Thursday, December 22, 2011

MTA to employ welfare recipients

From the Daily News:

Up to 1,000 welfare recipients will scrub subway stations for their benefits under a cost-cutting measure in the MTA’s 2012 budget, approved Monday by the agency’s Finance Committee.

The welfare workers are the equivalent of 225 full-time cleaners on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority payroll.

The Work Experience Program helped hundreds of participants obtain full-time union jobs cleaning the subway before it was canceled in 2008. It’s being revived as the MTA struggles to close budget gaps year after year in the recession.

The new fiscal plan, however, did not restore last year’s service cuts.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Union busting at its finest.And i'm sure they'll do a great job and none will be a security/safety risk......

Anonymous said...

how do they save money by paying more welfare workers to duplicate the work of the M.T.A.union employees ?

will they downsize the union employees ?

Anonymous said...

this is an honest effort for those who can return the labor for assistance. It's called workfare an honorable system.

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 2:

They've been downsized already. Ask the TWU.

Anonymous said...

Next step illegals (oh sorry, undocumenteds)

Anonymous said...

Wait to they become Civil Service without taking a written test.
Union busting and Civil Service busting. What's wrong with the TA ?

Anonymous said...

This is what ALL civil service jobs should be. Considering the fact that probably half of the civil service workers would never make it in a private environment the inflated wages they get from the taxpayers is a form of welfare. Make the welfare roles the feeder to civil service employment. And get those damn unions out. Unions have no place in public employment. In a private company, the unions work as a market force to keep wages up, while ownership pushes against them to keep wages down. In public employment, people get guaranteed COLAS anyway and have zero accountability to the people paying (the tax payers). GET THEM OUT!

Anonymous said...

The net takers (they ride the wagon) are the public service union employees and the public assistance recipients. The need to be at peace to present a common front to us, the net makers in the private sector (we pull the wagon).

Anonymous said...

can we afford to pay them? if Port Authority "cops" earn $200k for making change at toll booths, surely these welfare recipients deserve somewhere around $120-150K/year for working in dangerous conditions.

Anonymous said...

Yes all Civil Service workers are the 1% !
Get real people and stop putting worker vs worker. You had the same chance to take a test for NYC employment but chose to make more money in the private sector.
Civil Service workers are not the problem. Rich greedy bankers are !!!

Anonymous said...

I agree with the above statement. I statred working fo r the city in 1980's Toward the end of the decade my friends in the private sector were doing very well,i was surviveing. After 26 years of service i retired with a decent pension, and a few physical maladies and got anothe job. Most in the private sector were downsized or terminated.Now that i'm doing well i'm the bad guy..........people have short memories....