We here in why did you join the union do not agree in any attempt on concessions in the fringe benefits area specifically in reductions in holiday and vacation time. We caution John E Samuelsen president of TWU Local 100 Take Backward Our Union - TBOU in giving up any of the Paid Personal Holidays (PPH) per year.
As it is we have eleven holidays that are not enough thus we believe there should never be reduction. We also demand increase of the banking of overtime (OTO) hours to 88 hours instead of the current 72 hours. In addition those OTO hours should never be restricted in a manner such as the established AVA/Personal days quotas but rather the banked OTO should augment AVA quotas without any restrictions such as the required approval from the management. What is the use of the OTO if you cannot get in the book? We wonder.
We demand that section 2.5 - Holidays - B: Employees who actually work on a holiday shall receive a $2 per hour differential for all hours actually worked on the following holidays: July 4th, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. First the $2 is an out of date amount (gallon of gas or milk cost is more than $2) that needs to be changed probably to be moved to a minimum of $5. Second this $2 should be applied to all eleven holidays rather than the current four. Third the $2 should be applied to the spread not restricted to ...hours actually worked...
Pick holidays where the schedule should be a sunday schedule and the night differential should be a holiday night differential rather than the current which is considered as a regular weekday. For non pick holidays it should be on a saturday schedule - we also do not agree that if a TWU Local 100 member is absent for 30 days he/she loses holiday allowance.
Personal day - a member should be able to use that day on holiday. We do not agree with the current restriction which denies the member to use that personal day on holiday.
I think you did not go far enough.
ReplyDeleteOur base salary should be $ 1 million per year.
And in some divisions like stations, we should get time and one-half for all comfort reliefs we take. Becasue we do not have the palatial depots of the buses.
Some titles like Traffic checker should not even have to come to work, they should just collect their $1 million per year by direct deposit.
With $1 million per year we would not need OTO or AVAs or PLDS.
In case you don't realize I'm being silly and sarcastic.
This is not an ordinary contract year. Stop pretending it is.
Well Paul he does have a point. The police department can bank their version of OTO of up to 60 HOURS A MONTH and in many cases can take it with little or no notice. Their night differential is more than double ours. They have taken away other non negotiated benefits such as hold downs for the extras. Stations facilities are the worst, we don't have crew rooms or terminal rooms with TV, AC, vending machines... Facility rooms are steam closets, some bathrooms you are lucky you don't have a bucket instead of toilet. They continue to reduce the size of booths as they renovate to the point where you cannot move without moving the chair first, forget about stretching you may whack your head or a limb... yes he did exaggerate but his main points should not be missed. We have been under assault by the MTA since the last contract. 1000's laid off, they challenged every victory we had in arbitration by taking us to court, sending people out to purposely mislead us and to entrap us into doing something wrong. All while they mismanage billions of dollars and go unchecked. Yes the economy is bad but they should not be correcting their financial shortfalls at our expense...
ReplyDeleteThe things you mention are contractual issues that have not been properly addressed.
ReplyDeleteWHen did stations ever have facility rooms with TVs etc?
You also say "since our last contract" there you are 100% wrong.
These conditions in stations have been this way since I started work in 1983.
For you to say "since our last contract" is naive at best and disegenious at worst.
We got a friggin clipboard 2 contracts ago in stations you can't blame the current people for that.