When the MTA Board voted to cut hundreds of unionized station agents, TWU President John Samuelsen vowed to fight the cuts. On Friday, according to one report, he and other TWU members may have begun that fight with a procedural move that slowed down bus service in Queens during the morning commute.
According to Pete Donohue of The Daily News, a series of spot inspections at the College Point bus depot led to 16 route cancellations and 64 delays of over an hour as Queens commuters waiting for the bus. Some union leaders claimed this move was simply for the security and safety of drivers and passengers while others said it was a strike at the MTA. Writes Donohue:
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. All told, about one-third of the depot’s available fleet was affected by what sources said was the biggest action of its kind in years….
[Samuelsen] maintained the equipment inspections were not connected to MTA plans to let go up to 500 token booth clerks and bus drivers later this year. “The union has an obligation to provide a safe workplace for our members and a safe bus for the riders, and by doing these inspections, we’re living up to our obligation,” Samuelsen said.
The union inspections Friday did reveal numerous defects in turn signals, wheelchair lifts and headlights, Samuelsen claimed. But a source familiar with the inspections acknowledged, “This is the union’s way of flexing its muscles.” Since January, the union has conducted several bus checks at other depots, according to the union. While it’s illegal for a union to intentionally slow service as a show of force, it can be difficult to prove.
These allegations remind me of my bus experiences on Saturday night. I rode the B71 — a route soon to be eliminated — from Park Slope to Carroll Gardens, and as my girlfriend and I prepared to exit the bus, we started chatting with the driver about the impending extinction of his bus. He started bemoaning the high salaries earned by those at the top of the MTA management chain and said that those people should take paycuts first. I didn’t want to start a debate by telling him that those managers are taking cuts and losing jobs while any remaining TWU employees will get to enjoy their raises this year. We had to get off the bus, and it wasn’t worth the fight.
Still, as the union may or may not be hitting back at the MTA, the truth remains that, until Albany finds a way to fund public transportation in New York City, everyone will feel the pain. Management will be reduced; union members will lose their jobs; passengers will see bus and subway service cut. Sometimes, we fall into a “union-vs.-management” framework, but as long as the MTA remains on the edge of financial ruin, everyone loses.
6 comments
As someone who goes quite far out of his way to avoid the MTA bus system because of the fact that wheelchair lifts are about as reliable as snow in Vancouver, I’m going to advance the probably-unpopular opinion that one way for MTA to be less susceptible to these job actions would be to keep their equipment up to spec to start with. I know that increased ADA accessibility was not the intended purpose of the Union’s actions, but that would certainly be a beneficial side effect.
Open a door like this and someone’s going to jam their foot into it. If MTA seeks to avoid future job actions like this by actually keeping the wheelchair lifts in operation, I’ll consider that a win-win.
I’m a bit surprised by this comment. I can’t even remember the last time I was on a bus that had to deny service to someone who needed the lift or ramp. A ramp has only one moving part, and I think it can even be operated manually, although that might only be done in emergencies.
Aron it is the union bus maintainers who often at fault for the poor maintance of the chai lifts and other bus issues. They sleep on the job
Please provide proof that these bus mechanics who work out of public view in depot’s surrounded by massive management sleep on the job.
Today my commute was actually unusually short – about 34 minutes door-to-door, but I wasn’t well-timed with the bus. Yesterday it was 33, also very short, but I’d just made the bus. (Normally, I expect about 40 minutes.)
I’m pretty sure the TWU is competent enough that if it wanted to slow the buses down, it wouldn’t make the Upper East Side’s bus service run so smoothly.
Consistent reliable funding streams are the only answer to Mass transit troubles. Transit operations can never rely only on the fare box. The MTA and Bloomberg need to put some of these mega projects on hold or abandon them completely. The extension of the # 7 line is a prime example of a project that few wanted and is extremely costly. Who does it benefit? A few real estate moguls, who own property on tha part of the westside and out of towners going to Javits? They need to put the funds into operations to benefit the passengers not incompetent contractors like Lockheed-Martin.