Two News stories.....another case of unbelievable stupidity and incompetence costing the middle class extra while rewarding those who can't get the job done.......you be the judge.
1st has been the all winter long saga of the local commuter rail service in Massachusetts - Bad service, late trains, broken down trains and poor performance all around.
Mass. GOP senators call for commuter rail hearings
By Associated Press
Monday, March 7, 2011 - Added 2 weeks ago
BOSTON - The four Republican members of the Massachusetts Senate are calling for legislative oversight hearings on the spate of recent service interruptions and mechanical failures at the MBTA.
GOP Senate Leader Bruce Tarr said the group is asking the chairs of the Joint Committee on Transportation and the chairman of the Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee to hold one or more hearings to figure out the causes of the problems and to come up with some solutions.
The MBTA’s commuter rail trains have been plagued with delays during the winter, including a four-hour ordeal for passengers trying to get from Boston to Worcester last week
The service has been dismal, the trains are old, the cost is high ($250 a month for a monthly pass and $4 a day to park at the T station)
Sooooo....what gets printed on page B11 of the Saturday paper next to the Obituaries in the Boston Globe????
THIS does -
Commuter rail pact includes wage increase
Talks continue with other unions
By L. Finch
Globe Correspondent / March 19, 2011
Unions representing Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. conductors and locomotive engineers agreed to a new contract Thursday, ending more than two years of negotiations. Labor talks continue, however, between the remaining commuter rail unions and the company, officials said.
The new four-year contracts with the Brotherhood of the Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the United Transportation Union afford a total 13.7 percent wage increase to members including retroactive pay to July 2009, include a $1,000 signing bonus, and cap employee health coverage contributions at $100 per month, according to statements released by the unions yesterday. This marks the first time MBCR employees will contribute to their health insurance costs; the company previously covered 100 percent of health insurance premiums.
The agreement, which runs through July 2013, also raises the layover pay for employees forced to wait for more than an hour between train routes, from half-time to five-eighths time.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? No wonder they have needed to charge us higher costs !! They have been footing the full bill for the healthcare all along (at the same time the public pays the full cost for our healthcare) and now that the union members will be asked to pay, they cap it at $100 a month !!! That is $25 a WEEK...who do you know has family healthcare for $25 a week....and they will get 13.7% pay increase and a $1000 signing bonus.....what a racket.
The public gets screwed, the trains are still old, not maintained, broken down and the Union idiots walk away with all of the $$$ and benefits they can haul.....the riders get screwed and the Unions walk away with the benefit. And of course, the Boston Globe buries the story on the back of the paper next to the Obits.
INCOMPETENCE of the highest order by the public sector and those who put these feckless idiots in charge of running the commuter rail which so many have to depend upon. The middle class who need this service to get to work takes another hit and the Politicians turn a blind eye to the gouging of the public....pissa.
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