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Some T tracks maintained by a guy working more than 80 hours a week
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Well, now
G-d forbid that they actually HIRE somebody to do half the job. That doesn't square well with Pioneer Institute specifications for a libertarian transit system! Far better to avoid having to pay additional nasty benefits to support another middle class family and just pay one guy a lot of overtime!
/neolib neocon "thinking"
Citation's please.
Citation's please.
Methinks this is more of a union issue. Staffing is intentionally kept below the needed level to keep lucrative overtime coming in.
Jim Aloisi made the same point as SwirlyGrrl
OT is often cheaper that adding staff. I haven't seen the math.
Right,
and unions have zero say as to the size of the workforce. Management sets that limit.
Direct connections between Baker, Pioneer & Koch Bros
Pioneer Institute is funded by conservatives named David Koch and the Walton Foundation.
Charlie Baker was Pioneer Institute's first co-director.
As state finance director, Baker proposed the plan to put big dig debt on MBTA books.
Charles Chieppo is a fellow of the Pioneer Institute and a frequent spokesmen for Pioneer's position in the media.
Pioneer Institute has been a major force in the MBTA debate for as long as they've been around.
Pioneer Institute remains active in the debate. Their tactics include focusing the debate on everything from employee time off policies (in many cases misleading so) to opposing plans to expand service to Foxborough, Fall River, Springfield or Sommerville, The David and Charles Koch political organization AFP has killed transit projects all over the country.
Baker, Koch, Waltons, Chieppo are all coming from the same place ideologically and on specific policy.
Baker is an incrementalist.
In 1992, there were no charter schools in Mass. Baker played a key role in the getting the law passed and that's how school privatization was born.
In 2010, the charter cap was doubled from 9% to 18% of district budget and Pioneer Institute called for Lawrence to become 100% charter schools, like New Orleans. New Orleans schools has been rated D and F by state of Louisiana.
Baker's Charter school bill raises the cap from 18% of district budget to 100% on 25% of Massachusetts school districts, the districts with the greatest density of kids growing up in poverty and English language learners.
Charter schools don't serve all the students they take but they do defund the districts schools the kids dome from. For example, one class at Boston Collegiate started out with 120 students and graduated 20. 5/6ths of the kids they took were "cohort loss." I consider that failure. The remaining 20 scored well on MCAS, well enough to brag about.
Baker is advocating for privatizing a dozen MBTA routes.
The pro-Baker super pac funded by the RGA spent $12 million on Baker's campaign. It's top funder was the Koch brothers.
What is the dirt on the Conservation Law Foundation?
After all, they were responsible for creating that "Big Dig debt" in the first place. Baker had the great idea to put the responsibility for transit expansion where it belonged, the agency doing the expansion.
So, who is funding CLF? Who is pulling the strings and directing them? GLX contractors and MBTA unions?
Also, who is funding Transportation 4 Massachusetts? They have 4 staff who appear to do lobbying, but aren't registered as lobbying for them. Are the GLX contractors who ran up the costs the ones funding them (plus CLF)? If T4MA gets their money from Transportation 4 America, who is funding them?
Bullshit
Nope. Bechtel created that debt. Charlie and friends tried to just ignore the overruns, pay their buddies all that money, and cut the transit provisions which were part of the Federal contract.
Nice try, but, as usual, you are completely ignoring what really happened, what the stipulations in a Federal contract mean, what happens when a state and contractors decide to ignore those conditions and terms, and why the Federal government no longer lets MA administer the big contracts.
CLF sued to get transit expansion = "Big Dig debt"
The CLF wanted transit expansions so made up some charts and graphs with a false story on how air pollution would go up. Air pollution is down since the Big Dig, despite no GLX, and their other projects produced debt that remains. Baker was smart to put and end to such nonsense by the CLF by making the MBTA responsible for debt when they do expansions, not taxpayers state-wide.
Still waiting to hear who is funding CLF.
Nope
Nope. Transit was part of the original contract, but Bechtel had overruns they didn't want to be responsible for. Martha and Gov. Kochpuppet made sure that those "unfortunate" overruns didn't result in losses for their corporate buddies, even if it meant stealing money that the Feds gave them for the transit projects.
Please try again.
.
.
look it up you lazy putz...
