As the MTA continues to look for ways to cut costs, the Transport Workers Union Local 100 is continuing to take jabs at MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder. As The Daily News’ Helen Kennedy reports today, the union will be distributing the above postcard later this week to mock for Walder for daring to go on vacation to his house in France after eliminating a few thousand jobs.
The postcard features a message on the back: “Heard the weather’s real hot and humid back in New York and that you’re packed in like sardines on the trains and buses because of all the service cuts. I’ll be back in plenty of time to push through the fare hikes.”
Union leaders responsible for this card, including TWU President John Samuelsen who, like Walder, makes a six-figure salary, want to whip up rider anger at Walder over the cuts. “Jay Walder is completely out of touch with average, everyday working New Yorkers who don’t have country houses – or the unmitigated gall to take a three-week vacation in the south of France in the midst of drastic cuts,” he said to Kennedy. “I personally believe that transit riders are beginning to wake up and smell the coffee and realize that their mass transit has been hijacked by millionaires.” Pick your poison: hijacked by millionaires or hijacked by labor.
I understand what the TWU is hoping to do with this card. They want to somehow suggest that Walder’s salary is the root of all evil and that the house he and his family purchased with the money he made while at Transport for London and McKinsey should preclude him from running a transit system. The truth is far more uncomfortable for labor.
Right now, John Samuelsen has failed his constituents. While trying to impinge on the credibility of the MTA chiefs, he has presided over a period of nearly unprecedented job loss for TWU members. Instead of taking the political risky but necessary step of working with transit advocates or with the MTA to secure alternate means of funding for station agents and constant service levels, he has gone for the public ploy of protecting the TWU’s members, and that ploy isn’t getting anyone anywhere.
For now, this battle over nothing will continue to take up headlines and time. It will lead to animosity between parties that should be working together against a state hellbent on transit policies that don’t adhere to common sense. It is, in a word, counterproductive.
I want to support a sensible labor union. I don’t want to see jobs eliminated and the subways less secure or clean. I want to see the TWU use its might for the good of public transit in New York City. That hasn’t happened yet as the TWU leadership seeks to secure its position atop a union still reeling from the 2005 strike. No matter how this battle plays out, the riding public will continue to lose until the two sides can reach a ceasefire and fight together for the better of everyone.
68 comments
Great. Another example of why unions are past their expiration date in this country.
See I this as exactly the opposite, I think the problem is that we’ve constricted unions too much. Instead of the systems that other industrialized nations have followed — where union negotiations apply to all workers in a specific category. We have all these separate local unions negotiating individual contracts. It’s an efficient mess and allows for the kind of local shenanigans we’ve seen over time.
i think your treatment of the TWU’s involvement in the current financial meltdown of the MTA has as a rule been far too kind.
If you were to blame the unions on the MTA’s financial problems the TWU wouldn’t even be in the top 5 of the MTA’s unions that have the best work rules, the most power, and best pay.
The MTA is in this mess because of Pataki and his cronies not because of working stiffs that run a huge transportation network in this region.
The roots of “this mess” probably go back to Robert Moses, if not further than that. Pataki no doubt did a great deal of harm, but huge borrowing to make capital improvements goes back to at least the 1980s.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the here and now, and the cretins who keep things the way they are. The TWU is certainly partly to blame for preventing work rules from being reformed and, sorry, keeping labor costs too high (at least in part by keeping too much labor onboard). However, the state legislature is the entity, the only entity, with the power to change the rules so the system can be financed smartly.
“If”. But “we’re” not. Why speculate and point the finger around? Sure there’s plenty of blame for all parties involved.
Huh?
$25 an hour cleaners plus benefits who hardly clean Need we say more. How about the second crew member on L trains who drive themselves. The guy up front does nothing and get paid if you include benefits nearly $90k per year. The list goes on and on and management is to blame for not exposing this to the riding and tax paying public
Childish nonsense. Exactly what I expect from Local 100.
It’s called satire or ridicule 2 very accepted ways of going after your foe, has been for centuries. You must admit it’s funny.
Just because it’s legitimate satire doesn’t mean it’s not childish and moronic.
