Reply to Imminent METRO strike? Jackie Jeter, METRO Union president, calling for vote Sunday July 15.

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "Imminent METRO strike? Jackie Jeter, METRO Union president, calling for vote Sunday July 15."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
All of these would ordinarily be legitimate grounds for concern and objection.  All of these would normally be appropriate for a union to protest.  The problem is WMATA-ATU.  They have become the unitary enemy of the public in this region.  Metro doesn’t have plant problems - it has HR crises.  Metro doesn’t have logistics issues - it has HR issues.  The escalators aren’t broken - the problem is the escalator people and escalator managers.  The ATU, like WMATA management, doesn’t seem to understand that the public has just had it with them, and would be perfectly happy to see the union broken and all managers fired.  A controlled and well-implemented period of WMATA shutdown so as to completely re-staff would be welcomed by most people in the area.  [/quote]

Well, here's the thing:

https://patch.com/district-columbia/washingtondc/union-slams-metro-plan-accuses-wmata-bad-faith

"The union that represents Metro workers has issued a statement ripping Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld's proposal for WMATA, which proposes big changes and seeks major concessions from labor unions.

Wiedefeld said $15.5 billion would be needed over the next 10 years to make Metro safe and reliable, an increase of 30 percent over current budgets. He is also proposing to cut *pension benefits, amend federal law on arbitration in contract disputes, and allow the agency to outsource work so that Metro employees would have to compete with contractors."*

ATU Local 689 said they've submitted proposals to fix WMATA that included ways to secure dedicated funding to "bring back riders and improve safety," but Wiedefeld had not reached out to them about the plan.

Wiedefeld doesn't appear willing to budge on the issue, however.

"I don't have a backup plan to solve this, because I don't know where else I can go," Wiedefeld was quoted as saying in the Washington Post. "[Metro] must change its business model, as operating expenses are growing at nearly twice the rate of revenues."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/metro-gm-wiedefeld-proposes-new-business-model-and-500-million-a-year-in-new-funding-to-save-transit-agency/2017/04/19/dfc93514-252c-11e7-a1b3-faff0034e2de_story.html?utm_term=.70d00d3e6e44

Combined with this:

https://patch.com/district-columbia/washingtondc/metro-ridership-takes-massive-plunge-report

"It's no secret that Metro ridership has been down big time throughout the system in the wake of safety incidents, constant delays and crippling "Surges," but a new report indicates that the last six months of 2016 were absolutely brutal.

WAMU reports that ridership dropped a whopping 12 percent in the last six months of 2016 compared to the same period the year before, showing that Metro's woes only continue to worsen.

In a way, it's exactly what Metro wants, in that WMATA has been begging riders to find another way to get to work and around town as Surges snarl rail traffic on a regular basis.

But it's causing big problems for the service, which is already in a budget crunch that is getting worse because of falling revenues from lower ridership numbers.

SafeTrack has cost $86 million, and the revenue shortfall is approaching $125 million, according to the report. General Manager Paul Wiedefeld has attempted to deal with this by slashing personnel, cutting 1,000 positions that have resulted in savings of about $64 million -- still not enough to make up for the gap. And next year's budget deficit could be much, much worse."

So here we have a maelstrom of issues.  There are, in fact, logistics issues caused by delays, safety problems, and surging related to SafeTrack maintenance.  There are, in fact, service issues related to the slashing of at least 1,000 personnel, in favor of outsourcing work to contractors.  (So in the case of escalator failures, the problem is more likely on the hands of contractors, not WMATA-ATU)  There are, in fact, leadership issues in the upper echelon of WMATA, who refuse to listen to WMATA-ATU proposals or work out compromises, and instead seem intent on figuring out how to maximize their profits at the expense of the workers whenever possible.

We need to acknowledge the problems which exist, and correctly place the responsibility for previous mishaps (primarily on the shoulders of WMATA upper management and leadership) before those problems can be solved.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics