kellgh

I was in the first class of this list around this time 2018. Can't believe it's been 3 years already. I'm a train operator now. Prepare to feel like you went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson after carrying that heavy ass bag and walking in these yards with all that ballast. First day? You gotta climb an R68. You can't do it? You can't continue. There's a lot of information, wikipedia is pretty good, get your rest, and prepare to go around the ... world (NYC really). Prepare to see shit you ain't never seen before, like a human dropping their pants and taking a shit on the train, people shooting up heroin... sigh...

I thought Hurricane Sandy taught them this is WHY they can't cut from RTO. Cut from useless execs and cut the people with titles they don't actually have -- those people with the title of "Conductor" or "Train Operator" who have never stepped foot on an actual train.

I have no clue, but a hiring freeze right is now is unlikely.

I know they are screaming hiring freeze: I'm going to say this as a C/R who was in the first class off of this list *2 years ago* and is now in the current T/O class as a promotional. Before I got the T/O class, and I was C/R, I was doing RDOs almost every week and it was basically "You could go where ever you like." I was getting late clears close to home, getting full RDOs w/ penalty AND doing late clears for the full 16 hrs on top of that. Ya girl was making cheddar. OT slips on deck. A and B division crew sheets are looking like ghost towns with all of the open jobs. There are more jobs than there are people to crew them. We are having 14+ C/Rs and T/Os retiring a month. Seniority is jumping up. I am right now making significantly less in schoolcar as a T/O @ a higher rate of pay than I was as a C/R. That's how many people they needed. If the trains don't run, the MTA doesn't make money. They need people. Hiring freeze means not enough people to crew the trains even on a cut schedule. I can say for a fact b/c I was working every day from March to September, and during the C line quarantine... There weren't enough people to crew the trains then. It was two local to Far Rockaway on the A, no lunch, that's you to go as soon as you get to the terminal, no late clears.

A combination of many. I'm coming from C/R so there's a bit less info I need to actually sit and listen to. There's a lot of reading though.

I got Alesso. Man is a tank. He walks for sure.

I just did my medical today. Got into the 9/21 class. My list number is a bit higher: 7XX -- I was an appeal.

I'm still paying mine... 😐 My Union dues and my PAC money combined is higher than disability. After I got assaulted though, I maxed that out.

I just got an email that I go for drug testing tmr. But then I got my pick job later that day 😐 Really y'all. Really?

Also... It used to be that no trains had enablers. I'm going to tell a story, it might sound a lil low-key racist, but that's the past here goes (this is how it was told to me): There was a nurse shortage way back in NYC. So nurses were given benefits to come from the Carribean, and Southeast Asia. But then, their husbands needed jobs too. So, the TA put them to work in the barns in stock and storage. But then when they needed to cut labor in CE, they made most of those guys conductors. Schoolcar used to be a lot shorter then, but safety is reactive, not proactive. There was an incident when the E's ran R32's (almost 15+ years ago) where at LEX-53, the C/R opened open on the wrong side. If you don't know LEX-53, it's an island platform so both sides are no clearance walls over the 3rd rail. They had to check the roadbed for people, and when the train closed down, he did it again. Safe to say, enablers were introduced and retrofitted in to the circuitry of every train after, except the 32 b/c of it's age and the general assumption they would be tossed in the sea ... or C ;D ... which they were. (I got an R32 during COVID in March. How nasty is that.) The only time where a T/O will enable on the wrong side and the C/R follows suit is when there is usually a GO on a 3/4 or M track system like 145-St Nich, Tremont, Fordham, Kingsbridge, 18 Av-McDonald, Kings Hwy-McDonald, Astoria Blvd-Hoyt Av.

A division con: no enablers on 62

I had a pick job on the C. An employee was sick with COVID. We didn't find out until he hit us up on FB w/ pics of him going to the hospital. And then the C line was quarantined resulting in the A going local and all C personnel who were not quarantined (myself included; I was on vacation... so we never came in contact) were mixed in with the A crews. (But the infected guy made contact with A crews. Hm.) All B crews went to extra extra, W crews (this isn't a real line: it's piled in with the N, unlike the B and C which are real and distinct) were absorbed with N crews. And then the 900 supplements came out reducing service and cancelling jobs, sending those road crews to extra. And worse, the jobs people picked pre COVID came into effect. So some people who picked on the B line suddenly found themselves going to 207th St to start a job instead of Bedford Park. 😐

Well, they cut the B, C (due to COVID actually), W, and F service is still reduced.

I'm ready too. My list number is 7XX.5 after an appeal. I was called in December, but then COVID happened and nothing since. I was called again, sent in everything they needed... and nothing. 😐 I'm ready to change titles.

Cups. No one will say it.

They reached out to you? My list number was appealed to 7XX, and I replied to the email, sent everything, and I haven't received a thing back. I better call. 😐

This. So long as you go back w/in 11 months, you are fine. You want to go to T/O as fast as possible AFTER having passed C/R prob. If you have an incident, depending on what it is, you still have a job. Which now? Is seriously important.

Yeah... My sis did 1 yr as a C/R and got called for T/O almost the day her probation ended. Her probation for that almost over, and she said the same thing lol.

Well... they called me for T/O. I had done pre-employment in Dec 2019, and again Jul 2020. I've been doing OT as a C/R literally weekly.

Y'all are killing my overtime. The conductor absentee sheets for work are emppppppty (good thing if you want OT.)

It's not like my NO vote counted anyways. No point in debating it.

Do this. I've already got my job, and I had to do a sleep study. I got my dumb ass placed on medical hold b/c I said I snored. Shut up, and don't put it if you don't do it. There are people here who have uncontrolled diabetes. You think they are on medical restrictions? No. Cause they didn't say it. There are people here who are big, and are they on medical restrictions? No. Cause they shut up.

RTO across the board is mostly voting NO to the contract b/c LIRR is getting a 5% increase and we are getting 2%. Fark that. I'm voting NO.

No choice. B div is bigger. Needs more T/Os. A div -- people stick around longer. Notice in A div, you can see someone twice in the same week? B div -- might see them twice in the same month.

Finish probation first. If they decide you aren't good enough to a T/O or you have an incident (12-9; everyone reacts different), *you still have a job, and you still have union representation if you have an incident.* I know a few former T/Os who had a 12-9 and were like... that's all for now folks (no shame) and went right back to C/R b/c they were qualified for C/R. I know former T/Os that had incidents and were involuntary demoted to C/R. And they were already qualified. All those T/Os who potentially fail get offered cleaner positions, but would you rather be a C/R at stage 2 page, or a CTA at stage 1 pay? I know someone who didn't finish their probation for TW/O and went T/O, but was sent back and ended up C/R, and had to climb back up. Waaaaaaait. There are a bunch of T/Os down there with 1-4 years as a conductor. The T/O test does not expire until 2022. *You have more than enough time.* You just started 4 months ago. This is the best time to start learning line ups (esp since as a T/O you *will* be going to B div), signals, reading your iron, yard schematics... all that.