...it's public info. The Barr Foundation funds many of the groups working on promoting transit and getting more car drivers off the roads. That money comes from the founder of Cablevision who has taken on Green House Gas Reduction as his cause. He will not make any money off of the initiatives he pushes. The same cannot be said for the people who bankroll the privatizers and carpet-baggers.
I tried looking up Livable Streets
and the best I could do was find photos of events where they had up a screen of their supporters which were dominated by companies making money from street redesigns and reconstructions.
That only makes sense. Can't get new streets built or existing ones widened, so engineering and construction companies make their money making over existing streets, even if crap like bump outs doesn't actually save lives - they just have to look like they might.
Big Dig Most Expensive Highway Project in U.S. history.
The Big Dig Central artery/Tunnel Project cost $24.3 billion (with interest) making it the most expensive highway project in U.S. history.
The project was originally scheduled to be completed in 1998 at an estimated cost of $2.8 billion (in 1982 dollars, US $6.0 billion adjusted for inflation as of 2006).
The project was completed in December 2007, at a cost of over $14.6 billion ($8.08 billion in 1982 dollars, meaning a cost overrun of about 190%) as of 2006.
The Boston Globe estimated that the project will not be paid off until 2038.
Three projects were ordered to mitigate environmental impact of the big dig.
(1) Phase II Silver Line tunnel under Fort Point Channel. Silver Line buses now use this tunnel and the Ted Williams Tunnel to link South Station and Logan Airport.
(2) Expanding the Green Line beyond Lechmere GLX, and
(3) connecting the Red and Blue subway lines, and
(4) restoring the Green Line streetcar service to the Arborway in Jamaica Plain. Arborway restoration has been abandoned, following a court decision in 2011.
The state legislature's forward funding plan was an abject failure as it was inadequate revenue.
Staffing would be adequate if not for rampant absenteeism
generous sick, vacation time, and abuse of the Family and Medical Leave Act
Citation needed. The
Citation needed. The accusation of "excessive absenteeism" was widely debunked on account of it failed to include such dodgy things as "maternity leave."
Its in the report just released if you would read it
http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/Board_Meetings/FMCBAnnualR...
You can skip to pg. 63 of the file if you don't want to inform yourself of other inconvenient truths.
soooo
You're okay with shelling out $75 million in overtime pay? Think about how much money that is...
Where do you get $75m? In
Where do you get $75m? In the FMCB's first Annual Report (pdf warning - http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/About_the_T/Board_Meetings/FMCBAnnualR...), which does not include the RIDE or CR, but does include "police, support, corporate" OT, OT costs don't seem to be even half of that. Unless I'm not reading this correctly. The chart is on slide 31.
Sarcasm missed
I seriously doubt that Swirly's comment indicates that she's "okay with shelling out $75 million in overtime pay." Her point would be that two or more people should be on the payroll doing the work that one guy got all that overtime to do. Maybe it would have been clearer with some gratuitous apostrophe's.
UHub comments are becoming self-parody
I was coming here to sarcastically muse that the first comment here was likely being about how “This is all Charlie Faker’s fault” — and it actually really is leftist conspiracy theories yet again. Uhub readers, you can do better than lashing out at one public figure who largely has nothing to do with the systemic decay your favorite politicians have put the system into.
Libertarian? There’s nothing remotely libertarian about taxpayers getting totally hosed because of sweet union deals and complete lack of oversight. Do you even know what the word means? The mind boggles that you are probably serious.
Maybe its time to take a look in the mirror at who is always running the show and in power. None of this is a defense of Republicans which nationally can all jump in a fire. This is about using your damn brains and holding those you vote in favor of accountable.
do with these what you will, however:
-In the late 1980s, Baker was hired as codirector of the newly founded Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based libertarian think tank.
-In cutting back state programs and social services, Baker caused controversy from early on. However, some government officials called him an "innovator" and "one of the big stars among the secretariats and the agencies"
-As Secretary of Administration and Finance, Baker was a main architect of the Big Dig financing plan.
-According to a 2007 blue-ribbon panel, the cost overruns of the Big Dig, combined with Baker's plan for financing them, ultimately left the state transportation system underfunded by $1 billion a year.
