If any "striking" transit worker tried to walk in to work today they would be stopped not by picketers but by Metro Transit Police. Having been turned away from work they could then collect unemployment. Imagine 2,000 transit workers plus the thousands of workers who are losing jobs as a result of the "strike" drawing over a million dollars a week in Unemployment Compensation...
Given that this is an election year enough nervous Republican Congress members will give in to extended unemployment benefits. In fact, there may even be two 90 day extensions to get Congress through both the primary and general elections. Given the slowness of the Bush economic recovery (is it ever coming?) most of these unemployed workers will draw a full years benefits. Yep, thanks to our "no tax increase" Republicans we taxpayers are going to get hit with another $50,000,000 in Unemployment Compensation costs.
What happens when these workers run out of Unemployment Compensation? Metro Transit grew like crazy in the 1970s, hiring as fast as they could. Those 1970s hires are now becoming eligible for those pension benefits including health care that the Republicans so hate. With probably at least half of Metro Transit's workers eligible to retire in the next five years with pension benefits the Republicans can't take away, we taxpayers will be paying these transit workers for life, even though the buses may never turn a wheel again. In fact, given the slow hiring in the last few years practically every single Metro Transit employee will ultimately draw a pension to be paid by us taxpayers, long after the Republicans shut Metro Transit down. Let's see... a couple thousand transit workers multiplied by a thousand dollars a month or so in average benefits multiplied by another thirty or so years of average lifespan plus administrative costs and executive pensions for Peter Bell et al= $1,000,000,000 or so. Then add in the unemployed transit workers who go to the VA for health care and end up on Social Security Disability while waiting to draw their pension. We're talking way more than $1,000,000,000 in just "wages" and benefits even if the buses never roll again.
Then we have the question of what happens to the "stuff"?... 700 buses, 7 acres big garages, a bus overhaul shop with millions in specialized tools and parts inventory. So we're talking about 1,000,000 or so square feet of heated quality indoor space that costs over a hundred dollars a square foot to build today= $100,000,000 worth of real estae we taxpayers will be stuck paying for when the Republicans get done killing off just the busses. A new transit bus costs a couple hundred thousand dollars and carries thousands of dollars in radios, security cameras, fareboxes, etc. BTW, your writer never ceases to be amazed that Republicans will write blank checks to bus manufacturers then be such skinflints with transit workers. Being pretty much custom built for a particular transit system, no other transit system wants a used bus and it has zilch resale value. Unlike a motor coach which has potential for RV conversion, Metro Transit's buses when retired have historically sold for little more than scrap value.
Then there's Metro Transit's other asset, the light rail line. Again, in a blizzard of black checks Metro Transit managed to blow $700,000,000 of us taxpayers money on this line. They should have just given a hundred million to Minnesota Transportation Museum and we'd be seeing restored trolleys and commuter trains running up and down the Historic Hiawatha line instead of rusting rails.
In the best tradition of Defense Department out of control spending Metro Transit gave the taxpayer's wallets to a monopoly of contractors in a "design-build" contract. "Design-build" is the civilian version of the Defense Departments infamous "cost plus" contract overruns. As a result our light rail line has the heaviest rail available and concrete ties, the envy of any freight railroad. Millions more was spent on subsoil preparation to a standard that made railroad veterans drool. Then look at those long, lovely curved bridges and the "big dig" tunnels. It doesn't take a civil engineer to figure out that those bridges and tunnel could have been a lot shorter and millions of dollars cheaper.
And we haven't even gotten to the rolling stock yet... And roll is all some of it can maybe do. Metro Transit promised us a busy winter on the light rail line, with trains one after another doing testing and training. Yet the rail fans along the line have had a boring winter, with trains rarely sighted. Just as well, given that the buggy signal system causes traffic jams on parallel Hiawatha Avenue practically any time a train occasionally wanders by. Why the inactivity... could it be that despite the Metro Council's "overly generous" wage and benefit package they still haven't been able to attract enough experienced rail workers to maintain the line? Or are the rumors true that of the twenty odd multimillion dollar cars delivered only 2 are operable? And that's assuming it doesn't snow- remember Metro Transit workers having to chip ice from the rails and use the "tow truck" to get the light rail cars downtown to show off?
BTW, Metro Transit's light rail "tow truck" cost a couple hundred thousand dollars alone. Funny how they had money for that, but they didn't buy a wheel truing machine so cars will be out of service for weeks waiting for wheels to be sent out for repair and shipped back. Given that one of the supposed advantages of light rail is that as each car is powered it should be possible for even one running car to tow home a dead one. And if all else failed the city of Minneapolis could tow every light rail car in Metro Transit's fleet with their locomotive. But having laid rails heavy enough for the heaviest of locomotives the overhead power wires may be too low for a standard locomotive to fit under. Even if they fit under the wire, the gap between the station platforms may be too narrow for a rescuing locomotive to fit.
So for $700,000,000 Metro Transit has given us taxpayers 2 working cars, a few miles of scrap steel, and thousands of eight foot long chucks of concrete. And before I forget we get 2 pretty bridges, 1 pretty fake tunnel, and one pretty ugly tunnel too. BTW, the cars will probably soon have to be paid for even if the don't work. Metro Transit has cancelled the commencement of operations, and like the buses we won't get peanuts for it.
In conclusion, the Republicans with this "strike" have begin the shutdown of Metro Transit, and we taxpayers will pay the bill. The costs:
Shutting down and liquidating Metro Transit: $2,000,000,000+
Or, in the alternative...
Settling with the unions and moving people again: PRICELESS!
from Hawthorne on the Northside!
Dyna Sluyter
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