How about that three-day vacation the TWU took in December 2005? Remember that guys, when you left MILLIONS of New Yorkers to fend for themselves during one of the coldest weeks of the winter? Then, as a reward for services unrendered, you got an 11% raise over the next few years. I’m sure that extra 11% would get you a nice vacation or two, if not in the south of France, at least in the Caribbean. Hyocrites.
Yeah and we lost three days pay and were penalized three days pay on our “three day vacation”.If you really believe that we wanted to strike,than you are certifiably nuts.None of us wanted to go,but we did and to see that you are still Hung up on the Strike is nothing more than laughable and you are one of the four that are still bitter about it.We paid our penalty,now let it go because it is old news.
Oh, trust me Mr. Grumpy, many of my fellow NYers did not forget your self-imposed vacation in 2005. And funny how you totally ignored the part about the 11% raise. Hope you enjoy all that extra money, while most NYers haven’t seen a raise in a few years. Now token booth clerks can go back to looking at the ceiling while their eyes are closed and call it “working.”
OK,and do you know who called the strike….Roger Toussaint.You remember him.He also went to jail for the strike as we were not paid for the “three day vacation” plus an additional three day penalty lost wages ,agreed to a 1 1/2% contribution to our health plan.OH and the kicker,he also gave up the “No layoff clause” AND the Dec. 15th deadline and promised we’d never strike again as well.I’m sure thats acceptable to you knowing layoffs and fare increases are coming.Say you do get your wish and EVERY local 100 person is canned for a dispute that ended five years ago,and if there still is a deficit,than you have the lawyers and white collar workers left,than the MTA has another problem,keeping all the brown-nosers and Yes-men and jettisoning those who disagree with the board.
Would that be the same Mr. Toussaint that your local elected as your president? Sorry Grumpy, but it’s very hypocritical to complain about Mr. Walder taking a vacation when members of your union have been making $60k plus per year for driving buses and refilling MetroCards, and doing it with a snotty attitude as if your jobs were protected forever. Welcome to the real work world, where many of you won’t even get your foot in the door.
Fair enough,but I wasn’t talking about Walder and what he does on his own free time personally I can care less,but if thats the route you want to go,here goes…Perfect analogy,Walder going to his French Villa while hundreds turn in their badges is like A drug lord shooting someone in the head and enjoying a steak dinner afterwards.Also,I want to meet those making 60 grand.Even with the raises and no Overtime,I actually lost $3200. from this time last year and didn’t even sniff the 60 grand mark.
That’s $60k before benefits which I have no problem for positions that are needed. Driving a bus for NYCT is far more stressful than for other agencies. It is the work rules that pad the payroll such as the rule that only a small percentage of staten island express buses can be stored in the city and since SI is a ATU depot no repair or cleaning work can be done in the city. This forces us to pay drivers 2 plus hours round trip pay plus gas and milage on $600,000 buses costing million extra for no reason. These driver are also paid to sit around. They could be driving manahattan local routes of cleaning buses or doing other needed tasks such as traffic checking etc. No we pay other union guys $25 an hour for what the drivers with nothing to do can do for no extra cost
I must be 2 of the 4 then because your union claims that it is advocating on behalf of the riders as well. Striking during Christmas season on the most bitter and coldest days of the year does not accomplish this goal. It was a selfish, self-serving and dispicable act frankly. A whole bunch of Scrooges I say, stole the Cristmas spirit from NYC. Thanks again, TWU Local 100.
This is typical left wing speak by John Samuelson. As long as unions like the TWU and the SEIU continue to enjoy democratic and left wing support these guys will be like roaches.
Huh? After the Republikan Party, labor unions are probably the most right-wing forces in the USA. The conservatives (Dems) just don’t have the balls to do anything about them, or anything else, except what conservatives do: maintain the status quo.
Well, you’ll be waiting for awhile. By definition, unions care only about protecting their jobs. It is only by accident if doing so happens to result in anything positive for the people who pay their salaries. No disrespect to them – that is the power we have chosen to give them, and it is completely understandable that they have chosen to exercise that power. But let’s not pretend they have your interests in mind, at all.
