Despite a lawsuit filed by the Transport Workers Union, the MTA went ahead with 266 layoffs yesterday, arguing that they could terminate workers not assigned to revenue booths. Last week, the MTA was hit with a restraining order preventing them from closing toll booths, but not from laying off unassigned workers. This afternoon, the two parties will appear before New York State Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla to argue their cases, and the fates of the 211 station agents still on the chopping block.
The layoffs have exasperated workers, who are constantly waiting for new information. "It's like a yo-yo," laid off station agent Laurenia Jarrett told the Daily News. "I took this job for security, and that security is now gone." The total 450 layoffs are expected to save the MTA $21 million, and could possibly free up the money needed to pay for a number of new positions that have opened up at the MTA. In the NYC Transit division alone, they're looking for a Computer Specialist, an Associate Transit Management Analyst and a Chief Mechanical Officer; salaries range from $64,778 to $192,900.
So is the MTA crying wolf with the $800 million deficit? TWU Local 100 VP Joe Bermudez thinks so, saying, "For the last 16 years that I've worked here, the MTA has always cried poverty, and when all was said and done, they had a surplus." The union is currently asking both Albany and Washington for stimulus money with a provision that the MTA must use 10% for the operation budget. Union worker Maurice Jenkins told NY1, "If they used it now, it would stem all the service cuts and stop these layoffs."