-He has the highest approval rating of any governor in the USA- as of last month.
MBTA problem in one picture
(page 21 of the FMCB report)
For any business, when labor costs are going up 5%/year and sales are virtually flat, the situation is unsustainable unless prices (fares) are increased yearly to match costs.
However
The MBTA is not a business, it is an agency that manages a public service, and unlike a taxicab, the fare paid is not intended to compensate the agency for the cost of that ride plus profit.
"In the United States and most countries, the percentage of total operating revenues that passengers pay for through fares is called the farebox recovery ratio, and ranges widely. Most transit systems in the United States have farebox recovery ratios between 25 and 35%."
That doesn't explain the divergence
You try to justify operating at a loss, yet there is still no excuse for widening expanse.
PART of it is...
Surely that, given entropy exists, over the passage of time from the past to the future, mechanical equipment will need to be repaired, maintained, and replaced? To put a fine point on it, the cost to operate old equipment of any kind naturally increases as the equipment ages?
Sure, but its people costs going up the most
You really ought to read the report prior to commenting.
As usual
It's those damned humans ruining everything. Imagine how smoothly the T would run if it were completely automated, and if the cars were not weighed down by all those annoying passengers! Go back to sleep, sheeple!
Imagine the efficiency if people drove themselves
instead of having to pay others to drive them, and how that would make cabs, Uber, and the MBTA as cost effective as Zipcar, Avis, and personal vehicles!
Route 3, I95, I93, SE
Route 3, I95, I93, SE Expressway...all roads that I associate with "efficient" as the first word. You can pry my Charlie card from my cold, dead hands, sir.
PS Zipcar was bought by Avis some two years ago and the Boston office has seen many a wave of layoffs since. A friend of mine as recently affected by it, and he can tell you this wasn't this first time it happened.
WHAT????
"/neolib neocon "thinking"
Look, I'm for the working man. Really, but Jeeb-s Ch-ist on a pop-icle sti-k, $300 grand a year for MOW? Shit, if there's no shenanigans going on there, we've just met the real Iron Man.
WTF OT
2,600 hours of overtime? Is it clear that these hours are actually "I say this year I worked 2,600 hours on top of my regular hours" or is this an accounting thing where some of these hours are from the retroactive pay or some such bullshit? If it's actual OT then obviously the first question is did this person just clock in and then go sleep under a bridge somewhere? Were they able to perform their duties with the needed attention given that they are basically doing nothing but working for a year without a break except to sleep? Why didn't they hire someone else if they, obviously, needed another entire person to do this work?
Presumably these little ire-spiking gall-stone stories will keep dribbling out of the Administration to keep up the appropriate level of public outrage targeted at the incompetent welfare queens working at the T and focus attention away from the fare increases (at a % in violation of state law) and the fact that the deferred maintenance of the past 20 years or so is the fault of past Governors and Legislators not T employees.
Can't blame Charlie for what he did
Nope. That's not part of the Koch game plan to inspire hate and envy against government workers and distract from the corporate looting.
Are you mad?
Trying to blame Baker who's less than a term into his governorship in a democratic state for the LONG term failure, secrecy and mismanagement of a quasi public union and democratic fundraising arm is flat out bizarre.
Oh this is Koch brothers
Oh this is Koch brothers fault. Makes so much sense now. We've never heard those talking points before... Fun fact: Koch Industries, founded in 1940, employs over 100,000 people! Oh he also donated $100m to the Institute for Integrative Cancer research at MIT.
Tinfoil hattery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory#Psychology
Just ignore posts from the tinfoil hat crowd. They're worse than trolls because these people actually believe this shit and will waste innumerable hours debating and arguing it with you.
The Kochs ARE dangerous people
No matter how many donations they make in the spirit of robber-barons of yesteryear.
That being said, trying to tie them in with Baker and the T is completely asinine.
big dig financing is Charlie Baker's Fault?