The TWU is slowly poisoning the idea that there’s anything to be learned from expertise gained outside New York. The xenophobic attacks on anyone who vacations in the Riviera and not the Hamptons reinforce business-as-usual and not-invented-here syndrome, and tie in to the savage attacks many of the local unions make on immigrants.
The xenophobia is a complete projection on your part. They would attack him if he vacationed in the Hamptons. He is a millionaire after all. He and Pendergast are native New Yorkers. The idea that any union in NYC and in particular the TWU attacks immigrants is absurd. The sainted founding President of local 100 was an immigrant. The previous leader, the abysmal Mr T, is an immigrant.
Walder was very impolitic when he took over. Calling the role of C/rs “SHAMEFUL” was unnecessarily alienating. Shaming people- not a good start.
He called the role of C/rs “SHAMEFUL”? When was that?
When asked to give a specific instance of work rules that need to be changed.
Cite, please?
Work rule changes . Here we go
1) si express bus should remain in the city and driver perform other tasks mid day such as driver local routes,traffic checker, clean their own buses or as other agencies do unpaid mid day shift.
2) Train operator and conductor title merged. Combined role trained on both door operations and train operation. Remove restrictions on OPTO as to comply with industry standards. OPTO is now restricted to half length trains and only 2-4 select lines as stated in contract. L train is driven by computer. Train operator could monitor doors. No need for conductor in middle
3) Merge multiple cleaner titles and multiple maintainer titles . right now one cleaner sweeps and another has to be called in to paint over graphitti. Cleaners refuse to run a metrocard with alcohol on it to keep turn style swipes clean.
4) Merge list at all depots TWU and ATU to allow bus routes to be interlined to save the most money
MANY MANY more
Why are taxpayers and riders paying for college for twu employees? WHY?
This was in the news cycle around may 10th. Google “shame of the system” and spare me the split hairs.
He didn’t call anyone in particular the “shame of the system.” He said that the work rules were the shame of the system. He chose to highlight a bunch of work rules that actually make sense, which makes his comments pointless, but overall, they were directed at work rules, not people.
Walder is a native New Yorker, but he spent years in London, and got attacked early on for flying in British consultants at $200/hour. Not mentioned in the attack was that American consultants would charge $500/hour; Walder was effectively union-busting the Brotherhood of Managers and Consultants by bringing in lower-paid migrant workers.
He brought in the most qualified. We deserve the best.
Don’t be naive – he brought in his friends and cronies.
That ship has already sailed. The TWU is just playing a rich bourgeoisie managers vs. lumpen proles card, as if we’re supposed to believe the big, bad managers are pushing around the po’ little workers when they demand them to, uh, work. It’s not even Marxist rhetoric anymore. It’s just kept working for so long it’s all they know how to do, and politicians still are buying it.
Whether by accident or design, I think NIH has been ingrained for a very long time in just about every American transit and rail agency. It explains the ongoing sorry state of American transit and rail.
Really, TWU? Don’t you think your members’ dues could be spent a little wiser?
What is this going to accomplish? There is no way you’re ever winning the battle of public perception…that was lost for good back in the winter of 2005, not to mention the more recent ‘raises-during-a-near-depression’ debacle as well as the raging bout of narcolepsy that is spreading among the members.
I’d really like to hear what the due-paying TWU members think about this stunt, and, if the reaction is what I think it is, why don’t you say, wait a second, why are we doing this?
Actually,I like the fact that our Union is standing up for those who were tossed into the tundra like dead seals (In which most of you applaud,and still see fare hikes and service cuts coming down the pike) by paying for their health coverage.I proudly pay my $10. per Pay Period to help my fellow union brothers and sisters in solidarity.Other than that,the union has been neutered with the burning of the “No Layoff Clause” (Thank You Mr. Toussaint) Samuelson can’t stop that.Honestly for one,I am getting tired of the sniper fire from both parties involved.What both sides should do (AND WON’T) is put their heads together and find a common ground,and we all know that will never work in the real world.I actually hope the next battle for Jan 15,2012 goes into arbitration because both sides are starting an ugly battle that can hurt everyone,the workers,the riders,tourists….EVERYBODY.
