NYC Could Face Transit Strike Friday

[Arrian]

Well "the moon" is not "the Sun, the stars and your firstborn." Make a demand that is too high (or in our case, a counteroffer that is too low) and the other side will think you're just jerking them around and are not serious about settlement.

Note the counteroffer by the city: 6%. That says to me that the pay raise might not be the dealbreaker. The article mentions some other points of contention.

-Arrian

[DanS]

6% over 27 months -- i.e., roughly tracking consumer inflation. Much different than 8% per annum for 3 years.

[JohnT]

Assuming that the 33,000 employees average $20/hour in wage & benefits and that they work 30 hours week, this amounts to a total wage increase of $300 million. Note that they are already getting 45% of the $1B surplus in the form of pension funding, but that's not enough - like typical union workers, they're more concerned with spending today than saving for tomorrow. If they had any sense, they'd demand that the $300 million extra also be put in the pension fund, but I don't know if pension donations are subject to union dues - if not, it does the union no good to ensure that the pension is funded beyond the minimum required by law. Better to have all the extra go to the here and now so you can skim your cream off the top.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by DanS
6% over 27 months -- i.e., roughly tracking consumer inflation. Much different than 8% per annum for 3 years.

Doh, misread it. You're right, that's a pretty big gap.

-Arrian

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Asher
It's expensive to live in New York City, where you're liable to be randomly stabbed and they pay $100,000 to cover the ER bill.

New York is actually one of the safest (big) cities in the US now.

But yeah, its expensive as hell.

[Caligastia]

It's expensive because of rent control laws.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Caligastia
It's expensive because of rent control laws.

Bull. Manhattan is expensive because it has a population density of 66,000 per square mile.

Did Asher post something? Well, i guess nothing worthwhile.

The City is being annoying- all City workers must show up tyo work if a strike happens- if they miss the day, that's leave time or comp. time used up....and if you show up to work, no matter how late, you got to put in your hours....bastards.

Most NY's in principle support the Union. The heads ot the MTA hiked fares, then all of a sudden they fgind they have 1 BILLION dollars extra they did not plan. and how do they think of spending it? On holiday discout fares that most riders have found to be a joke. Obviously if the union strike they won;t be popular,yet most most NYers, as opposed to posters who live nowhere near NY (like 90% of the posters here) back the Union more than the unaccountable bastards and ****ers running the MTA.

[snoopy369]

Holiday discount fares are an interesting idea - probably not necessary in NY, unless they're trying to increase the people riding on the trains etc. (which is probably not a good idea, given how crowded they must be around the holidays) ... but in another city, with less tourism and less suburban<->downtown travelling, it wouldn't be a half bad idea. Heck, even in Chicago it might increase the folks in the suburbs coming downtown with the kids, if it only cost them $3 instead of $12 or something ...

Being a chicagoan, and having basically the opposite thing happen - the CTA nearly cancelled like 30% of its routes due to inadequate funding - I'd say hold off on criticizing the surplus. Transit funding tends to come in bounds and plateaus; ie, you get a surplus for a while, but eventually that goes away and you end up in a deficit. The CTA is stuck in the deficit right now, and until they get back to the surplus again they're going to be in the rut of constantly threatening service cuts and fare hikes until they get their funding ... They probably also need to pay back some of the 'borrowing' they did during their last deficit (MTA, that is) - such as the pension underfunding issue mentioned by OP. As easy as it is for the union to grab "$1 BILLION DOLLARS" as a headline, it's never that simple.

[JohnT]

On holiday discout fares that most riders have found to be a joke.

Did you not even bother to read the article?

45% of that overage is going to the workers!

And... there's also the fact that MTA overcharged New Yorkers by $1 billion... what's wrong with giving it back to the people you overcharged to begin with?

Wow... so, $100 million goes to infrastructure, $450 million goes to the workers, a bunch goes to the people that provided the surplus... and people still complain.

Whiny bints.

[Az]

They should have their salary tied to inflation, and the rest of the money should be spent on infrastructure.

[Arrian]

What Az said.

-Arrian

[JohnT]

What's going to happen is that in five years MTA will be suffering a shortfall, people will complain that infrastructure hasn't been maintained, and workers will whine that nobody cares for them, not mentioning the fact that they gutted a billion dollar surplus that could've gone to the infrastructure improvements.

And people will complain about greedy Republicans.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Az
They should have their salary tied to inflation, and the rest of the money should be spent on infrastructure.

[Az]

Btw, when did they their last pay raise?
It's possible that their effective pay was washed away with inflation - thus a current salary hike would offset their salaries washing away with time.

[Az]

when did they get their last pay raise, of course.