up in a way to maximize the number of people who raise their hand and avail themselves of it,” NYC Transit President Tom Prendergast said. “You want to have people voluntarily leave because it minimizes the number of people who then have to go involuntarily.”
The buyout offered payments up to $20,000.
Click here for the complete report.
I am glad to finally see some coverage about job cuts to the white-collar workforce. I am not celebrating people potentially losing their jobs. I just know the absolute redundancy that goes on behind the scenes & many of these white-collar jobs are not needed.
If the agency is going to preach fiscal problems as the reason to eliminate blue-collar jobs, they have to follow the same premise on the other side. However if they are to truly do this, they needed to eliminate a much higher number of jobs on the white-collar end.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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B64 Cut Will Produce Business Nosedive
As we all know by now, the service cuts coming from all the respective agencies will have a negative impact on riders. However one of the overlooked aspects of service cuts is how much of a negative impact they will have on businesses. Today’s New York Daily News takes a look at a Bensonhurst baker who says his business will face a nosedive due to the B64 being eliminated. Mike McLaughlin has more in this report:
They thought they had a recipe for success.
Baker Vinny Galbo and his family were sure they had found the perfect location for their dream bakery when they opened a year ago on a busy Bensonhurst corner.
But their fortunes burst when the MTA announced plans to ax the B64 bus, which drops customers directly outside their shop, Bread Plus, on Harway Ave. at the corner of Bay 50th St.
“We’re going to take a hit,” said Galbo, 23. “People wait for the bus and grab their coffee and a cheese Danish. Or they come in after work to grab a loaf of bread.”
Bread Plus’ customers raved about the cakes, bread, pizza and pastries, but said they’ll shop less frequently when the bus route is slashed from Bensonhurst to Coney Island on June 27.
“We like this place a lot,” said Ralph Bluemke, 39, a National Grid salesman, who drops in after taking the bus home from his Bay Ridge doctor.
“But I’ll come here less because it will be a little bit out of the way.”
The cuts are part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s sweeping bus and subway cutbacks intended to save the agency $93 million a year.
Click here for the complete report.
I feel bad for Vinny Galbo & his family. I know how hard it is to run a business, especially in New York City. Every dollar you can bring in could end up being the difference between staying afloat or closing your doors. Unfortunately he & his family have a story just like the hundreds of thousands other riders or business owners. Until our elected officials step up & come up with legitimate & adequate funding solutions for mass transit, stories like these will be common place.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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MTA Wasted $21.3M On Non-Recordable Cameras
To say the MTA is usually way behind in any sort of technological advancements would be a huge understatement. Whether it is being years behind on the latest technology or spending exuberant amounts on outdated technology, they just seem to usually get it wrong. Today’s edition of the New York Daily News takes a look at how they agency wasted $21.3M on subway cameras that do not record. Pete Donhue has more:
This is NYC Transit’s fancy new camera – it costs $23,000 and doesn’t even record.
A four-year push to hook up hundreds of cameras in 32 subway stations has become an embarrassing boondoggle, with a ballooning pricetag and nothing yet to show for it.
The 910 cameras, designed to capture images of straphangers entering and exiting turnstiles, won’t even be wired to recording devices until some time next month.
By then, the pricetag will have grown from $15 million to $21.3 million – meaning each camera will cost a staggering $23,000.
Critics say the bungle is emblematic of how the Metropolitan Transportation Authority repeatedly fouls up technology and security projects, often in dramatic and costly fashion.
And critics fear the foulups are not only a waste of money – they potentially leave the city vulnerable. Nearly nine years after the 9/11 terror attacks, only 46% of the city’s 4,100 subway system cameras are wired to working recording devices, the MTA admits.
Click here for the complete report.
In this day & age, a story like this will be over-exaggerated. Many in our society are caught up in this fake war on terror & are willing to have our civil liberties trashed in the name of faux security. What people need to understand is that the government will NEVER be able to protect you more than you could yourself. These cameras will not protect you or prevent a so called “terrorist” attack. The sooner people wake up, the better off we will be.
The more important part of this report is how the MTA continues to bleed money unnecessarily. Wasteful spending such as this is one of the things they must cut out in order to help with their current budget deficit & future budgets as a whole. These cost overruns are the real issue that need to be addressed as doing so would have a legitimate effect on riders verus the fake war on so called terrorism.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Man Dies While Trying To Save His Friend
Over the weekend, I was browsing the New York Daily News website & saw an unfortunate story. The story was about a man who died after being hit by a Queens-bound 
train. The man, who was identified as 29 year old Jose Gomez, jumped on the tracks to rescue his female friend who went down on the tracks to recover her jacket. Matthew Lysiak & Jonathan Lemire have more in this report:
He never hesitated to help.
Jose Gomez, the brave Brooklyn man who leaped onto subway tracks to help his friend only to be killed by an oncoming train, always put others ahead of himself, his devastated family said Saturday.
“It doesn’t surprise me that he tried to save his friend,” said Gomez’s sister, Kimberly. “He was like that with all of his friends. He was always going above and beyond.”
Gomez, 29, was killed by an N train in Astoria late Friday night, while his friend – 19-year-old Beatriz Briceno – remained in critical but stable condition Saturday.
A year ago, when Briceno was a Connecticut high school senior, she chose a yearbook quote that reads as an eerie foreshadowing of the accident.
“Maybe mistakes are what make our fate,” the quote, attributed to “Sex and the City” star Carrie Bradshaw, reads under Briceno’s yearbook picture. “Without them, what would shape our lives? Maybe if we didn’t fall in love, we wouldn’t be who we are.”
Gomez and Briceno were playfully roughhousing on the northbound platform of the 36th Ave. station when the pretty teenager accidentally dropped her jacket onto the tracks, witnesses told police.
Briceno jumped to the tracks to retrieve it – seemingly unaware that a train was bearing down on her, police said.
Click here for the complete report.
Let me first offer my condolences to the family & friends of Jose Gomez. No matter how old you are, it will always be a parent’s worst nightmare to hear their child died before they did. I do wonder why the two of them were horsing around on the platform. A subway platform is the last place you should ever horse around as you could potentially fall, drop or lose possessions, etc…. Also what was a 19 year old doing drinking anyhow? I don’t want to put these two down, but it is fair to question the lack of judgement shown by them, especially since it led to 1 death, & 1 with serious injuries.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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