I’m asking this in all seriousness: Can you explain to me why a no-layoffs clause is economically rational? No private industry has a no-layoffs clause, and businesses need the ability to hire and fire workers as the market demands them to. The only thing a no-layoffs clause would accomplish is more unnecessary spending on superfluous workers.
I’m actually glad I was able to get your attention Ben…However,the no-layoff clause helped people keep the confidence that working for a state entity was a safe job UNLESS any worker found a way to screw it up and get canned.Sad thing is,those who came to transit had to leave another job,and now that they were jettisoned,and some are going back to their old places of business and finding out the hard way that you can never “get back to where you once belonged”.I know we are in the middle of the great recession and times are hard and now most of them trying to find a job is gonna be that much tougher.Those of us now who are still working now have to look over our shoulders with more transit cuts and it really hurts to know we are on the chopping block knowing we do nothing wrong but show up on time to our jobs and the reward,a pink slip,a seven day card and a sorry (Not even a genuine one).I also come in here and notice that most of the chatters think that the workers are the bad guys and most of us are not.Most of us are honest and do work hard.Not everyone sits on their duff and hates everyone.We all do have families and some working or not struggle in this economy too.
I don’t think that the workers, individually, are bad guys. What I do think is that you are political pawns, like the riders, in a system that pits many competing interests against one another. In this instance, your union boss is playing the union game from the 1970s, divert from the real issues, demonize the figure most easily demonized, and hope people fall for it. MR. Walder worked for McKinsey. By extension, they make loads of money. So what if has a house in the south of France, and I think he, like every other working person, is entitled to take a vacation. So I just don’t get it. It’s pointless rancor.
Those who came to work for transit must leave another job? After you pass the civil service exam and and they get to your spot on the waiting list that you volunteered to be placed on, the transit police bust down your door and drag you off to become a TWU worker?
Nope,it was actually the Gestapo who broke down our doors and dragged us by our toes,ha.But in all seriousness,the vast majority had other jobs before transit and left them for we thought transit was a better opportunity.Those businesses in turn hired people to replace those who left.If those that were laid off in transit and think that they are gonna get their old jobs back,guess again.Thats what I meant by when I said you can’t “get back to where you once belonged”.
Sorry, but I have a hard time seeing why just because you thought you would get better job security you’re automatically entitled to having it. As a matter of fact, I’m sure many people have left jobs they thought were less secure for perceived more secure jobs over the past 15 years and suffered horrible burns in the process. Remember all the people trained in “IT” and web design in the late 1990s? Many are lucky to be flipping burgers now. Some people in the finance industry aren’t doing a hell of a lot better.
I think transit workers are entitled to dignified working hours and pay, and medical coverage, but not at astronomical costs and not just for the sake of putting them to work. If work isn’t available – as in, there is nothing to do – there has to be a point where they get laid off.
It’s simply irresponsible for the state and TWU – or whoever does it – to present these jobs as no-layoff paychecks for life.
I am curious tho…what exactly is “IT”?.
Information technology.
I used the scare quotes because such training was often nominally related to the subject, or at least so basic (where to plug things in) that it probably doesn’t qualify as an especially valuable education. Kind of like degree mills always offer an accounting degree that could hardly make someone a serious accountant.
I feel for those who left other jobs to join transit. It is the TWU to blame for the layoffs. They had on the table a number of times in the last 20 years job role modernization that would have had no layoffs. Yes fewer people would have been hired but those who were hired would have had a secure job. The mta needs to shed another 10-15% of it’s workforce before it is spending the taxpayers and riders money wisely. There are still 2600 too many station agents and not enough fare enforcers. People jump turnstyles and go on backs of buses all day long. We don’t need conductors on most trains especially after rush hour.
I still don’t really see why any of what you said entitles you to no layoffs. When I’m through with law school, I’m going to find work in the currently overstaffed legal sector, and it’s quite possible that, as a younger associate at a firm, my job could be in jeopardy. I don’t have a no-layoffs provision there, and I don’t really see why any work group, private or public, should be exempt from layoffs. If a company is overstaffed, work forces should be adjusted appropriately. That’s just the reality of a market economy.
