Subway News: Contract, Defibrillators, and Suicide

It looks the MTA has seized the opportunity to go for the jugular, as they have introduced a new contract with some provisions union members will most certainly not like. For instance, new workers will have to contribute more of their salary to pensions than current workers and there will be the possibility of one-person traiin-operation - and the pension refunds to current workers are gone, probably at the urging of Governor Pataki. AND the contract would be for 39 months, instead of 37 months, leaving the next potential transit strike in March (the NY Times says that will make sure a strike isn't during a cold month, but March - and - April can be vicious). The MTA certainly has gone for broke, as the union rejected the earlier contract by just 7 votes, and pundits think this is a way to force the Transport Workers Union into arbitration. And in other subway news:

- After Daily News story about most of the MTA's heart defibrillators being at offices, versus at stations or bus depots, the MTA will put more debrillators at "job sites" - though that doesn't necessarily mean they will be at stations.

- And a man killed himself by jumping in front of an N train at the Fort Hamilton Parkway stop. am New York reports that it occured at 9:19AM, with a witness saying, "He kept looking to see if the train was coming every thirty seconds and then when it came he started running and dove right onto the tracks. It was a total shock. He was even carrying a newspaper under his arm."

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By Jen Chung in News on January 26, 2006 1:12 PM

Comments [rss]

Toby

The original term was "motorman" and the current seems to be the gender neutral "train operator" - which is not as fun to say.

LarimdaME

Sorry, typo. I meant driver, or whatever the term is for the person operating the train's go/stop functions. Engineer? Operator? Driver?

Larry

I'm not sure the diver was really in a position to relay the news.

LarimdaME

Re: This morning's suicide.

Eases my mind a little that it wasn't a pusher, there's always that question initially. Thankfully, there really was nothing to see, as most of everything was under the train. The people who were on the platform (I was inside the train) were quite upset, however; and the conductor was initially clueless about the nature of the situation. Seemed like the diver was too upset (or the equipment too broken) to relay the news over the internal communications.

MT

Let's see how the union comes out in a situation where the can't hold us all hostage for a sweetheart deal. I'm positively salivating at the idea that there will actually be a deal struck by a third party.

Tim N.

Part of this is a negotioating move by the MTA if they go to binding arbitration, so they have a tougher deal to start with rather than the one they finished with.

But part of this is Governor Duh deciding to get involved by having Kalikow and Co get "tough with unions." As usual with the Gov, it's too little, too late, and the wrong answer. The vacuous stupidity of this man knows no bounds.

And, last but not least, some of this is the dissidents in the TWU thinking they can do better on their own. When you think you don't need a union, this is what happens.