From wikipedia (big dig)
<<<<<
Planning for the Big Dig as a project officially began in 1982, with environmental impact studies starting in 1983. After years of extensive lobbying for federal dollars, a 1987 public works bill appropriating funding for the Big Dig was passed by the US Congress, but it was vetoed by President Ronald Reagan for being too expensive. When Congress overrode the veto, the project had its green light and ground was first broken in 1991.[18]
>>>>>>
From wikipedia (Charlie Baker)
<<<<<
As Secretary of Administration and Finance, Baker was a main architect of the Big Dig financing plan. In 1997 the federal government was planning to cut funding for the Big Dig by $300 million per year.[13] The state set up a trust and sold Grant Anticipation Notes (GANs) to investors. The notes were secured by promising future federal highway funds. As federal highway dollars are awarded to Massachusetts, the money is used to pay off the GANs.[13][14]
According to a 2007 blue-ribbon panel, the cost overruns of the Big Dig, combined with Baker's plan for financing them, ultimately left the state transportation system underfunded by $1 billion a year.[13] Baker defended his plan as responsible, effective, and based on previous government officials' good-faith assurances that the Big Dig would be built on time and on budget.[13] However, as he was developing the plan, Baker had also had to take into account that Governor Cellucci was dead-set against any new taxes or fees.[13] Former State Transportation Secretary James J. Kerasiotes, the public face of the Big Dig, praised Baker's work on the financing and said, "We were caught in a confluence of events," adding that "Charlie had a job to do, and he did his job and he did it well".[13]
>>>>>
You may well wonder what party was controlling Congress and overrode President Reagan's veto and which party controlled Congress when the financing was threatened in 1997? You may wonder whether there have been any times of economic recovery since 1998 when Baker left state office and MA may have been able to pay off some of that financing. Did we have responsible people in office or did we squander opportunities throughout the succeeding administrations?
Has to be accounting or something else
This level of overtime would mean they averaged over 95 hours of work per week, not factoring in vacation or sick time. Assuming they did take some vacation/sick time, then those days/weeks were not available to work overtime, meaning that the average hours for days actually worked would be even higher.
It does not seem possible to do a physically demanding job (assuming maintenance would imply that) for an average of almost 100 hours a week for an entire year. This has to be either a classification error, or someone is blatantly gaming the system.
a lot of this depends
on the union contracts too. is anything after 8 hours a day OT? is it time and a half? is it double time? there are so many factors that come into play, many of which dont actually involve working 95 hour work weeks- though certainly possible to get paid for that many hours.
True
I probably should not have said error, basically classification of time that is not as straightforward as it would seem.
Good stuff
So we pay top dollar for bottom of the barrel service...
"However, the control board was also told that the average hourly wage for MBTA rail employees is 30 percent above the national average. That $35.58 per hour average wage exceeds the averages at the top five transit agencies in the nation.
Bus operators make slightly less, at $34.99 per hour, but the presentation reportedly indicated that is about 50 percent above the national average."
And the cost of living ...
Is much higher here than in Atlanta or even Chicago.
Can't let working people make a decent living though. People might actually start looking at the debt load from a highway project that a certain smiling Kochpuppet dumped on the system!
And less than NY or DC.
And less than NY or DC.
Actual economic evaluations to see how salaries compare to similar jobs, adjusted for regional costs of living would be nice to see....
She forgot San Francisco
She forgot San Francisco
Very selective as usual, why
Very selective as usual, why pick cities that do not justify my point.
"Can't let working people make a decent living though."
Three hundred grand a year? Shit, he's better than a 1%, he's like 0.1%.
But Koch. Koch. Koch. It gets old.
Swirly, proudly pay your fare increases!!!
Oh those poor MBTA workers need all that money to live so be happy to pay more to help them!
I'm not getting my coffee at Starbucks, so don't expect me to pay for anybody else's half-caf, no-fat tall latte, no matter how skilled the baristas might be at foam designs on top.
That was 1 of many interesting things from the T Control Board..
but I found the closing sentence of their annual report to have been a real zinger - which, to my surprise, the MSM did not focus on:
Depending on your view of the world, this is either great news or a really ominous omen.
Full report is here.
2600 hours of overtime
divided by 52 weeks is 50 hours a week.
So this guy is working 90 hours/wk every week eh? I'll go grab my waders.
Gee
Let's do the math: 6 days per week x 15 hours = 90 hours
I would think that Conservatives would hold him up as a paragon of the kind of hours that US workers SHOULD be putting in. Starting at age 10.
Many minimum wage workers DO put in these kinds of hours. Medical residents used to - until the hazards of that became known and patients sued.
