Transit union strikes back against MTA layoffs with inspections

[CPBO]

Transit workers angry over MTA layoffs and other cost-cutting moves slowed down the morning rush in parts of Queens Friday, the Daily News has learned.

 

Before dawn at the College Point bus depot, union officers conducted spot inspections on buses heading to the only exit.

 

Citing equipment defects, union officers and staff delayed 64 buses by more than an hour, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority confirmed.

 

The scheduled runs of an additional 16 buses were canceled by managers because of the logjam, the MTA said.

 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/03/27/2010-03-27_bus_slowdown_in_queens_angry_transit_union_gums_up_works_with_spot_checks.html#ixzz0jbAOJwOk

[CPBO]

College Point Taking charge......don't mess with us!!!

[St Louis Car 09]

Wow those buses will be falling apart in no time.someone mention a lot of defects at CP with the buses in another thread.

[petabread]

So, the union workers fail to fix buses and then the Union mangagement holds buses. The MTA should force the union workers to strike and fire their asses and hire people who want jobs and would get paid less. It's not difficult to prove forced slowdowns, work on buses is done by union workers, if the workers don't lose their jobs then it was an intentional slowdown. MTA run by the laziest workforce in the USA!!

[Jojobus]

I see it every day at CP. Management forcing drivers to take out unsafe buses. It's either take it out or you're out of service. They rule through fear and intimidation. What B.S.

[petabread]

I bet TWU goes on a full strike before the end of summer!

[FlushingFlash]

So, the union workers fail to fix buses and then the Union mangagement holds buses. The MTA should force the union workers to strike and fire their asses and hire people who want jobs and would get paid less. It's not difficult to prove forced slowdowns, work on buses is done by union workers, if the workers don't lose their jobs then it was an intentional slowdown. MTA run by the laziest workforce in the USA!!

 

Your a clown arent you?

What do you do for a living?

Do you even have a drivers license?

[petabread]

Your a clown arent you?

What do you do for a living?

Do you even have a drivers license?

 

No.

I'm not sharing that info.

Yes.

 

My opinion is that the MTA spends too much money on labor. It's the most expensive expense and it shouldn't be that way. Like it or not it's my opinion. What ticks me off is day in and day out I hear bus operators and mechanics complain about their jobs and the lack of pay. A word of advice to transit workers, don't complain about you jobs around the public... I over heard a mechanic from CP talking about how he and few co-workers were skipping out of work because of the contract issue. The driver was all like yeah you should. When you hear this and then you hear news of buses not being up to par gives me every right to complain.

[QM1to6Ave]

Normally I would get annoyed when my bus is late as it would make me late to class, but I have noticed a lot of problems on CP buses recently-I'm just glad they did this on a Friday.

 

Is there anyway to acticipate when these things will happen so I could leave extra time?

[engineerboy6561]

So, the union workers fail to fix buses and then the Union mangagement holds buses. The MTA should force the union workers to strike and fire their asses and hire people who want jobs and would get paid less. It's not difficult to prove forced slowdowns, work on buses is done by union workers, if the workers don't lose their jobs then it was an intentional slowdown. MTA run by the laziest workforce in the USA!!

 

And who the f**k are you again? Frankly, as much as slowdowns and strikes are an inconvenience, they are a necessary tool to keep the union from getting bowled over by management.

Unions overall are nowhere near as inefficient or lazy as people like you accuse them of being. Take the UAW at Ford and GM as an example. Yes, there was little or no innovation; yes, the corporation and the union went to the mat often; yes, there was probably a group of corrupt workers there at the top. However, are Fords or Chevys or GM cars careening down the highway all by themselves because of workmanship defects? No; that honor goes to Toyota, a non-union corporation that operates in "right-to-work" states. How come nobody said anything? I'm willing to bet that a group of people did and ended up either fired or demoted to send an example to others.

Another great example; the construction industry. Thirty to forty years ago all of that was union, and you heard few or no complaints about quality because people were paid well and cared about what they did. Now, there are few or no union jobs in construction and contractors chose instead to hire illegals, many of whom don't know enough about regulations to know if the work they do is up to code and all of whom are in no position to make complaints if their contractor decides to cut corners. Some will, some won't, but those who do will probably face retaliation. As a result, falling debris incidents, collapsing building equipment, and fires or other problems due to substandard construction have become far more common.

Having said this, think of the magnitude and complexity of our transit system and the numbers of issues it has already. As others in this thread have mentioned, there have already been numerous incidents of management forcing equipment into service when it is in subpar condition because nobody higher up the ladder wants to take the time or spend the money to repair or maintain it. What do you expect to happen if you get rid of the union and replace it with anyone you can get for arbitrary pay? Forget nobody wanting to do maintenaonce, you will hit a point where very few people in the system will be able to do maintenance. And that is just one part of the problem; if you de-unionize the drivers you will essentially end up with cabbies driving the bus and we all know what that is like. De-unionize the buses and I promise you you will end up with a scaled-up version of Bergen IBOA, home of this bus:

 

 

Think of the subways as well; deferred maintenance there took out a chunk of the roof out of the 181 St subway station. Even now they still have the scaffolding up there because repair work is moving so slowly. Now imagine what would happen if that repair were done with non-union construction crews; it would not only go even more slowly but would probably cave in as soon as it was fixed. On the T/O end, remember that the Malbone St. wreck, one of the worst in New York City history, occurred when the BMT was being handled exclusively by non-union workers. In fact, it occurred in part because of an undertrained, speeding non-union operator running a consist that should never have been allowed into service because management was cutting corners again.

