As Jay Walder takes aim at the MTA’s labor costs, he and incoming TWU head John Samuelsen have engaged in a war of the words. On Wednesday, Walder called on the agency “to eliminate work that is no longer necessary.” He continued, “We must take this place apart to find effficiences that will make it strong…The frank reality is that the majority of our costs come from labor, and we need to find ways to be more productive.”
Samuelsen, on the other hand, defended the overtime his workers accrue and the work schedules of the Local 100. “Our position is: Years of mismanagement and neglect on the city and state level are not going to be compensated for off the backs of Local 100 members,” Samuelsen said. “If they move against Local 100 members with layoffs they are going to have a fight on their hands.”
At some point, the MTA is going to have to overhaul the authority’s internal structure from top to bottom to realize its economic efficiency. That will involve layoffs of redundant managers and the consolidation of agencies. It will also involve an elimination of rampant overtime and the loss of some union jobs. Both sides are going to feel some pain in order for the MTA to stay afloat. We’ll find out if management and the union leaders have the stomach for the consolidation or will simply spend months posturing as the rest of us have to pay.