Sunday, October 10, 2010

MTA contract terminations mean massive layoffs

From Crains:

The city's paratransit bus schedules are being disrupted with the closing of two companies that provide transportation for disabled passengers. Starting this month and continuing through year's end, Maspeth, Queens-based Atlantic Paratrans of NYC Inc. will steadily lay off all of its 610 employees, and Progress Transit Inc. of Mill Basin, Brooklyn, will do the same with its 244 workers.

Both firms filed Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification forms with the state, and each cited the loss of a contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as the reason.

The MTA says it terminated the contracts for financial reasons.

"The integration of fixed-route bus service for some paratransit trips, the expansion of the use of car services and taxis, and the increase in objectivity in eligibility determinations will reduce the need to have so many private transportation firms under contract," according to an MTA statement released Wednesday evening. "The more highly-priced carriers were selected for contract termination."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That means our daily commutes will be delayed even longer despite the upcoming fare increases.

Let Andy Cuomo open up those second set of books that the MTA keeps.

Next governor my-ass!

Anonymous said...

The acees- a- ride scam is a costly drain on the MTA.too many peeple abuse it, and the folks that need it get screwed.

Anonymous said...

Yes, because spending $70 so grandma can go to Bingo on Sundays is SUCH a great use of resources.

Access-A-Ride needs to die.

Anonymous said...

As a driver working for one of the many providers this news does not bode well. Atlantic paid fair wages if you could survive the chaos. I cannot help but think that unless the owners themselves wanted out of the contract that they were targeted by the MTA. I cannot speak for the other company. This is just another effort on the part of this city's administrator's to sock it to working people. It sucks and if we had real representation in government these kinds of things would not be happening to extent that they now are. Its class warfare!