This set of arguments holds well and does not even begin to explore the sociological benefits of keeping powerful unions around. On the one hand, unions directly protect their members against all kinds of abuses, including low pay, absolute employer control over workers, dangerous working conditions, and several other problems that I can't necessarily list offhand. Indirectly speaking, there are a number of labor practices such as weekends off that are not set into law but in fact became predominant because unions demanded them and union contracts set the standard for everyone else.

[DevilBus65]

Ah Petabread,yet another person talking about how union workers are lazy. I wonder where you work. I've been a union member for 23 years and I have heard folks like you complain about the job we do since I started. If you are so informed about how all this is our fault,why don't you do something about it aside from making anonymous posts on a Transit forum. Run for mayor,maybe try to replace Jay Walder at MTA so you can implement all your improvements and make us work harder and more efficiently. You're just another blowhard who has all the answers and yet has never done anything to make things better. Crawl back under your rock and keep your worthless opinions to yourself.

[Bill from Maspeth]

No.

I'm not sharing that info.

Yes.

 

My opinion is that the MTA spends too much money on labor. It's the most expensive expense and it shouldn't be that way. Like it or not it's my opinion. What ticks me off is day in and day out I hear bus operators and mechanics complain about their jobs and the lack of pay. A word of advice to transit workers, don't complain about you jobs around the public... I over heard a mechanic from CP talking about how he and few co-workers were skipping out of work because of the contract issue. The driver was all like yeah you should. When you hear this and then you hear news of buses not being up to par gives me every right to complain.

Before this thread gets locked, let me try to penetrate your anti-union infected brain cells. I move trains for a living, I do ALL my trips everyday and I never go home early. If anything, I get CHEATED out of money when I finish late because they LIE about the on time performance. If I complain supervision will find a way to retaliate against me in some other way, so I may win the battle, but lose the war and that ain't worth it.

 

If it's any thing like buses, we report the same defects all the time and they NEVER get

fixed. Now you blame the workers, I RIGHTFULLY blame management, because the equipment needs a lot of work and the maintainers do not get supplied the material they need to properly repair the stuff and management only wants some things repaired since other equipment is also waiting for repair, so NOTHING gets thoroughly repaired.

 

In the case of College Point depot, they have a total fleet of 324 buses of which 210 are local buses from 1997-1999. These are the ones in question and they are OLD, needing a lot of work. They don't get the work. Garbage in and garbage out. Operator reports a defect, and it get sent out again because "we need it for service" and no time to repair it.

 

The buses in question of this "slowdown" were held for stuff like malfunctioning turn signals and light bulbs including head lights. These "have" to be used because nothing else is available. I guess you have the attitude "put it on a run that comes back before dark". Well, it wasn't going to work that way Friday! I can assure you, there were buses with worse defects that that. I rode those garbage buses when CP had the Q67 and it was no fun.

 

Why were you so ashamed to tell us what you do for a living? Either you're a SCA or a drill sargent! Why don't you get a real job and become a transit worker and what we put up with and get some humility into your sorry life.

[St Louis Car 09]

Before this thread gets locked, let me try to penetrate your anti-union infected brain cells. I move trains for a living, I do ALL my trips everyday and I never go home early. If anything, I get CHEATED out of money when I finish late because they LIE about the on time performance. If I complain supervision will find a way to retaliate against me in some other way, so I may win the battle, but lose the war and that ain't worth it.

 

If it's any thing like buses, we report the same defects all the time and they NEVER get

fixed. Now you blame the workers, I RIGHTFULLY blame management, because the equipment needs a lot of work and the maintainers do not get supplied the material they need to properly repair the stuff and management only wants some things repaired since other equipment is also waiting for repair, so NOTHING gets thoroughly repaired.

 

In the case of College Point depot, they have a total fleet of 324 buses of which 210 are local buses from 1997-1999. These are the ones in question and they are OLD, needing a lot of work. They don't get the work. Garbage in and garbage out. Operator reports a defect, and it get sent out again because "we need it for service" and no time to repair it.

 

The buses in question of this "slowdown" we held for stuff like malfunctioning turn signals and light bulbs including head lights. These "have" to be used because nothing else is available. I guess you have the attitude "put it on a run that comes back after dark". Well, it wasn't going to work that way Friday! I can assure you, there were buses with worse defects that that. I rode those garbage buses when CP had the Q67 and it was no fun.

 

Why were you so ashamed to tell us what you do for a living? Either you're a SCA or a drill sargent! Why don't you get a real job and become a transit worker and what we put up with and get some humility into your sorry life.

I agree.A depot is only as good as the supplies that it is supplied to get the job done.