(note as well that the MBTA system may be accounting for "time and a half" and "double time" by multiplying the hours reported)
C'mon, swirl.
"I would think that Conservatives would hold him up as a paragon of the kind of hours that US workers SHOULD be putting in. Starting at age 10."
You can't really believe that. No one wants that, it's an asinine statement.
"(note as well that the MBTA system may be accounting for "time and a half" and "double time" by multiplying the hours reported)"
Which is exactly what's happening. Time and a half, ya, OK, double time on holidays.
300 grand? Come on. Even if it's legal (contractually) it's shenanigans.
Honestly, the T would
Honestly, the T would probably rather pay this guy overtime than hire a second person to do his job. Cheaper to train one person, cheaper to only have one pension, etc. The benefits and incidental costs of hiring a second person may well exceed the cost of paying overtime. Though I can't imagine this still holds true when you're getting into the range of working 90 hour weeks.
More to the point
"Twenty-four percent of the T’s workforce—about 1,550 employees—made $100,000 or more this year"
Remember that next time they hike up the fares
ill remember that
next time the politicians agree to pay the MBTA employees that much, but its worth mentioning that any vitriol should be directed towards the proper people- not those that are working a job that many, many people would want to do.
Gross wages are all publicly available on MBTA's site.
Selection of some of the people making a dreaded six figures for "driving a bus"
Police
Sergeant
175491.30
HRail Transp Red JFK/UMASS
Motorperson,Rapid Transit
101676.00
Rail Maint Green Riverside
Repairer,Rail
130298.85
Police
Sergeant
214332.72
LRail Transp Green Reservoir
Inspector,Chief - SL
149366.69
PSM Transmission&Distribution
Engineer
215365.46
Tres Controller GeneralAcountg
Dir Accounting
109236.74
pardon me
but its much more fashionable to complain about government employee wages while also wanting top tier talent.
i mean, these people should work for the government because of a sense of altruism, not because they have a set of skills that is valuable.
Right on the money, scummy. I
Right on the money, scummy. I see that top tier talent putting their valuable set of skills to use drinking coffee, smoking ciggies, and chit-chatting in a huddle for 10 minutes every morning. Then, when it's time to actually get the train that has been waiting in the back to the stop and board actual customers, they are in such a determined rush and huff to "stay on schedule" as they waddle over to the front of the car that they "don't have time" to turn on the fare machine and end up letting 20 waiting passengers on board for free.
I shouldn't say that I refuse the free inbound ride because I need to get to work on time, but I'm a conscientious citizen who would prefer to pitch in and pay to keep this rickety wagon going for everyone else who uses the T.
many uhub posters
really, REALLY seem to have an issue with people that are making a wage that allows them a comfortable lifestyle. even if that person is working who knows how many hours a week to do it.
I bet with that kind of
I bet with that kind of scratch, they could enjoy some really good Chinese food. ;)
The point is that this
The point is that this transit agency is full of waste, fraud, and abuse. It's rotten from the top to the bottom, from the no-show executive-level positions, patronage, sinecures, cronyism with private contractors, down to the pensions, unions, and workers who seem to be working more than is physically possible. This is just another example.
Whose MBTA is it?
Is the MBTA run for the benefit of its 6,000 employees, or for its 1.3 million passengers?
it needs to be both, actually
^
Many college/post-grad
Many college/post-grad-educated UHub posters are probably a little confused after seeing the MBTA employees "at work" while on their way to their <~40k/year 60+-hour/week non-overtime paying research job at Longwood.
You guys are missing the bigger issue:
Some T tracks are maintained?!?!?!?!
(Braintree line rider here, obvs)
Some people like to work.
Some people like to work. Maybe he is supporting two families, from two marriages. Power to the worker !
Was he working those hours or punched in for those hours?
About a decade ago the T discovered that machinists had figured out a simple way to get paid without being present: one worker on a shift would come in on time, and punch all their buddy's timecards. Everyone else could then stroll in an hour or two late and no one would be the wiser. So they invested in a biometric timeclock that verifies you are who you say you are. Now, that's easy for folks who work in a garage, but I wonder if they ever implemented this for track workers.
How about you?
