Bravo, Bus Drivers Union!

Tuesday 25 May 2010 - Filed under Dumbassery + Government + Taxation

Michael M. Grynbaum via The New York Times:

And the encounters [being spat on], while distressing, appeared to take a surprisingly severe toll: the 51 drivers who went on paid leave after a spitting incident took, on average, 64 days off work — the equivalent of three months with pay. One driver, who was not identified by the authority, spent 191 days on paid leave.

Which is bad enough, but then there’s,

Transit officials, facing a budget shortfall of $400 million, called the numbers troubling. “We have to see what we’re going to do with that,” said Joseph Smith, who oversees bus operations for New York City Transit.

Troubling, you say?  You need to see what you’re going to do, you add?  I mean, you’re only $400 million fucking dollars in the hole.¹ And yet, you need time to evaluate how to deal with employees who take off months of work because they were spat upon?  My question is how did the fine taxpayers of New York City get fucked so badly in this whole deal?

Spitting falls under the category of assault in the drivers’ contract with the authority. And officials at Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents city bus operators, said the extended absences were justified.

“Being spat upon — having a passenger spit in your face, spit in your mouth, spit in your eye — is a physically and psychologically traumatic experience,” said John Samuelsen, the union’s president. “If transit workers are assaulted, they are going to take off whatever amount of time they are going to take off to recuperate.”

Seriously?  Since when the fuck is being spat upon traumatic?  Getting the shit beat out of you is traumatic.  Being fucking shot is traumatic.  Being spat on is not traumatic.

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1. This stat makes one wonder how one particular part of the NYC annual budget can go 1/2 a billion dollars over budget in just one year. That budget gap is larger than many cities’ budgets in their entirety, and yet just the bus system in NYC is so poorly run, that it itself carries a 1/2 billion dollar deficit.  With gross inefficiency like giving your workers 3 months paid leave for being spat on, it’s not hard to imagine how it’s possible.

2010-05-25  »  madlibertarianguy