 

Winston Churchill: "Give us the tools and we`ll do the job"

[knice1187]

So, the union workers fail to fix buses and then the Union mangagement holds buses. The MTA should force the union workers to strike and fire their asses and hire people who want jobs and would get paid less. It's not difficult to prove forced slowdowns, work on buses is done by union workers, if the workers don't lose their jobs then it was an intentional slowdown. MTA run by the laziest workforce in the USA!!

 

If you hate union workers so much what are u doing on a transit forum? We call people like you haters because you see us operating buses and trains all day making 50,000 plus per year while you go 2 work in a suit and tie probably making less than us.

[Bill from Maspeth]

If you hate union workers so much what are u doing on a transit forum? We call people like you haters because you see us operating buses and trains all day making 50,000 plus per year while you go 2 work in a suit and tie probably making less than us.

Most of them also stay home and get paid whenever it snows yet we have to find a way to get to work, even if it means walking great distances and don't get paid if we don't make it in. The if we do in fact make it in, they expect the service to be on time!

 

Remind me in the next life to be in the education field! Lots of time off with pay!

[CPBO]

lot of hating on peta bread.....but the fact of the matter is that even if we checked these buses every day....all the defects and problems these buses have will not get fixed until we get some new equipment!! These buses were a good thing when Queens Surface first got them....but apparently they were not built for New York City streets.....they came from New Mexico and are probably more suited for no potholes and opening the door once every 20 blocks.....the removing of the drivers seat and putting in this Liberty II seat that they are using is just plain wrong....as far as I am concerned that is the most important seat in the house...

 

 

As far as union workers being lazy.....YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR MIND!!

[MattTrain]

If you ask me, I feel that bus operators, train operators, conductors, and other transit personnel aren't getting enough respect these days for what they do.

[Jojobus]

I think Petabread drinks the BLUE KOOL_AID

[B35 via Church]

union workers are like most other blue collar workers... hard working citizens.

 

If it's anyone that's lazy, it's management....

Then the people that help move this city wouldn't have to ((female dog)) & complain about this, that, and the third....

 

in the mta's case, if management worked near as hard & diligently as union workers do, the public wouldn't have to worry about "doomsday" this & that, in regards to service cuts... on top of that, blue collar folk there gettin laid off to aid in decreasing a budget deficit that 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th+ tier f***** managers are all enjoying... w/ their 6 figure incomes, huge bonuses, and lord knows whatever other perks.... that's part of what's wrong with this country as it is... call it corruption, call it whatever you want...

 

 

when hardworking folk do our jobs efficiently & precisely, with miniscule to no errors, guess who swoops in & takes the credit for it (management)....

 

however, when we're paid to do said job w/ insufficient and/or downright faulty equipment, not being able to perform a duty to the best of our abilities b/c of these reasons, guess who's to blame (yeah, the little guy)...

 

guess who SHOULD be the blame....

The guy that doesn't have to make lemonade out of lemons.... the same guy who isn't givin out the right amount of lemons to make a sufficient amount of lemonade to begin with !

 

Whether the analogy is gotten or not....

union workers... lazy...

 

Hardly.

[JohnQPine]

Another great example; the construction industry. Thirty to forty years ago all of that was union, and you heard few or no complaints about quality because people were paid well and cared about what they did. Now, there are few or no union jobs in construction and contractors chose instead to hire illegals, many of whom don't know enough about regulations to know if the work they do is up to code and all of whom are in no position to make complaints if their contractor decides to cut corners. Some will, some won't, but those who do will probably face retaliation. As a result, falling debris incidents, collapsing building equipment, and fires or other problems due to substandard construction have become far more

 

So true..I see this especially on Long Island. illegals do all the construction here and people buy these 1 million dollar McMansions only to have tons of problems with them, like leaks. Why cant we enforce the law? We're becoming a 3rd world country because of this. Really makes me angry.:mad:

[CPBO]

I think Petabread drinks the BLUE KOOL_AID

 

LOL that is just funny man....

[NX Express]

in the mta's case, if management worked near as hard & diligently as union workers do,

 

If they did, almost none of them would be needed. Why do they need like 4 managers for the Franklin Avenue Shuttle???????

[petabread]

Oh my dear, hey all! So, I left for a few months and I let my cousin use my account and I return to find I'm an evil union hater... While I won't apologize for his comments as he is entitled to whatever crazy ideas he has, I hope this hasn't destroyed my username.

 

I have the uttmost respect for you guys and I show it every time I'm on a bus or in the subway.

[MTARegional Bus]

Oh my dear, hey all! So, I left for a few months and I let my cousin use my account and I return to find I'm an evil union hater... While I won't apologize for his comments as he is entitled to whatever crazy ideas he has, I hope this hasn't destroyed my username.

 

I have the uttmost respect for you guys and I show it every time I'm on a bus or in the subway.

 

!!Right!!

[KNIGHTRIDER3:16]

College Point Taking charge......don't mess with us!!!

 

I went threw 9 buses that (M2)orning and I got out an hour plus ,What morning that was but today wasn't as bad I was only 20min late due to no start on my coach hmmm B)