And all the rest who automatically assume that T workers are loafing?
You Only Do Actual Work For 29 Hours A Week
Of course, you guys are different -- you are productive for every minute you get paid for, right? Sure you are.
Heh
So what I'm gathering from this thread isn't that T workers are overpaid, but that there's way too many people in the private sector that are underpaid.
We'd all be better off if ya'll stop the ire of bitching about people making a good middle class wage in one of the most expensive markets in the country, and bitch to your boss about that 2.2% raise that didn't break you over the value of inflation.
Same with Burger flippers. $15/hr in a city where rents are $1500 / room isn't lavish. Don't get pissed at them from asking for more, get pissed that you and your coworkers are not doing the fucking same. A burger flipper making $7 is driving down your wages, mind you. It gives your boss and excuse to keep your wages lower as well, because watch out you might be flipping them next.
The MBTA serviced 400.8 million rides last year. Who here would like to see 400.8 million more trips on the city streets and on 128/90/93?
Elephant in the room?
I do not think that everyone's "outrage" over this stems from a belief that T workers are overpaid but, rather, the implicit assumption on everyone's part that this worker did not actually work the hours for which he is being paid. He earned an $85,000 base salary and then is said to have earned 2,600 hours in overtime pay, which I think everyone is implicitly assuming is virtually impossible. I'm not so sure that it is, particularly given last winter when some T employees were probably working truly enormous amounts of time to get the system back on line (he is a "foreman"). Its entirely conceivable that he worked his base hours and then put in what is about 2 more full time jobs in overtime hours, which means he worked three jobs, which is something that many people in this city do just to keep food on the table. Perhaps the hourly rate for overtime at the T is a bit generous (I think he earned something like $65.00/hr. during overtime) but I really don't know. I also don't know what "full time" and "overtime" mean at the T (full time could be a 6.5 hour day for all I know), so depending on that metric, there could be some justifiable outrage over the allocation of overtime rates to what most people would consider part of their normal work day. Also, for the record, $315,000 is not a "middle class" wage, either in Boston or in any other part of the country. Even assuming he files taxes individually, this would put him in the top 5% of earners (based on W-2s) nationally.
it would blow your mind
how many hours of pay some people can receive vs hours they work. check out ILA contracts sometime
edit: mind you these are 'legal' or above board hours, too. it is the way that their OT/pay scale works is all
Weren't some of the
Weren't some of the maintenance guys working like 20 hour days during February? That can wrack up real fast.
Some possible reasons for OT:
-sometimes there is a minimum pay for an OT assignment, unless you extend your shift, for instance, if you get called into work by your boss but the job gets done in 1.5 hours, you get paid an agreed minimum, usually 4 hours. If at the end of your shift, you are forced to work an extra 1.5 hours, you would get paid 1.5 hours.
-taking vacation days and then working OT shifts in them. This can be frowned upon, and is usually not allowed in most Union contracts, but it is a practice that has been in use before. For employees who are allowed to buy these vacation days back at the end of your career, it so what offsets the overall cost of labor, but if you are creating OT yourself by taking the day off, it is the ultimate scam, even if you aren't the one doing the overtime.
-overnight shifts. I'd say 90% of union workers won't even sign up for overnight OT, but there are some who will take it every time they are called. This could be one of those guys.
-he could be a night worker himself, and if most of the OT is days or afternoons, he will have more of an opportunity to work that overtime.
- he could work in a group that simply has a lot of workers out injured/on maternity leave, sick, or just out. This would give him more opportunities to fill in OT slots on those jobs.
-he might just be the best at what he does, so the bosses call him and give him whatever he wants to solve the big problems.
Anyway, just a few of the reasons some people make more OT than others, although this is a lot of OT!
some people
know exactly how to work within the system/have the seniority to do this and have it be completely within the rules. good for them i suppose.
the job certainly doesnt sound too fun to me, since so many people seem to be willing to despise a person that works on a system they'd freely admit suffers from a lack of maintenance
How's that work when T tracks
How's that work when T tracks can only be maintained when they're out of service?
Forget late night T for the moment. 7 * 4 hours a night is only 28 hours a week. How's that turn into 80?
Or perhaps the T can do maintenance when service is running!
Or perhaps the T can do
Shock horror! I don't believe it!
