Tampa FL - The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) was flying high only a few months ago. Big plans were in place to expand service and a recently negotiated 5 year union contract assured no threat to those plans. It was a win-win for everyone.
Fast forward to the present and HART is now sounding very much like most transit systems in the US, route cuts and fare hikes.
The sudden change that shot down HART's fast flying dreams was a change in the State budget. HART found itself $5.2 million short of what was needed to expand service as well as fund the new contract.
Union president Mike McCoy dismissed any idea of renegotiating the recently approved contract which gave union members a 5% yearly increase (25% increase over the course of the 5 year contract). "We expect that contract to be adhered to," McCoy said and added that the union won't go back to the bargaining table.
I'm sure Mr. McCoy will be the first to whine like a little baby when 50 of his union brothers and sisters are sitting on the unemployment line after they are laid off. Working in the best interest of the union membership? It sure doesn't sound like it to me when he's voluntarily tossing 50 of his members into the fiscal shredder and willingly taking away routes that his members would be driving otherwise.
The recently approved contract was rather generous and was based upon having the money available. I'm more than positive that the union actually wanted a double digit increase in pay each year and were forced to accept a lower amount to fit into the forecast of what HART would be getting in funding.
Unions, as well as management, often forget why they they are there in the first place. Let me remind them. They are there to serve the public with clean, reliable and convenient transit service. Unions have shown at many transit systems that they are more than willing to let the public, who are the ones that pay their wages by the way, suffer when projected income falls well below what was anticipated and the union contract becomes detrimental to the operation.
HART's union needs to rethink it's "screw you" attitude. Not only are they out to hurt the ridership with their outright refusal to even consider reopening the contract due to the sudden fiscal changes at HART but they are hurting their own membership and helping to push HART into the fiscal abyss that it may never be able to escape from. Once in the abyss, the downward spiral continues with more and more cuts and more layoffs.
Even one of the more difficult unions to deal with, ATU Division 85 in Pittsburgh, is open to contract negotiations to save their member's jobs and keep service on the streets for the public. Mr, McCoy obviously doesn't seem to give a rat's ass if the public is cut off from service or if his union brethren lose their jobs.
Mike McCoy, you've earned a Lance for not understanding the consequences of your actions. You alone have the ability to keep HART from entering the fiscal abyss that so many transit systems are in right now as well as determining if your members work or are sitting on the unemployment line.
Fast forward to the present and HART is now sounding very much like most transit systems in the US, route cuts and fare hikes.
The sudden change that shot down HART's fast flying dreams was a change in the State budget. HART found itself $5.2 million short of what was needed to expand service as well as fund the new contract.
Union president Mike McCoy dismissed any idea of renegotiating the recently approved contract which gave union members a 5% yearly increase (25% increase over the course of the 5 year contract). "We expect that contract to be adhered to," McCoy said and added that the union won't go back to the bargaining table.
I'm sure Mr. McCoy will be the first to whine like a little baby when 50 of his union brothers and sisters are sitting on the unemployment line after they are laid off. Working in the best interest of the union membership? It sure doesn't sound like it to me when he's voluntarily tossing 50 of his members into the fiscal shredder and willingly taking away routes that his members would be driving otherwise.
The recently approved contract was rather generous and was based upon having the money available. I'm more than positive that the union actually wanted a double digit increase in pay each year and were forced to accept a lower amount to fit into the forecast of what HART would be getting in funding.
Unions, as well as management, often forget why they they are there in the first place. Let me remind them. They are there to serve the public with clean, reliable and convenient transit service. Unions have shown at many transit systems that they are more than willing to let the public, who are the ones that pay their wages by the way, suffer when projected income falls well below what was anticipated and the union contract becomes detrimental to the operation.
HART's union needs to rethink it's "screw you" attitude. Not only are they out to hurt the ridership with their outright refusal to even consider reopening the contract due to the sudden fiscal changes at HART but they are hurting their own membership and helping to push HART into the fiscal abyss that it may never be able to escape from. Once in the abyss, the downward spiral continues with more and more cuts and more layoffs.
Even one of the more difficult unions to deal with, ATU Division 85 in Pittsburgh, is open to contract negotiations to save their member's jobs and keep service on the streets for the public. Mr, McCoy obviously doesn't seem to give a rat's ass if the public is cut off from service or if his union brethren lose their jobs.
Mike McCoy, you've earned a Lance for not understanding the consequences of your actions. You alone have the ability to keep HART from entering the fiscal abyss that so many transit systems are in right now as well as determining if your members work or are sitting on the unemployment line.
3 comments:
Additional comment that I wanted to add to the already published article:
If Mr. Mike McCoy, HART's union president, would have come forward and stated something like "the union would be willing to reopen the contract once other cost saving measures were tried" or something along those lines, I'd probably be singing his praises.
HART subsists mostly on a property tax millage. The Florida legislature mandated a rollback of property taxes, which explains why HART will be $5.2 million in the hole.
HART's board, whom I would imagine never rode a bus in their lives, could just as well deserve Lances for suckering themselves into signing an unbreakable contract. Then again, not even they would have seen a state-legislated property tax rollback that came up on them so fast.
anonymous said: HART's board, whom I would imagine never rode a bus in their lives, could just as well deserve Lances for suckering themselves into signing an unbreakable contract.
I couldn't agree more but many contracts are just like that. Once closed, it's difficult to get them reopened. The extreme generosity of the contract surprised me given that HART had to be aware of the financial problems hitting the industry. Even the most dense transit administration is aware of the problems the industry is in now.
The generosity of the contract really makes me wonder what pie in the sky demands the union really was asking for before it was negotiated down.
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