RE: Okay - I will do the Unpopular Thing

Dennis,

Nice points except you fail to realize that every company in this country without a union is able to accomplish the same things. There is nothing you list in your points that the MTA can't get without a contract.

For instance:

1. As someone who manages pensions, I can tell you that companies do not have to give their employees a contract to get vesting periods for their employees on their pensions. I have dozens of clients who have pension plans both defined benefit and defined contribution that don’t give their employees contracts. Federal pension laws have certain vesting schedules in place for all types of plans, which are decided in the original plan document when the plan is set-up. An employee contract is not necessary to set-up a pension or to make it attractive enough to make the employee stay.


2. As far as a “steady stream of trained labor for a unique position”, again you can refer to any job in the country. Is my wife who is a district manager for a major retail company in Manhattan, not a “unique position”? She doesn’t have a contract nor is her company without a steady stream of trained labor since they follow the normal path of development for all employees from top to bottom that every company without a contract for its employees follows. To attempt to say that without a contract the MTA wouldn’t have a steady stream of people looking to become bus drivers is weak.

3. “Labor cost-controllability”. Is the most outrageous comment out of all? If a contract is so important to Labor cost-controllability then why is every major industry with union holdouts is falling by the waste side? Airlines, auto companies, etc. have been falling apart because of their union contracts and its labor cost-uncontrollability. The idea of a labor contract makes the cost uncontrollable not controllable.

4. “Rules for discipline that are agreed on both sides”, again are you kidding me? Dennis, it’s called an employee handbook that every employee signs off on when they take a job that tells them the rules of how they are to act. You don’t need a contract for that and millions of Americans take jobs everyday without one simply signing off on the employee handbook without the need of a contract.

5. “Efficiency of labor relations”? Dennis if the strike has shown anything, its that giving employees that don’t need one a contract is nothing but inefficient.


Dennis, I cannot believe that you truly believe that a bus driver needs a contract. Now I wont argue that under current laws municipal employees are allowed to have one, that doesn’t mean they need one or that the city benefits from giving them one. As I pointed out every point you attempt to make at why it is needed is already done in America in every company without one.

Dennis, Dennis, are you turning Democrat on me?