Overtime abuse is hardly
Overtime abuse is hardly limited to the T, firefighters and police rake in tons of overtime, and many of them make more than 100,000. How many people who Baker is proposing to subsidize at GE will make more than 100,000? How many people who work on movie sets subsidized by us make more than 100,000?
We don't call it OT abuse when policemen put in more than 40
or earn more doing details than their BPD income.
The legislature did a study on corp. tax spending. This is where the big money goes. They won't even let the state auditor see it.
They should have to justify the value we receive from their corporate tax breaks.
Exempt Employee Sucka MCs
the only thing that I feel confident in saying (until more data comes out) is that those of us who are salaried "exempt employees" (i.e., not overtime eligible), whether in the private OR public sector, are the real suckers here.
Yes, yes you are
Until the class of exempt workers decides to undergo the kind of struggle and pain that blue-collar workers did in the first half of the last century, they will continue to be exploited. The latest wrinkle is unpaid internships. Do you think that has no impact on your salary?
The proper response to some working person making a lot more money than you do is not to try and bring them down, it's to try and raise you and people like you up. The deck is very much stacked against you, of course -- particularly since you're all alone when facing management.
No, actually
the suckers are those of us who try to get a state job without paying off someone or being related to a pol. I tried. For YEARS. Various job websites like "Commonwealth Employment Opportunities" are a joke.Only in MA can there be a budget-based "hiring freeze" right now at an agency while the SAME AGENCY posts for a "recruiter" to aid the beleaguered HR Dir. Obviously this is a bag job, with the job description written to fit the person already on the inside track. Nothing really changes in MA.
Not unique to the public sector
Private-sector employers routinely post job ads for positions they already have a favored candidate for. It's so their foreign-national guy can get a work visa, based on their "inability to find a qualified citizen" for the job. I once had a couple of interviews at a well-known research company, where the managers were all ready to hire me, until they were told the job was going to someone already anointed. The people I interviewed with were extremely embarrassed and apologetic.
Ugh. No overtime for me or
Ugh. No overtime for me or pay increase but more money taken out of my check to pay for increased T pass soon. Life isn't fair.
So unionize.
So unionize.
Then they'll paying dues out
Then they'll paying dues out of every check to another layer of management which won't care if it bankrupts the host company and puts everyone out of work.
Presumably if that union were
Presumably if that union were bankrupting the host company, that would also mean that it was successfully extracting higher wages, which would seem to undermine the "union dues" argument, since they'd be making enough money to cancel out that cost.
And it's funny to me the idea that there can literally only be two modes: Bankrupt company and impoverished employees at a time when many US corporations are literally making record profits, the fruits of which almost exclusively accrue to the people who own them.
Fuzzy Math!
If the T was closed for two months how did they make this much overtime. Please don't tell us they needed to pay more OT when they were closed then when they are opened.
They weren't closed for two months
It was a bad winter, but not that bad.
And a lot of the workers were on OT to try to clean the tracks. They didn't get as many snow days as school kids.
They called in sick when work was called for
Adam, the Herald reported on T sick days and absences after the snowstorms. When the going got rough, T workers called out sick. That's why the national guard and outside workers were hired to clear the tracks.
Let the record show
Markkkkkkkk is volunteering to provide child care for T workers when kids are home during blizzards.
He's also volunteering to cover shifts for sick workers.
Mighty nice of you to do that!
So now all T employees are single parents?
with no childcare options? So, do tell us how you know this.
If you want unreliable T service, by all means be very understanding of all sorts of employee absences. Hire twice as many workers as needed at $35+/hr and have half sitting around to substitute for the other half that might not come to work that day. Double your fare while at it too.
So, now all T employees called in sick?
So, do tell us how you know this.
Absenteeism, including use of sick days, increases dramatically in every business when schools are shut because of snow. It's not because all those employees are single parents, either.
T workers are not different from people working for the phone company or Liberty Mutual or whatever. They have the benefit of union representation, but that does not make them bad people or otherwise reflect badly on them. There are just as many slackers, malingerers, and opportunists in the private sector, and your money pays for them, too, even if not as directly. If you feel that your situation is inferior to T workers, the burden is on you to improve it, not on them to degrade theirs.