Jump to content

MTA, Transit Workers Union Still In Negotiations After Contract Expires


Via Garibaldi 8

Recommended Posts

I agree that MTA NYCT workers should get a raise, but something that concerns me is the "Me too Clause" in the contract, stating if LIRR gets a higher raise, they should too. Last negotiation LIRR workers earned 17% extra over 6 1/2 year. There are much more NYCT employees than LIRR workers and I'm afraid raises on par with the LIRR may not be sustainable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 143
  • Created
  • Last Reply
I agree that MTA NYCT workers should get a raise, but something that concerns me is the "Me too Clause" in the contract, stating if LIRR gets a higher raise, they should too. Last negotiation LIRR workers earned 17% extra over 6 1/2 year. There are much more NYCT employees than LIRR workers and I'm afraid raises on par with the LIRR may not be sustainable

 

Is there a" me too clause" or is this a proposal?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree that MTA NYCT workers should get a raise, but something that concerns me is the "Me too Clause" in the contract, stating if LIRR gets a higher raise, they should too. Last negotiation LIRR workers earned 17% extra over 6 1/2 year. There are much more NYCT employees than LIRR workers and I'm afraid raises on par with the LIRR may not be sustainable

 

Is there a" me too clause" or is this a proposal?

My understanding is that there is a me too clause, which means that if the LIRR received a raise that wasn't in line with what (MTA) NYCT workers received, they would then be able to go back to the (MTA) and re-negotiate for more.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree that MTA NYCT workers should get a raise, but something that concerns me is the "Me too Clause" in the contract, stating if LIRR gets a higher raise, they should too. Last negotiation LIRR workers earned 17% extra over 6 1/2 year. There are much more NYCT employees than LIRR workers and I'm afraid raises on par with the LIRR may not be sustainable

 

Is there a" me too clause" or is this a proposal?

 

The "me too cause" means TWU can renegotiate if LIRR gets a higher raise. It does not mean that TWU will automatically get the same raise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The "me too cause" means TWU can renegotiate if LIRR gets a higher raise. It does not mean that TWU will automatically get the same raise.

Well that should be obvious.  I'll also add that the (MTA) shouldn't be pressured to re-negotiate just because the LIRR gets a higher raise if that means putting themselves into further debt that they can't get out of.  It's a nice provision, but to compare the two unions seems foolish anyway.  They don't do the same thing so there shouldn't even be a comparison.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well that should be obvious.  I'll also add that the (MTA) shouldn't be pressured to re-negotiate just because the LIRR gets a higher raise if that means putting themselves into further debt that they can't get out of.  It's a nice provision, but to compare the two unions seems foolish anyway.  They don't do the same thing so there shouldn't even be a comparison.

 

You forget that our governor is trying to oil the gears for 2020, so he wants no disruption in this state. He forced the MTA to back down from the LIRR strike and hand out a contract that they couldn't afford.

 

Really, this is just going to be Christie all over again, when eventually around election time the edifice falls apart due to unethical behavior of some sort.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You forget that our governor is trying to oil the gears for 2020, so he wants no disruption in this state. He forced the MTA to back down from the LIRR strike and hand out a contract that they couldn't afford.

 

Really, this is just going to be Christie all over again, when eventually around election time the edifice falls apart due to unethical behavior of some sort.

I didn't forget at all... I know the deal with Cuomo.... He's giving out goodies and passing down the hard decisions to someone else, and even despite that, some folks still aren't happy... The customers are supposedly paying "peanuts"... What's really sad is some (MTA) workers don't even know what the fare costs (how do you not know the cost when you drive say a bus for Christ's sake?) and they don't give a damn since a lot of them drive anyway.  I've seen quite a few passengers get on and ask and the driver won't have a clue.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't forget at all... I know the deal with Cuomo.... He's giving out goodies and passing down the hard decisions to someone else, and even despite that, some folks still aren't happy... The customers are supposedly paying "peanuts"... What's really sad is some (MTA) workers don't even know what the fare costs (how do you not know the cost when you drive say a bus for Christ's sake?) and they don't give a damn since a lot of them drive anyway.  I've seen quite a few passengers get on and ask and the driver won't have a clue.  

 

Maybe that is why there announcements saying what the fare is? :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pretty sure that big sign on the fareboxes is visible enough lol

Even so if someone boards, the driver should be able to answer a very simple question.  That's the thing... I personally find MNRR workers far more knowledgeable and better trained.  If they want similar compensation to MNRR or LIRR workers,  I think the standards should be raised in terms of training and customer service.  I have even had situations where buses were on planned detours and the driver claimed he didn't know what route he was taking.  I mean that's just ridiculous. If you don't know, who is supposed to know? Smh

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm sorry but are we not supposed to question how the (MTA) will pay for all of this? I think that's the main question being posed here and it's a legitimate one.  It isn't about pitting anybody against someone else.  These raises have to paid for and we likely will be paying for them, so yes, I want to know how the (MTA) will pay for them.