I don’t agree with what the union is doing here. But you say they should be working with the MTA. Nice thought, but what makes you think the MTA wants to work with the union? They don’t. They consider the unions and the public their enemy. The only head of NYCT who was friendly to the union and wanted to work with them was Howard Roberts. Prendergast and Walder have no use for the union. For there to be success, both sides have to be willing to work with each other, and with the hostility that the MTA has created, for example by not filling bus runs when drivers are out sick or on vacation, the union is now firing back. Put the blame where it belongs — on both sides.
Sorry to say, but at this point the public has no use for the union. Not only does the union not want to work with the MTA, but it isn’t remotely interested in the needs of the riding public either.
If the TWU had some empathy for others, we might not be in this mess.
The union’s prime concern is for their members. Why would you expect anything else? I believe they are more willing to work with the MTA than the MTA is willing to work with them. Why did they like Howard Roberts? Because he listened to their concerns and showed them some respect. When you treat people like shit like the MTA currently does with its employees, you will only get hostility back in return. That does not mean that the union is blameless. They aren’t. But neither is the MTA. That was my point.
First of all, I don’t know what this stuff about respect is. It’s not Walder inflating rats in front of Samuelson’s apartment, or making these moronic postcards (even paraded on the TWU’s web site). Walder seems to have the personality of a high-level manager and, sure, lots of them are assholes.
But that’s really not the problem. The TWU doesn’t seem at all willing to accept reality: they need to reform and modernize. It’s for their own good too, because transit is simply becoming more and more unsustainable in New York.
I don’t see anything wrong with the union reflecting the needs and concerns of its members. Hell, I don’t even blame the union that much. The people who really irk me are the legislators with shriveled sacs who don’t dare to stand up to TWU nonsense about retaining work rules, excess labor, and overtime.
As I’ve been saying for a while: smarter work rules need to be mandated from the top. Either the legislator needs to do it, or it needs to give the city the power to do it.
Respect is when you treat someone as an equal and don’t talk down to them or threaten them, or harass them. I remember once reading about a dispatcher who returned to the office to to pick something up because he inadvertently forgot it. He was immediately written up for not wearing a tie while on duty. This was probably a long time ago, because I doubt it if that’s still a requirement. It’s just one small example and it’s not only the MTA vs the unions. Upper level executives constantly abuse their lower ranking employees. Example, the boss belittles someone on the way he is performing his job. That person in turn belittles his subordinates and so on. It’s like a large dysfunctional family where children abuse their children because their parents abused them. Of course it’s not like this all over but it is prevalent a lot in the MTA. I’ve witnessed it myself although it really hasn’t happened to me. You should of heard the way a director verbally abused an engineer because he forgot to buy donuts to the weekly staff meeting or how professional /technical employees were spoken to as if they were cleaners.
You didn’t see the union inflating rats while Howard Roberts was President? Did you? It’s the current administration that sparks that type of behavior. You only know what you read about Walder and you don’t really know if he is as nice as he seems behind closed doors.
Better work rules are a problem and that does need to change to give management more flexibility on how to operate the system.
I don’t think the problem you are talking about is limited to the MTA. It seems to be a constant theme in workplaces, and even politics, that people exercise power for the sake of exercising it. After seeing so many people doing it on TV, but never really having any themselves (except maybe over their children), I’m sure it makes them feel very big. Those who play with weapons are likely extreme examples.
But, I still don’t buy your argument. You are, on one hand, criticizing a manager writing up an employee in what I agree is an overzealous (though anecdotal) enforcement action. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem to bother you one bit that a giant rat was inflated in front of some guy’s apartment with his name on it. Unless he’s molesting the TWU’s children or something, I can’t imagine any reason to bring a public dispute about pay and work procedures to someone’s private life. Granted I’m a private citizen, and generally not a violent one, but I know that I would probably kneecap somebody who inflated a rat in front of my door and put my name on it.
I still don’t know what terrible thing Walder did. I know he’s signed off on some layoffs. Is that what you mean by “disrespect”?
When Roberts was president, I didn’t see the unions inflating rats. Nor did I see the MTA make a peep about its order-of-magnitude-higher-than-in-the-rest-of-the-world construction costs. Roberts gave the overstaffed workers and contractors all they wanted; Walder isn’t willing to.
If you are going to blame Roberts for that, then you also have to blame Eliot Sander who approved everything Roberts did.
