Switching Depots

[Silk City Transit]

Hey guys, 

 

I usually post over on the NJ Transit board since I am a bus operator for them.  But I was recently speaking with an MTA b/o who was riding my bus and he mentioned that he had switched depots and that the MTA actually gives you the opportunity to switch from one depot to another once a year during what they call a general pick, and you keep your seniority.  Anybody have any more information or details about this?

 

I think it would be great if NJ Transit had the same policy.  As it is now, the only way you can switch garages is:

 

1) If making the move from part time to full time and you put down a different garage on your application (no guarantee you'll get it, though).  I went through this process when I went from part time at Market Street to full time at Oradell.

 

2) If a line from your garage gets transferred to another garage - they open up the opportunity for a limited number of operators to make the move as well.

 

3) If your garage closes.  There was a big shakeup back in 1999/2000 or so when Madison Avenue (in Paterson) closed and Wayne Garage opened.  Lines from Madison Avenue were shifted to Market Street and Wayne; and from Market Street to Wayne, and operators were shifted as well.

 

4) You *can* transfer from one garage to another as a full timer without the above occuring but then you lose your seniority.

 

Personally, I'd love to opportunity to transfer to different garages every so often just for a change of scenery. 

[nostalgia]

I don't work for the but I think some caveats need to be added. Depots came from private bus lines and created MABSTOA, NYCTA, and MTABus. I won't say it's impossible but I doubt that a B/O from a MTA Bus depot (Eastchester, JFK, Bailsley Park, LaGuardia, etc.) could go to a MABSTOA depot (126 Street). The unions are different.

 

If I'm wrong, I'm sure a flame war will begin.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

I don't work for the but I think some caveats need to be added. Depots came from private bus lines and created MABSTOA, NYCTA, and MTABus. I won't say it's impossible but I doubt that a B/O from a MTA Bus depot (Eastchester, JFK, Bailsley Park, LaGuardia, etc.) could go to a MABSTOA depot (126 Street). The unions are different.

 

If I'm wrong, I'm sure a flame war will begin.

Well I do know that some B/O's move from Bus to NYCT. I had a B/O out of Yonkers a few years ago who drove on the BxM2... I saw him months later doing the M3 in the city.  I didn't even recognize him but he remembered me. He said hey this isn't an express bus, and I said yeah I know and dipped my card. That's when I asked him how he knew that I took the express bus and then he told me how he took the exam, etc.m and switched to Manhattanville.

[nostalgia]

Well I do know that some B/O's move from Bus to NYCT. I had a B/O out of Yonkers a few years ago who drove on the BxM2... I saw him months later doing the M3 in the city.  I didn't even recognize him but he remembered me. He said hey this isn't an express bus, and I said yeah I know and dipped my card. That's when I asked him how he knew that I took the express bus and then he told me how he took the exam, etc.m and switched to Manhattanville.

The key to what you wrote is "he took the exam."

[Blitz]

I don't work for the but I think some caveats need to be added. Depots came from private bus lines and created MABSTOA, NYCTA, and MTABus. I won't say it's impossible but I doubt that a B/O from a MTA Bus depot (Eastchester, JFK, Bailsley Park, LaGuardia, etc.) could go to a MABSTOA depot (126 Street). The unions are different.

 

If I'm wrong, I'm sure a flame war will begin.

126th is a TA depot, not MaBSTOA

[NYSubwayBuff]

If anyone can confirm this I am not sure the only restrictions to switching depots are that MTAB b/o's can only transfer to another MTAB depot and that if you switch to a different depot on S.I. or to S.I. you lose all your seniority

[East New York]

Operators are allowed to switch depots within their division. The divisions within the MTA are NYCT, MaBSTOA, and MTA Bus. However, it is much easier to switch to a depot within your union as well. MaBSTOA for example is all TWU Local 100, and includes all Bronx and Manhattan Depots with the exception of 126th Street Depot. 

 

NYCT and MTA Bus have depots represented by both TWU Local 100 and the ATU. Brooklyn NYCT is all TWU 100. If you switch unions it is possible to loose seniority. This can also happen when switching divisions, even though it is much easier to to switch between MaBSTOA and NYCT than it is for MTA Bust to NYCT or MaBSTOA.

 

In a case like that, the operator has to resign with MTA Bus if hired at NYCT/MaBSTOA. Seniority then starts over.

 

General Pick is yearly, and operators have the option of picking into another depot of same union and divisions with little to no restrictions at all.

[transit bx]

I was MTA Bus for about 2 years now I'm TA which I had to start all over the only thing I keep is the time I did which counts towards retirement which my date of hire is still the same 2011. My picking date starts over as well as my sonority and ect, also had to do probation over, I'll be done with probation this upcoming week. PS also my pay drops as well but still under the old contract which was cool but it was wroth the switch rather then staying at MTA Bus.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

For what it's worth, the whole seniority thing isn't that big of a deal.  With the way some guys are fired at some depots, the B/O's that keep their noses clean can move up the seniority chain very quickly.  Just ask the guys at Yonkers. 

[Jimmyb820]

As for switching depots, do you have to wait for the system yearly pick or can we ask for a transfer to get in sooner?

[East New York]

As for switching depots, do you have to wait for the system yearly pick or can we ask for a transfer to get in sooner?

 

You have to wait for the system pic.

[Fresh Pond]

Its possible to switch mid-pick, under certain circumstances

[Jimmyb820]

Its possible to switch mid-pick, under certain circumstances

 

What circumstances would that be?

[Fresh Pond]

I guess when they ask. I have a friend who worked at Flatbush, then transferred to Grand Av in June since they needed drivers there and they asked for people

[East New York]

That's a different scenario when there is a driver shortage at another depot, which is not uncomon at all. However it is TA requested, and not considered a pick. More or less just a transfer.