 

By issuing DEBT. Which pays off Wall Street.

 

Which is why there is no money for the employees of the system, and why there is always a budget crisis that necessitates fare increases.

 

Let this sink in for a minute:

In 2015, the MTA paid fully 25% of the cost of salaries and wages for its current workforce in DEBT SERVICE COSTS (interest).

 

Meaning if the MTA simply paid off its debt and didn't have to pay interest anymore, it would have the same cost savings to the budget that a full 25% cut in service would.

 

Wall Street gets paid, working people get f**ked. Story of America for 35 years. And why should we get worse if LIRR gets a raise? I think the contract is crap because there are all sorts of work rule givebacks in it, but why should LIRR or MNRR get more than us? We work in a harsher environment, we deal with more people, we deal with more crowding and delays, we have to work around the mentally ill and homeless all the time often without readily available police assistance, and have to deal with assaults and angry passengers at a much higher rate because we don't move the "premium customers." Yet despite all these challenges, we have a far better safety record doing our jobs than they do.

 

Year over year, the MTA budget featured an increase in interest payouts in 2015 of thirty two million dollars vs. 2014. Where was all the outrage over that???

 

You are all sheep and if the media told you that your pay was the reason the MTA was broke, you'd probably nod your head and take a BS contract too right? But watch the money flow even more freely to the overpaid contractors who don't have to answer for cost overruns or to Wall Street when more debt is issued to pay for it all, instead of dedicated government funding, and the TA is back to being broke when it's time for the next contract for its employees.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even so if someone boards, the driver should be able to answer a very simple question. That's the thing... I personally find MNRR workers far more knowledgeable and better trained. If they want similar compensation to MNRR or LIRR workers, I think the standards should be raised in terms of training and customer service. I have even had situations where buses were on planned detours and the driver claimed he didn't know what route he was taking. I mean that's just ridiculous. If you don't know, who is supposed to know? Smh

you can't compare the average local bus/ subway rider to metro north/ lirr riders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I'm with local 100 on the "NO!" Proposal. They should at least get what SEPTA's union got for 5 years or better. As bus drivers, they need at least a break in each side of the terminal, if it states right, giving them the opportunity to use the bathroom before hitting the road again. Same for conductors & motormen. Is picking a route a priority?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using NYC Transit Forums mobile app

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The system is definitely rigged against working people; just look at how the DNC disposed of Sanders during the primaries...

Because in all likelihood they were fearful that if it had been Sanders vs. Trump, it actually would have been those two vs. a GOP "Establishment" candidate (most likely Mitt Romney) running on the Conservative Party (which Reagan ran on in addition to the GOP when he won in 1980) and looking to pick off a handful of states to prevent Sanders or Trump from getting to 270 and then winning the White House in a simple vote of states (one vote per state), as the "Establishment" candidate likely would easily get the 26 states needed to take the White House (the VP is elected in a similar manner in the Senate if that happened).   That was the big fear of the DNC in my view (and Bloomberg likely would also have run as an Independent against Sanders and Trump in possibly a four-way race). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because in all likelihood they were fearful that if it had been Sanders vs. Trump, it actually would have been those two vs. a GOP "Establishment" candidate (most likely Mitt Romney) running on the Conservative Party (which Reagan ran on in addition to the GOP when he won in 1980) and looking to pick off a handful of states to prevent Sanders or Trump from getting to 270 and then winning the White House in a simple vote of states (one vote per state), as the "Establishment" candidate likely would easily get the 26 states needed to take the White House (the VP is elected in a similar manner in the Senate if that happened).   That was the big fear of the DNC in my view (and Bloomberg likely would also have run as an Independent against Sanders and Trump in possibly a four-way race). 

 

Disagree. The DNC was/is rotten to the core and there is no sugarcoating this.

 

They ENABLED Trump by selecting one of the least liked candidates in American history. The person who facing a relatively inexperienced junior senator from Illinois (who happened to have a last name that rhymed with the guy behind the 9/11 attacks, and also happened to be black, which, let's be real, automatically means you won't get a big chunk of the vote), couldn't secure a party nomination in 2008.

 

The fix was in from the beginning because it was all about Hillary's "loyalty" to the party and her lifetime service to it. Sorry, but elections are not about that. Elections are about convincing the American people you are the best candidate for the work that needs to be done, and also about pointing to your own actual voting record, not just opinions and soundbytes where candidates traditionally flipflop to say what people want to hear.