You accomplish more by treating people with respect and dignity like Roberts did than you do by intimidating, threatening, and treating people like they are crap.
I heard from a few people that were recently laid off, that that wasn’t even handled in a respectful manner.
I’ve heard that too and when I dug further into their stories, it was mostly just a bunch of disgruntled fired employees complaining. None of the dismissals have been handled inappropriately even they’ve been handled with detached bureaucratic formality.
Walder apparently has accomplished some cost-savings measures. In that MTA, that’s quite impressive.
Examples please.
Consolidating the hotlines. Or at least planning to.
And he deserves at least some kudos for mentioning the fact that the MTA’s capital construction costs 3.5 times more than European boondoggles and 7 times more than European non-boondoggles.
Laying station agents off?
There’s a limit to how much respect and dignity you can show in an agency that has to lose a large fraction of its employees. Just going OPTO and increasing T/O efficiency to Toei’s levels would mean losing nearly 10% of the workforce. While NYCT is nowhere nearly as overstaffed as the commuter railroads, the commuter railroads could combine efficiency increases with increases in off-peak service. NYCT can’t do any comparable thing; even a massive program of capital construction and a large increase in off-peak service would not be enough to offset a reduction in staffing levels with an increase in service.
To add insult to injury, the bulk of efficiency increases NYCT could pursue were not invented in New York, or for that matter anywhere in the US. Nearly any efficiency program would have to involve union members being fired by foreigners, or by Americans who learned from foreign business practices.
after reading the statements in here,I can see that not only most of those in here have no use of unions esp. local 100.Want everyone except for themselves to work on a meager salary or minimum wage with no medical coverage and work 80 hours a week,kill pensions,nobody retires,but work until we are so old and broken down til we drop dead.Bring in a McDonalds job mentality where people can get fired because the boss hates you.Management and white collar yes men make seven figure salaries.So in all honesty,you looking to bring back and reinvent a new form of slavery.With that also hope that transit lowers the fares to the base value of three cents.It may sound like nonsense and a dream to others,but that scenerio will NEVER happen.In all honesty,I take it that you don’t care whatever bad happens,so long as it don’t happen to you.
No, nobody said TWU workers should be forced to work for a meagar salary or minimum wage. That is purely propaganda. Not even authoritarian “right to work” states like Texas and Virginia fail to give their public employees comprehensive benefits, and I seriously doubt anyone can expect New York to lower itself to their standards. All I would ask of TWU workers is, for their white collar pay and great benefits package, not to mention pension, that we not have too much superfluous labor and get smart, effective, flexible work rules.
Well said. TWU workers should be paid fairly. But in exchange they should have work roles that match the needs of the system. $25 an hour for someone pushing at broom is excessive. I hate to tell you that the NYC dept of education pays $14-17 an hour for a similar job that actually does more stuff. Their should be a carear path that allow cleaners to move up into more skilled jobs at better pay. A $4 an hour difference between cleaners and bus drivers. I would be pissed if I was a driver
Agreed.
What they should do is try to eliminate as many jobs as possible through attrition instead of layoffs. Either that or they could compromise with the unions and say that if a worker retires, priority to fill that position should be given to worker who have been previously laid off.
Also, like you said, since DOE workers do more stuff for their pay, what they could do is try to consolidate job titles, once again, doing it gradually through attrition.
That’s what they should have been doing since the 1980s, when the MTA first started refurbishing capital. Now that it’s 2010, it’s clear painful cuts are necessary to maintain service.
Also with attrition and retirement,the MTA most likely won’t refill those jobs barring a miracle.Probably won’t see those “laid off” rehired and a new batch of agents if at all.Most likely,we are the last of the mohicans.
Part of the problem is the civil service exam itself. The exam should only be part of the equation of selecting employees. Interviews to see if they have interpersonal skills needed for jobs such as station agent and bus driver should be included. Some skilled city jobs such as teachers must first pass state exams and then sit for interviews to see if their is a match for the school.
[…] in mid-August at the heigh of vacation season, the TWU issued a postcard condemning Jay Walder for taking a vacation. The MTA CEO and Chair had dared to decamp to his house in France, purchased […]