amendamatrix

If I remember the induction process correctly, this is how your first 5-6 weeks will look like when you start at transit: First two days : Orientation at 195 Montague st. Days 3 through 10: You will go to the transit learning center at 2125 W 13th st for track worker training. Somewhere in this period you will do your mini pick, and they will allow you to pick, in seniority order, whether you want to do your OJT at one of the yards in Brooklyn or in the Bronx. Days 11 - 31: On the job training in one of the yards you picked in school. You will also have you take courses in fire safety, how to wear the half face mask, among other things in this period. Day 32+: You will go into the field at whatever pick job you selected at the mini pick. You would have been scheduled for flagging while at the TLC, so you will attend it at what ever time place they instructed you to. Remember, if you work any night tour like 10pm to 6am, or 11pm to 7am, the date you work for is the date that you sign off at. The day/date you work for is the one where the majority scheduled hours fall on. Keep this in mind when you do your mini pick. Example 1: If my tour is 10pm to 6am and I'm scheduled to work Monday, May 3rd 2021, I MUST report to my work location on Sunday May 2nd at 10pm, work my tour, and clock out at 6am on Monday May 3rd. You are working Sunday night for Monday because the majority of your time working falls on the Monday. Example 2: Your tour is 11pm - 7am, and your RDO (Regular Days Off) is Sunday / Monday. This means that you DO NOT report to work at 11pm on Saturday or Sunday, but you MUST report to work at 11pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Example 3: I'm 10p-6a with a Fri/Sat RDO. I report to work at 10pm Saturday through Wednesday, and I don't report in on Thursday nights or Friday nights.

The jobs that require a CDL will tell you which type of CDL is required for that position. I can't really answer more than that, since I never had CDL credentials. I will say that CDL required dual-rate jobs are easier to get relative to ones that don't simply because only a small percent of track workers have them. Questions like these are best asked when your in track safety training. The instructors will explain this in detail at various points in training. You career path is the same as I listed earlier, the CDL only allows you to pick certain Dual-Rate or Specialist jobs, but you're still a track worker at the end of the day, It doesn't really affect anything else really. Another important thing to know too is that track worker is a safety sensitive job title, so you are subject to random drug tests. If you fail a test once in your career, they put you in a program, and increase the testing rate on you. If you fail a test any time after that, they fire you. I would suggest weaning yourself off any recreation drug habits right now and give yourself time to adjust to living life without them. Failing a random once is SUPER inconvenient; you can get suspended without pay for a while, be forced to attend boring meetings on your own time multiple times a week for months, among a host of other problems you don't want.

A track specialist is a track worker who selected certain jobs at the main pick that either require them to have had additional training provided by transit, or have a commercial driver's licence. A track worker will need to pick a certain type of job as a dual-rate first, and after at least a year as a dual rate, they will then be qualified to pick the specialist version of that job at the pick or via a bid. Here's an example, A track worker picks a dual-rate welder job at the pick, transit trains them to do the job, after a year of having the title of dual-rate welder, they can now pick a specialist welder job pick if it's available to them at the next pick or bid. A track specialist pay rate is currently $36.975, and tops out at $39.8175 in May 2022. Track specialists are all paid the same rate regardless if they perform specialist work or not. Dual-rates get paid the specialist rate only on the days they perform the specialist task, and on the days they don't, they get their regular track pay. Career path options for track workers with just exams: A) Track worker ------> Maintenance Supervisor level 1 Track B) Track worker --------> Power Distribution Maintainer (Third Rail Operations) --------> Maintenance Supervisor Level 1 Power Distribution MS level 2 and Superintendent are positions you interview for and may have to meet education and additional requirements for. The pay scale info was answered earlier.

The payrate increases for the new contract is once a year for 4 years, retroactive to May 2019. The increases are 2%, 2.25%, 2.5%, and 2.75%. First year pay as after March 2019 will be $23.63, after May 2020 it will be $24.17, after May 2021 it will be $24.77, and after May 2022 it will be $25.45.

Probably sometime after the current general track pick, which should be complete by July 4th. My guess would be somewhere in August.