 

Bernie Sanders has a lifetime of service to working people and American families under his belt. While Hillary was paying lip service to Black Lives Matter (I may not agree with a lot of their platform, but the reality that many minorities are treated differently is unacceptable, and does need to be addressed) while whispering "back to the real issues" to her so-called people seconds later, Bernie was letting them speak at his rallies. While Hillary was working with the conservative Goldwater Institute in the 1960s, Bernie was marching with MLK. While Hillary was - twice - voting for unnecessary war and intervening in Middle Eastern affairs that destabilized their governments and created the power vacuum where ideologies like ISIS could take root and spread, Bernie was voting NO to those same effects.

 

Yet you barely ever hear a soundbyte from Bernie on any major news outlet, even now. Where were his speeches during the debates? Oh, that's right....30 seconds of Hillary talking, followed by "Bernie responded with" and then a 3 second snippet with no context to make him look like a communist. Even now. Where are his burning questions on Betsy DeVos, where he told her point blank he thinks she's unqualified and her family money is the only reason she's up for Education Secretary.

 

When loyalty to party becomes more impotant than loyalty to America, the game is over. It's done, we're dead in the water. This is not going to get fixed until a college educated liberal mired in student debt with no decent job prospects can look a religious high school graduate from a rural state in the eye with no decent job prospects and growing credit card debt, who do not know each other, and both of them say, "I understand your struggle, and we need to fight for better." Until that happens we will continue to be thrust back and forth between the two dog and pony political parties, watching helplessly like sheep as the Republicans strip away our benefits and our standard of living, while the Democrats aimlessly squander whatever fight a few of us can muster on their own personal crusades against culture, none of which improve our lives, and in fact actually serve to restrict the dwindling number of behavioral activities we can still enjoy in our newfound poverty.

 

Keep fighting about microaggressions, safe space, free speech in the bubble world of a college campus, whether a Trumptard is worse than a libtard, where Melania Trump should live, if Michelle Obama is truly the most faaabulous First Lady ever, or whether Madonna/Lady Gaga/Tom Brady/Curt Schilling are truly the celebrities with their fingers most on the pulse of America. Because while you sit there in front of the idiot box raptured by this bullshit, arguing for hours in the comments on Yahoo about the most mundane crap, and wildly spewing conspiracy theories, your bills are getting more expensive, your healthcare is going away, your income in retirement is being stolen by politicians to enrich themselves, your jobs are being sent somewhere else or being replaced by automation, and creditors are lining up left and right to offer you loans that you will pay interest on for the rest of your life to help ease the "pain" of all this other negative change, which will ALWAYS be blamed on circumstance so that you don't have a leg to stand on in court if you decide to sue someone... All of this ensuring that you will quite literally end up a slave until the day you die, never owning anything, and never able to walk away from a lifetime of working for someone else living high on the hog while you toil away in squalor to pay a debt you never can.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Disagree. The DNC was/is rotten to the core and there is no sugarcoating this.

 

They ENABLED Trump by selecting one of the least liked candidates in American history. The person who facing a relatively inexperienced junior senator from Illinois (who happened to have a last name that rhymed with the guy behind the 9/11 attacks, and also happened to be black, which, let's be real, automatically means you won't get a big chunk of the vote), couldn't secure a party nomination in 2008.

 

The fix was in from the beginning because it was all about Hillary's "loyalty" to the party and her lifetime service to it. Sorry, but elections are not about that. Elections are about convincing the American people you are the best candidate for the work that needs to be done, and also about pointing to your own actual voting record, not just opinions and soundbytes where candidates traditionally flipflop to say what people want to hear.

 

Bernie Sanders has a lifetime of service to working people and American families under his belt. While Hillary was paying lip service to Black Lives Matter (I may not agree with a lot of their platform, but the reality that many minorities are treated differently is unacceptable, and does need to be addressed) while whispering "back to the real issues" to her so-called people seconds later, Bernie was letting them speak at his rallies. While Hillary was working with the conservative Goldwater Institute in the 1960s, Bernie was marching with MLK. While Hillary was - twice - voting for unnecessary war and intervening in Middle Eastern affairs that destabilized their governments and created the power vacuum where ideologies like ISIS could take root and spread, Bernie was voting NO to those same effects.

 

Yet you barely ever hear a soundbyte from Bernie on any major news outlet, even now. Where were his speeches during the debates? Oh, that's right....30 seconds of Hillary talking, followed by "Bernie responded with" and then a 3 second snippet with no context to make him look like a communist. Even now. Where are his burning questions on Betsy DeVos, where he told her point blank he thinks she's unqualified and her family money is the only reason she's up for Education Secretary.

 

When loyalty to party becomes more impotant than loyalty to America, the game is over. It's done, we're dead in the water. This is not going to get fixed until a college educated liberal mired in student debt with no decent job prospects can look a religious high school graduate from a rural state in the eye with no decent job prospects and growing credit card debt, who do not know each other, and both of them say, "I understand your struggle, and we need to fight for better." Until that happens we will continue to be thrust back and forth between the two dog and pony political parties, watching helplessly like sheep as the Republicans strip away our benefits and our standard of living, while the Democrats aimlessly squander whatever fight a few of us can muster on their own personal crusades against culture, none of which improve our lives, and in fact actually serve to restrict the dwindling number of behavioral activities we can still enjoy in our newfound poverty.

 

Keep fighting about microaggressions, safe space, free speech in the bubble world of a college campus, whether a Trumptard is worse than a libtard, where Melania Trump should live, if Michelle Obama is truly the most faaabulous First Lady ever, or whether Madonna/Lady Gaga/Tom Brady/Curt Schilling are truly the celebrities with their fingers most on the pulse of America. Because while you sit there in front of the idiot box raptured by this bullshit, arguing for hours in the comments on Yahoo about the most mundane crap, and wildly spewing conspiracy theories, your bills are getting more expensive, your healthcare is going away, your income in retirement is being stolen by politicians to enrich themselves, your jobs are being sent somewhere else or being replaced by automation, and creditors are lining up left and right to offer you loans that you will pay interest on for the rest of your life to help ease the "pain" of all this other negative change, which will ALWAYS be blamed on circumstance so that you don't have a leg to stand on in court if you decide to sue someone... All of this ensuring that you will quite literally end up a slave until the day you die, never owning anything, and never able to walk away from a lifetime of working for someone else living high on the hog while you toil away in squalor to pay a debt you never can.

Spoken fantastically. It’s often only online that I get to see such views. In my circle of friends, if such a rational person existed, they’re probably afraid to speak up in the enormous echo chamber of New York City.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spoken fantastically. It’s often only online that I get to see such views. In my circle of friends, if such a rational person existed, they’re probably afraid to speak up in the enormous echo chamber of New York City.

Oh, that may be all true as well, but in my view the overriding fear was Mitt Romney (who was looking at running a third-party campaign anyway) running on the Conservative Party if Sanders won with the strategy of getting it to a House vote and easily getting the 26 states he would have needed to take the White House that way (with very possibly Mike Pence and NOT whoever Romney's actual running mate would have been becoming VP in a Senate vote).   That to me was a bigger fear than Trump winning because no one really thought Trump would win.  

 

It was very similar to what happened in England earlier in 2016 when many older white males, who were not counted in many polls leading up to it came out en masse to vote for the Brexit.  Like with Trump, many of them were looking for a return to the "good times" of the 1950's and '60s and were hoping Trump would do the same.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, that may be all true as well, but in my view the overriding fear was Mitt Romney (who was looking at running a third-party campaign anyway) running on the Conservative Party if Sanders won with the strategy of getting it to a House vote and easily getting the 26 states he would have needed to take the White House that way (with very possibly Mike Pence and NOT whoever Romney's actual running mate would have been becoming VP in a Senate vote).   That to me was a bigger fear than Trump winning because no one really thought Trump would win.  

 

It was very similar to what happened in England earlier in 2016 when many older white males, who were not counted in many polls leading up to it came out en masse to vote for the Brexit.  Like with Trump, many of them were looking for a return to the "good times" of the 1950's and '60s and were hoping Trump would do the same.  

 

People need to stop voting based on fear and bullshit and pick the best candidate.

 

When did preventing somebody else from winning become more important than winning?

 

With Trump, outside of a handful of blatant racists and neo Nazis, the majority of his voters were people who were fed up with US imperialism overseas and the decades of headaches it has created in the mid-east to benefit large corporations and oil. People who were fed up with outsourcing and technology replacing honest work for an honest day's pay which has been replaced with minimum wage for crap work in the service, retail, and hospitality sectors. People who were tired of free trade deals (which, BTW, Bernie Sanders was also against) which were just an excuse for large corporations to force American workers to compete with slavery to destroy the unions and working wages and secure more profits for the .01% on the backs of massively unemployed and underemployed Americans.

 

The problem is, they are generally too gullible and too easily led by the media and its soundbytes, to understand that if you want to fix THE NUMBER ONE ISSUE IN AMERICA - WEALTH AND INCOME INEQUALITY - a billionaire who won't tell you how much he's worth, won't release his tax returns, has been charged with fraud numerous times, has taken his companies through procedural bankruptcy numerous times to avoid paying debts in full to creditors...but promises you a bunch of crap he's never actually delivered on in his life - is the wrong person to ever elect to get you to fix that.

 

And they're also not bright enough to understand that the President is actually a pretty small part of government, and just because they supported Trump does not mean that they had to support the moron do-nothing Republicans that have been infesting the Legislative Branch for much of Obama's presidency who didn't do anything but lay a big fat egg while being paid more than their fair share, with full benefits, by the way, by the taxpayers. But they did anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.