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Transit Negotiations December 3, 2005
Dear Peter and Roger: I write to express NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign's concern about the status of the current state of negotiations between the MTA and Transport Workers Union, Local 100. We respect the process of collective bargaining and have no desire to inject ourselves into the negotiations. We simply urge both parties to work hard to win a negotiated settlement. We understand the challenges faced by the MTA, including future deficits fueled by a growing burden of past massive borrowing to pay for much needed repairs in the absence of the State and City to shoulder their fair share. At the same time, we applaud progress this year, including passage of a five-year $15 billion-plus core capital program, voter approval of a $2.9 billion transportation bond and a first-ever program of holiday fare discounts. These actions are due to the efforts of a broad coalition of groups - including business, community groups and labor - and the MTA. We are also pleased that transit officials have agreed to keep booth personnel as customer service representatives. So we are all the more disappointed that MTA New York City Transit appears to be pressing for "one person train operations," at the expense, we believe, of rider and worker safety. The Campaign has worked hard in coalition for many years to keep a human presence in the subways - whether it was the successful effort to keep newsstands in the subways in the 1980's or the battle to keep station agents in the subways or to resist MTA New York City Transit's wrong-headed efforts to remove conductors from cars on the G, #7, J, M and N lines. We believe the presence of a conductor in an evacuation or emergency situation is invaluable. We are also concerned that transit workers have sufficient safety training and equipment. We wish both transit management and labor success in achieving a fair settlement. Yours truly, Gene Russianoff
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