Another sign today is just slightly off. It all started with the frantic 430AM search for car keys. Then I left my water bottle at home on the way to the gym. Then a torn pair of pants, quick change and my monthly train ticket is in the old pants. Going to be that kind of Monday.
Funny thing this morning on the E train heading out of Penn. yeah, I know it’s the anniversary of the death of bin Laden-so they hold the train on the platform for a “routine” inspection by the NYPD. Only thing is there was nothing routine about it. In six years of commuting it’s the first time that’s ever occurred on a train I was riding. Routine in the eye of the beholder I suppose.
A blog is birthing (Taken with instagram)
Out of coffee. A real problem about now (Taken with instagram)
Have to wonder what longislandfailroad.tumblr.com would think. Made the trip to Don Pepe but made an LIRR mess (Taken with instagram)
Hey @brownriggliny you lost your Avi. Got it for you. (Taken with instagram)
Working for me tonight (Taken with instagram)
Hey All…
I know it’s been a while since I updated here, and there are a lot of reasons for that-but it has not stopped my random commentary of social media. So, please join me on my Single Dad…
Schumer said such a bill should include three key guarantees: that the LIRR will better inform customers about delays and alternative modes of transportation, including through onboard announcements, emails, Internet messages and announcements on station platforms; that the LIRR will set a time threshold for how long passengers can be stranded on a train before evacuating them; and that when a train cannot be safely evacuated, passengers will be provided with basic comforts and provisions, including water. <from Newsday and I will respect the copyright and the paywall>
(Source: newsday.com)
This is an excerpt from today’s Newsday about documents obtained from the LIRR on compensation. I won’t put the entire article here because Newsday maintains a pay wall and I will respect the copyright.\
The upshot is, there are work rules in place that mean an extra day’s pay if a union member does something out of their job description-like wash the windshield of the train they are about to drive, or work on a train that does not have drinking water available.
Some of these rules went on the books in the 1920’s and have remained in place-and costing commuters for decades. Stop the madness now
Retired engineer Dominick Masiello got the most penalty pay of any LIRR employee in 2009 and 2010, according to documents provided by the agency. Masiello, 57, of Port Washington, almost doubled his $75,000 salary in 2009 by adding $70,138 from work-rule violations. In 2010, his last year at the LIRR, he made more than $250,000, including $41,609 in penalty payments. He is collecting an annual pension of $122,096, in part because of work-rule penalty payments, overtime and reimbursement for unused vacation and sick time. Masiello declined to comment. All of the LIRR’s top 10 earners of penalty payments last year were engineers, who are represented by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, one of the oldest and most powerful trade unions in the country. Work rules in the contract of the 148-year-old union, which represents the railroad’s 700 active and retired engineers, are more costly than those in contracts of the LIRR’s other unions. The other nine engineers in the top 10 made between $25,000 and $41,000 last year solely from work-rule violations. The MTA said none of them have submitted an application to retire. Though the LIRR’s expenses on work-rule penalties last year comprised just “three-tenths of 1 percent” of the agency’s 2010 payroll of $583 million, Soffin noted that the greater impact on the LIRR may be on pension costs. The LIRR is paying about $106 million a year in pensions, and has about as many retired employees — slightly less than 6,400 — as it does active workers.
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/transportation/lirr-s-archaic-work-rules-prove-costly-1.3179367
