Possible SEPTA strike (Philadelphia, Washington, Darby: apartments, crime, buying)

[twista6002]

You know how much chaos this will cause if the Phils win the series for all the people commuting to the parade?

[bryson662001]

Originally Posted by twista6002

You know how much chaos this will cause if the Phils win the series for all the people commuting to the parade?

Last year everyone tried to use Septa and the traffic was light and parking was plentyfull. I predict this year everyone will try to drive to the parade.

[waltlantz]

Hmm, true but if everyone drives in with no Septa ridership, it will be a different hassle than the debacle last year. Half and Half people.

[kyle19125]

From the latest Philly Weekly:

"Riddle me this: When is a cashier not a cashier?

If you answered: “When the cashier is a union-protected SEPTA employee who isn’t healthy enough to perform the job for which s/he was hired, and so SEPTA has assigned that cashier to a booth along one of the city’s subway lines,” then please, applaud yourself.

Under a collective-bargaining agreement forged with the Transport Workers Union 20 years ago in March 1989, SEPTA is required to find another position for bus and train operators who’ve been injured on the job and “medically disqualified” by the medical office, according to Rich Burnfield, SEPTA’s chief financial officer.

“Rather than have that individual on workers’ compensation, we put them in a job without the same physical requirements,” says Burnfield.

According to a right-to-know request, SEPTA does not fill cashier positions with outside applicants. All 346 of the full-time cashiers that staff glass booths along the Broad Street and Market-Frankford subway lines come from the medically disqualified pool.

Burnfield says cashiers are paid $55,000 per year on average (or 1.5 times the city’s median household income, according to a 2007 U.S. Census Bureau survey). According to SEPTA’s December 2008 wage manual, cashiers are supposed to make between $29,684 and $49,473, depending on their years of service. But the contract with TWU Local 234 allows cashiers to carry with them wage rates from their days as bus and train operators and guarantees cashiers a yearly raise regardless of job performance. Do the math and you’ll find that SEPTA is spending $19 million per year to keep them on board. Much of that comes from taxpayer money—federal, state and local government subsidies made up about half of SEPTA’s operating expenses in fiscal year 2008—but it doesn’t seem that taxpayers are getting much of a return on the expenditure. Still, Burnfield doesn’t think SEPTA cashiers are getting a free ride from taxpayers. He admits the term cashier is outdated—none of them can give change (a security measure) and passengers can purchase tokens at only 21 of 50 subway locations—but Burnfield believes the cashiers will continue to have “an important role” at SEPTA.
"

In other words, yet another parasitic profit-killing Union measure. The only way SEPTA will improve is with competition. Monopolies have no other incentive.

[MBlueR]

I agree, open SEPTA up to the free market as far as wages/labor goes and introduce competition.
And give me a break...earning $55k a year as a cashier with guaranteed annual raises regardless of job performance is sickening. The employee has no motivation/incentive. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.
Unions are out-lived their use and instead have become inefficient, over-bloated, and corrupt in many cases.

[Eyes]

At one time unions were needed.
They then became greedy and required more and more.
This became a factor in the quality of a business/service.

The high pays are fine if there is accountability and customers service.
But as they wrote in the inability to swiftly discipline when it was needed ..
Service went south and customers saught other options.

The part-time on-call jobs are an effort to correct and may be swinging too far in the other direction.
I would not be surprised to see private enterprise seek a foothold.

Unions can be of great value to create a fair and safe work place.

Sadly I feel the corruption that (is)/was in place may have severely damaged the image of the worker.

I rarely take public as it often does not allow for my schedule.
Sad .. as I always loved riding buses, trains and trolley's.

[waltlantz]

Guys, hate SEPTA if you want but this private market transportation WON'T FLY. It didn't back in the day (well it did but only for a short while).

Not even the NYC MTA pays for itself fully. It needs public subsidies in order to work. Take away SEPTA and you'll have that many more thousands of cars on most major roads and we all know how much Philly needs that.

[solibs]

Originally Posted by Shino306

Weren't you advocating in another post, how much "opportunity" there is here in Philadelphia.

Was I? In what context? I don't know, refresh my memory.

If they don't like their jobs, then they can get new better paying ones because there is so much "opportunity" in Philly, correct?

I think that's what they call a "straw man" argument.

All, I'm saying is fix whatever problems have led SEPTA to it's current problems and I apologize for not having sympathy for people that MAYBE won't have a pay-raise this year or have their pensions frozen given the economic reality America is in today and the "jobless recovery" they're predicting.

If you don't have all of the facts you can't have an informed opinion.

If they didn't get a raise this year, who cares? Not me! I've been laid off twice in the last 18 months. But if, for the last 7 years you took cuts in benefits and then lost wages to inflation because management kept telling you "just give us 'til next contract, we'll make it up to you, we promise" then you'd probably be a little upset. But, from my understanding, for the rank and file, it's more about working conditions and healthcare than a pay raise . . . and if that's that case, then I support them on that.

[solibs]

Originally Posted by MBlueR

I agree, open SEPTA up to the free market as far as wages/labor goes and introduce competition.

It's actually funny that you should mention that b/c SEPTA has a really hard time keeping people behind the controls on the regional rail because the free market is pulling them all to NJTransit and to a lesser extent, MARC, VRE and MBTA.

Do you really want some guy making $9/hr behind the controls on your train? Sorry, I don't. I don't want them flying my planes either but, unfortunately, a lot of them are and it's ridiculously dangerous. Nor do I want some 19 year old guy who didn't make it past the 10th grade and barely speaks english driving my bus for $8/hr.

That said, there is no free market in transportation. It's not a profitable venture when taxpayers are not paying for, at the very least, the infrastructure. Even the Romans subsidized "highways" not just in building roads but in maintaining a huge army to protect them. Anyone who has ever visited any Roman ruins in France or Spain has probably seen for themselves what lengths the Romans went to to keep the economy moving - literally.

All privatization in transportation means is that the private company reduces wages and eliminates benefits and reduces scheduled maintenance to skim a profit. Thanks but no thanks.

And give me a break...earning $55k a year as a cashier with guaranteed annual raises regardless of job performance is sickening. The employee has no motivation/incentive. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. Unions are out-lived their use and instead have become inefficient, over-bloated, and corrupt in many cases.

What cashier? If you want to tell me that a 32-year SEPTA veteran who works 55 hours a week is making that much money, OK . . . so what? If you want to tell me that some 5-year chump is working 37.5 hours per week and bringing home that kind of pay . . . BS!

[kyle19125]

[quote=waltlantz;11366308]Guys, hate SEPTA if you want but this private market transportation WON'T FLY. It didn't back in the day (well it did but only for a short while)./QUOTE]

I agree, privately held companies (outside of long haul commuter buses) don't work. I was alluding to allowing PATCO and NJ Transit to compete with SEPTA routes, and let the better service win.