Cost containment reasons are phony

At least we the membership of TWU Local 100, so used to the propaganda presented by the MTA leadership, applaud the membership who broke free and expressed their own opinion on Twitter on the 2012 contract negotiations - between TWU Local 100 and the MTA. Joseph J. Lhota CEO of MTA has finally revealed his true colors - he is a republican, he is wealthy, he loves NY Post which is anathema to blue collar and to reasonable people - with his recent opinion on June 18, 2012.

His reasoning on the surface appears to be logical ‘but the agency is in an era of cost-containment and-control unlike anything in its history’. However when you pay close attention to the rest of the story you find his facade was full of empty rhetoric. He neglected to highlight the sad financial blunders which is the result of a decade of failure and mismanagement by his predecessors and his administration.

Then he went on a tangent that we should be partners in his misguided notion - ‘labor to be part of the solution’. Our relationship is based on employer versus employee, master versus servant not partners - he may have impressed his billionaires friends who read the NY Post however he is not aware what the rest of the New Yorkers think of MTA. Maybe he has not read the NY State Office of the State Comptroller - MTA - Metro-North Railroad ‘Forensic Audit of Payment to On-Board Service Managers’ Report 2011-S-35, June 2012. It is obvious he wanted to divert attention and talk about TWU Local 100 contract negotiation.

‘That’s why the MTA is asking its unionized workforce, during its current contract talks, to forego raises for the next three years.’. Blue collar employees who earn less than $25 an hour sure they deserve a one dollar raise since prices are going up. Twenty five dollars now cannot fill a gas tank. Maybe he does not know the toll cost at Verrazano Narrows Bridge which is $13 - we forgot he does not pay the tolls like everyone else does. 

He never discussed or gave hints of traffic congestion plans to ease New Yorkers fears of the time it takes us mere mortals to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’. Neither was overcrowding addressed. Or how MTA is prepared to deal with forces of nature such as snow response, hurricanes, or tornadoes. He never mentioned that TWU Local 100 members pay taxes to the city, state and federal government and how those taxes are suffocating the blue collar wages. He neglected to mention for most of us who take our cars to work, that alone has to do with money, while we are driving our cars we are spending money (gas, insurance, tolls etc) more directly the city benefits from the quarters deposited in the nearby muni-meters, the rent for a mere 10 minutes parking on the street. Some of us work long hours in excess of eight hours that is six quarters for every hour times eight which is $12 - based on these simple facts $12+$13=$25 the net wage for the blue collar is zero. Based on that the blue collar deserve a raise of $1 at the minimum if not more.

His reasoning is flawed about the fact that managers have not taken a raise. However for a manager who makes six figures yearly does it make a difference if he gets a raise? Why not consolidate the management? If he truly cared in cost containment why doesn't he start by looking around in the MTA Board, then at 347 Madison Avenue, 2 Broadway, 180 Livingston Street. He should look at the MTA HQ - it is obvious he will never solve MTA problems by covering them up or manipulating blue collar to be used as props in his charade. TWU Local 100 members are just too smart to be brainwashed by these forces of evil and partisanship.