More train talk, sort of
So the contract between the MTA and the workers’ unions is coming up on December 15th. If the workers don’t get more than what they’re being offered, they go on strike, meaning that millions (yes, millions) of people won’t be able to get to work. As of yesterday morning, the offer stood at a two-year contract, with a 3% raise the first year and a possible 2% raise (if the workers have been good boys and girls) the second year. In a city where you are very lucky to only have a 3.5% rent increase a year, this is pitiful.
I don’t like the word ‘raise’ being your basic increase of income. Every worker needs a basic cost of living increase just to be able to deal with their rent, which is ridiculously high to begin with around here. Then, if you have been doing a good job, you deserve a little more – whether it’s a higher salary, more benefits, a party, something. I know that puts a burden on employers, but if your workers are doing work for the common good, then the common good (in this case, the company) should give a little back. Again, it doesn’t always have to be a higher salary. Employers can be creative. Of course, that can sometimes backfire, and the smaller the company is, the harder it can be to favor one person over another, so a company feels it needs to give everyone something. News flash – no you don’t. Unless you have a real sourpuss who needs to grow up, employees can usually tell when someone is doing above and beyond the call of duty and should be rewarded as doing such. And who’s to say that you have to give something to a deserving employee in public? It’s usually company policy not to discuss your salary with anyone affiliated with said company. Same goes with gifts. Don’t ask, don’t tell.
So I guess my point is that the subway and bus workers don’t get a fair break, and they do as good a job as they can (well, most of them…) You have to treat your employees like people, and they might just surprise you as to the work they do. The whole MTA seems to have spread itself too thin, coruption or not, and can’t cover it’s basic costs, so it stiffs its workers who are threatening to slow down severely the city that never sleeps.
As for me, I only have an excuse not to go to work if it’s really bad weather, since technically I can walk there. Time will tell…
December 10th, 2005 at 12:36 pm
I don’t like the word ‘raise’ being your basic increase of income. Every worker needs a basic cost of living increase just to be able to deal with their rent, which is ridiculously high to begin with around here. Then, if you have been doing a good job, you deserve a little more –
does this analysis work when discussing collective bargaining? then you are not talking about making sure an individual gets a higher salary as they have been there for a while, you are talking about increasing every worker’s salary. so the consideration would seem primarily to be things like cost of living. also, isn’t the whole point of collective bargaining that you can’t give individualized treatment?
December 10th, 2005 at 3:02 pm
Collective bargaining would be something dealt with from the outset, before you have started a contract. Once a contract has been signed, I believe every worker should expect some sort of increase to cover extra expenses for the coming year. If the body of workers as a whole decides they want their salaries increased, that would mean a new contract must be signed.
Although it should be a reward, think of a merit-based raise as an extra incentive to do a good job because, let’s face it, most of us work just to pay the rent, and there are a lot of people who know they’re getting paid even if they do a mediocre job, so they don’t “live up to their potential.”
January 26th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Frankly, Leshka, that last comment especially shows that you know NOTHING about collective bargaining.
BTW, merit raises are total bull, as 1) there is no teeth in any such language, and 2) they create hostility between working people.
And just how do you know that the MTA has any monetary problems at all? Have you seen any of the sets of books they keep?
To better the conditions of all working people in this city, we must must must learn to respect each other as working people and build solidarity with each other. When we raise our consciousness as a class, we will only gain strength. “A rising tide lifts all boats.”