T gives raises to executives; how will it pay for them?
- Add new comment |
| 
| 
Recent comments
Boston Blogs Network
- My Top 10 Twitter @ Reply People
- The Martini Workout: Oxymoron or No? You Decide
- Holiday at the Gardner: Doors Open to All
- Ho Ho Ho! Keith and the Pops Return to Salute the Season
- Flea Market: Funky Stuff for Your Xmas List
- Christmas in 1959: Jump on the Nostalgia Train in Taunton
- Someone You Shuld Know: 1LT Travis Manion
- You Think Better Of Me Than This, Right?
- Improving The Greenways Meeting
- The Economy Changes Its Facebook Status to 'In a Recession'
Sponsors
Boston Condos
Boston Luxury Condos
Waterfront Midtown
Condos
Consumer United For FREE!
Sign up for our eNews updates and use the promo code "SAVENOWBLOG" for one-year free membership with Consumer United.
On the one hand
This looks really bad.
On the other, 3% a year over three years isn't a huge raise, especially considering the cost of living lately. And the MBTA needs to retain good managers.
On the third hand, it doesn't seem that they have any.
Seriously, Mr. Grabauskas
Seriously, Mr. Grabauskas failed here. How did the MBTA not even budget for a standard cost of living increase while the union worked without a contract.
Read the whole article, where it says when the unions didn't get salary increases, neither did "management" (management is all non-union employees; not just T executives, but secretaries, etc.)
It's absolutely reasonable to provide this. Why wasn't it budgeted for?
Another giant Fail by Mr. Grabauskas.
No, 3% isn't a huge raise
But many of us other public servants aren't getting one at all this year. Most people in the human services (even administrators) make a lot less than people at the T. People who work in human services largely stay in the field because we know the work needs to be done and we consciously chose a field where we knew we wouldn't be rolling in the dough. Can you imagine if people at the T made the sorts of salaries we do and didn't routinely get raises? The T would be run by people who chose the job because they really have a commitment to providing transportation for the public and couldn't imagine a community without transportation. Gee, you might even have T employees who rode the T to work if that were the case!
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
By extension
Doesn't that imply that the T would be run best of all by volunteers - or, possibly, people who paid to work there?
Yes
Volunteers are generally some of the most hard-working and ethical folks. But you run into a different problem then, which is that you couldn't find enough qualified volunteers to fill the positions.
(BTW, the idea of people paying to do work isn't that farfetched. My agency routinely has Northeastern co-op students doing jobs that require only a highschool diploma and that pay about $11 an hour when not filled by coop students. These are jobs that college students with no specific experience would be qualified for and could in fact walk off the street and take. The students pay to do the jobs instead of us paying them. It boggles my mind.)
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Unpaid co-ops are
Unpaid co-ops are evil.
Signed,
Northeastern Graduate.
Grabauskas: Misrepresentations in stories
Statement from Dan Grabauskas today:
Facts have been misrepresented in recent reports regarding pay raises for MBTA administrative personnel.
Last month, an arbitrator ruled in a two-year contract dispute with our largest union. That order established cost-of-living increases for the four years of the contract, as well as the most significant concessions in health care ever won by the MBTA. Retirees will -for the first time ever - be required to pay for a portion of their health care. We also made a strong case that a tripling or quadrupling of co-pays and deductibles is warranted. The arbitrator agreed. Once the *pattern* of wages and benefits is set, the same terms are offered to all unionized employees through their union representatives. Approximately 96 % of the T*s workforce is in a union. The exact same cost-of-living increases, as well as the increases for their health care costs, were then administratively applied to the remaining 4 % (non-union employees) of the entire workforce. Every employee was treated exactly the same.
*Executive employees* is the designation the MBTA applies to those not in a union. These include senior administrators. But they are a small percentage of the whole. Most are mid-level managers and administrative support staff. As example: 35 administrative assistants, 22 bus and subway superintendents, 11 maintenance superintendents, budget and financial analysts, medical assistants in our clinic, civil rights investigators, purchasing and construction managers, etc.
The same wage and benefits package for union employees has consistently been applied to non-union employees following labor settlements. Hardworking employees should not be penalized simply because they are not union-affiliated.