They were probably asked to come in 2 hours early and stay later to be on standby for snow duty. I was ordered to go to a station in the Bronx at 7pm and didn't leave until 8am the next day, my regular tour is 10pm-6am. However many hours you shovel snow on your regular tour, you get an OT-like bonus for it. Ex: If you shovel snow for 2 hours, instead of being paid for just 8 regular hours plus the OT hours, you get paid for 9 hours plus OT hours. (2): Year 2 pay is $24.83, year 3 is $26.28, year 4 is $28.14, year 5 is $29.79, and top pay is currently $33.1025. During my orientation back in September, they gave us a sheet that had a breakdown of the pay scale by year. I calculated the contracted 2.5% pay bump we got in Feb into it and got those numbers. It may go up with the next contract 1 or 2 years from now. (3): Night/Weekend differential currently starts at $1.0034, and with top pay it's about $1.43 . Night/wknd differential is paid anytime you work between the hours of 6pm & 6am M-F, and all day Sunday & Saturday. Assuming you work nights, that differential pay can up to $2k to $3k annually. Can you tell me what is the highest seniority number from your class is? I'm just curious.

My class that started on 9/11 had our on-the-job training cut short from 4 weeks to just 2 days. In that time, we just practiced using different power tools one time each, and using hand signs to communicate with a crane operator. On the 2nd day of OTJ, we were told to report to another yard for two days for courses in back safety, fire safety, and respirator fitting, all of which were 8 hours each. They rushed us into the field so fast that we had to do a double shift on either the Thursday or Saturday of that week to cram all the mandatory training in. By the end of that week, we accrued 16 hours of OT for that pay period . According to the instructors, Transit is looking to hire 500 track workers over the next year. It appears to me after working in the field that there is a cleaning initiative in effect where they want to have more track workers to clean the tracks in and around the stations ASAP, and operate some kind of new vacuum that will be introduced. Everyone in my class were only given cleaning gangs to pick from during our mini-pick which makes me suspect this.

Night shift hours that I've seen are either 10pm-6am or 11pm-7am. The majority of the hours your night shift falls upon determines the day you work for. Here's an example: You're scheduled to work on Monday; That means you start your shift on Sunday at 10/11pm. That time is counted for Monday because you worked the most hours (6 to 7 out of 8) of that shift on the Monday. Take this into account when you have to work night shifts. If you're scheduled to work Tuesday, but don't show up at 10/11pm Monday night, you are considered AWOL. I don't know why they do it this way, but it is what it is.

I just wore a polo shirt, and some normal jeans. For the actual class that starts on the third day, wear anything that you're not worried about getting dirty. They provided shoes mid-day through the first day of training, so wear anything that is not explicitly forbidden in the paper they give you when you are sworn in. Don't know. I do know of one person who was in the mid to high 1300's that was there, so I'm betting a lot of people got passed over since there was a 100+ gap between us in list number. I'd also bring a decent sized duffel bag on the first two days since you will be given two pairs of work boots, and a large bag of gear (includes helmet, flashlight, two safety vests, whistle, visors, goggles, ear protectors, gloves, etc...) to take home. Another thing they stressed is that this job can be very dangerous really quick if you are not alert, or are being careless. Please guys, if you are regular weed smoker, you should stop once you start, and if you drink alcohol regularly, don't do it within 10 hours of starting a shift. They emphasized that if you are in an accident, they will immediately drug test you, and if you test positive, you're done. Probation for a year is no joke, and they can fire you very easily during this time. Track workers need to look out for each other, and lives can be put at risk if you are not mentally 100% when you are working others in your crew. They told lots of stories about gruesome accidents that can happen on this job due to negligence, or someone being impaired or under the influence. Otherwise, the instructors, and other track workers who were training for a promotion in the building say the job is awesome, the benefits are great, and that the work intensity on an average shift, is not as bad some may make it out to be. You just have to know the safety procedures and use common sense when in doubt. PS: Be on time everyday, and think long and hard before even thinking of using a sick day. They really don't like it if you abuse your sick days in this company.

Hey guys this is my first post. I've been lurking in this thread for a long time while I've been waiting to be hired, which happened last month (List # between 1200 and 1300). I'm currently in the class of about 50 people that started on the 9/11, and one thing that the instructors have stressed to us is that transit is trying to hire at least 500 more track workers over the next year. Supposedly they will be doing new classes pretty frequently from now through May. Good luck. Another piece of good news is that during orientation, it was explained that sometime in January and February, there will be a small pay bump of 2.5% everyone's base pay, which is great, since there are a lot of deductions (401k, union dues, etc..) on our bi weekly paychecks. Combined with the night differential, which currently starts at $0.95 and will also increase, we should be making a little over $24/hr assuming we work night shifts through the next years.