Jay H Walder in his letter to the board members on July 27, 2010 states on the second page: ‘second, controlling wage and benefit costs is critical. After all, wages, fringe benefits and other personnel expenses account for two-thirds of MTA operating expenses. As long as health benefit and pension costs are rising and wage increases are not offset by productivity improvements or employee contributions to benefit costs, the MTA’s financial situation will remain challenging.’. Also John Samuelsen on November 6, 2010 in the mass membership meeting glanced over the MTA 2011 Preliminary Budget July Financial Plan 2011 - 2014 with snippets of ‘net - zero’ sound bites without going into detail.
It is shameful that John Samuelsen president of TWU Local 100 did not capitalize on the issue of growth productivity. Clearly Walder is saying members of TWU Local 100 are lazy thus he is demanding ‘productivity improvements’ which is growth productivity (output per employee hour). As a result indirectly saying that the growth has stagnated at the MTA. We here in why did you join the union believe that the TWU Local 100 membership are the hardest working public employees in the nation. Their hourly productivity output is the highest in the nation however John Samuelsen’s silence on this issue speaks louder.
By John Samuelsen’s silence, in addition to his not challenging Jay H Walder it has emboldened Walder to seek the slowdown of the wage growth of the TWU Local 100 membership. The term ‘productivity’ usually refers to labor productivity, defined as the amount of output produced in the MTA, industry or economy per employee hour. However there are other productivity measures such as capital productivity (output per unit of capital input) and total factor productivity (output per unit of total factor input).
An increase in labor productivity means that the MTA is able to produce each physical unit of output with less labor input. Thus there are two causes of the secular increase in labor productivity. The first is the process of capital/labor substitution that has taken place as wage rates have risen relative to the costs of capital. In that instance the MTA under Walder is responding by trying to hold down production costs as much as possible by substituting from labor to capital in production. By doing so the MTA produces the same level of output with fewer employee hours, giving rise to an increase in labor productivity. The second factor leading to increase in labor productivity is technological change which allows the MTA to produce the same level of output with less labor, leading to an increase in output per worker thus in labor productivity as well.
It is clear Walder is obsessed with raising productivity at the expense of the TWU Local 100 membership. We here in why did you join the union would remind Samuelsen one of the outcomes of this may be a movement toward various types of labor-management cooperation schemes in which Walder may demand in return greater flexibility in organizing work. He may even promise TWU Local 100 greater say in decision making. We would also caution him many collective bargaining agreements embraced as ‘team concept.’ At GM’s famous Saturn plant in Tennessee, traditional collective bargaining disappeared altogether, replaced with a system of joint decision making on a wide variety of issues. It is known the dangers of team concept are well documented. They usually weaken the grievance procedure and eliminate hard-won work rules yet never give the union real input into most critical management decisions.
A confusing yet interesting post.
ReplyDeleteI think what you are saying is beware labor-mgt co-operation.
If that is so, you may have a point.
But in any negotiations both sides will be going for what they see as helpful items.
In the past wuith the MTA having a billion $ surplus we could expect more, as in 2005.
Now with the MTA and the nation in a severe defecit with must be creative with our gains and sober with our expectations.
Your silly 11.5% or failure idea is known as "Manhattanville's folly" around the system.
Because as you know, in REAL MONEY terms the 11.5% gains were actually a little less as computed by the arbitrator.
You did notice your 3% raise was pennies smaller than a true 3% raise of our last hourly figure. Right?
This was because the award was based on a 2009 salary not a 2011 salary.
You missed that point.
BTW this administration has been preaching that for us to have an efect on our relationship with the MTA we should "control production" that has been said from the beginnning.
On the buses side the blitz of 19A inspections have been noticed by mgt.
Only by the members controlling production can we effectively counter mgt abuses.
It matters little what Waldo says, it matters what were do about it.