Metro-North workers rake in overtime pay

For Full Storie: http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs ... 10342/1017

On June 29, The Journal News filed a Freedom of Information Law request for a list of all Metro-North Railroad employees who earned $100,000 or more in 2004 and 2003, the amount of their overtime pay and their job titles. The railroad mailed the requested information on July 21.

After reviewing the material, the newspaper during the past two weeks sought additional information, including the work schedules for the top earners for a specific period.

The MTA first refused the newspaper's oral requests, then sought a written request after the state Committee on Open Government shared its legal opinion with the agency that the information should be publicly available. The railroad ultimately provided the information Wednesday, but the records could be deciphered only with a "run book'' held by engineers and conductors, which was not provided by the railroad.

Metro-North's press office sent memos to each of the conductors and engineers who are the railroad's top 20 wage earners, informing them that The Journal News wanted to speak with them about a story on overtime pay that would include their names and earnings. None contacted the reporter or responded to telephone messages left at their homes. The two conductors quoted in this article were interviewed on trains.


Among Metro-North's nonunion, white-collar employees, 150 earned $100,000 or more last year, while 389 union employees — including conductors and engineers — passed that benchmark, according to Metro-North salary and overtime records provided to The Journal News in response to a Freedom of Information Law request.

Don't you just love Mr. Evans thoughts? He thinks "that's too much." Let Mr. Evans abandon his air-conditioned, heated office for a few days out in the elements. He might reconsider!

I think it's a legitimate interest of the newspaper to know how MetroNorth's compensation system and overtime assignment work, insofar as it's a corporation owned by a public agency, and has monopoly status. I don't think there's a legitimate interest in knowing how much engineer X or conductor Y made.

They worked it, they earned it, they were paid. No big deal. Just another case of a two bit newspaper stirring the pot.

McGinty26 wrote:They worked it, they earned it, they were paid. No big deal. Just another case of a two bit newspaper stirring the pot.

Succinct/ pithy and correct.

The thing that gets me is, the newspaper treats it as somehow wrong that the RR workers might earn more than some of the passengers.
Why don't they have a story about the obscene, undeserved salaries earned by some of the passengers? Probably because they can't get the data using FOIA.
Many MN commuters earn more than 100K. Now it turns out that some railroaders, who choose to spend most of their waking hours on the RR, do too. So what?

JoeG wrote:The thing that gets me is, the newspaper treats it as somehow wrong that the RR workers might earn more than some of the passengers.
Why don't they have a story about the obscene, undeserved salaries earned by some of the passengers? Probably because they can't get the data using FOIA.
Many MN commuters earn more than 100K. Now it turns out that some railroaders, who choose to spend most of their waking hours on the RR, do too. So what?

So what? Many of these individuals cannot fathom the notion that un-educated (non-degreed) railroaders should/can earn a six-figure income. After all, "they" spent years in school, spent beau-coup $'s, why should we approach/exceed their income? One of our esteemed posters often laments that we would be hard-pressed to find a job at comparable wages with our "8th grade education."

Considering most of the people complaining that railroad workers make to much money, lets throw them out in rail yards in the blazing heat or freezing cold and make them switch trains and build consists. Lets see how fast some of these people shut up about it.

I just finished the article. It the same old BS from the Gannet chain. Next week it will be the Cops or fireman. Every six months or so they get all riled up about somebody else's salary. They never mention in the articles how expensive it is to live in this area and that no one could live on these base wages. I'm waiting for the article about the salaries of the top ranking newspaper workers in their chain. Won't see that one any time soon.

Not to mention the sacrifices railroaders make to get into the 100K range. Just because were home every night in commuter service, doesnt mean we have bankers hours. School events, your childrens games, holidays with family and friends, your childs first steps, and so on, we find ourselves at work to make that money that the reporter seems to imply we dont deserve because I have no education beyond high school. Thats if you dont count the 18 months (thats NJT, I dont know how long MN choo-choo-U is, but its probably about the same) I spent in the Locomotive Engineer Training Program (LETP or Choo-Choo-U). But thats an easy course, after all a whole 35% (aprox) of us that started the class passed. The rest failed out or quit. But no, we certainly dont deserve the money we are paid. Just because we earn it is no excuse...

I wonder just how much that reporter is getting paid?

This article is unfair to Railroad employees but it is a product of society itself. The general idea that children are taught from grades k-12 is that you will be unsuccessful if you don't go to college and drive an expensive import car. In today's America people think college is this answer to everything and that if you don't have a college degree you don't deserve to be successful. This is evident in this article, they clearly think it is unfair or wrong that someone who works in train operations could make money the good old fashioned way, earning it by putting in their hours. What the reporter doesn't stress clear enough is that the individuals making that money are 30+ year veterans of the railroad who have worked in every situation and condition possible. 98% of the people who think it is so wrong that railroad employees are paid so much wouldn't be able to handle a railroad job. I highly doubt that some pencil pushing desk jockey from Wall Street could handle be called in at the wee hours of the morning in the middle of a blizzard or pouring rain to get the trains moving. To sum it up, this article is just another sad reminder of how society thinks and is taught. It's too bad that people don't have more respect for blue collar jobs.

Some of you got very good points, Now send the same comments to author of article at:
[email protected] = Karen Halbfinger

DutchRailnut wrote:Some of you got very good points, Now send the same comments to author of article at:
[email protected] = Karen Halbfinger

Will do Mr. DRn, thanks for the link.

Now that I know who the author is, that expalins it even more. She is always writing, why me?, articles for those who are whining. Just recently she wrote one about the poor home owners in Pelham that had to see the tracks after the trees were cut. What a shock buy, a house near the tracks and you might see or hear trains. She epitimizes the NIMBY movement.

Lackawanna484 wrote:I think it's a legitimate interest of the newspaper to know how MetroNorth's compensation system and overtime assignment work, insofar as it's a corporation owned by a public agency, and has monopoly status. I don't think there's a legitimate interest in knowing how much engineer X or conductor Y made.

I agree completely. And I think it's a shame this reporter felt the need to track down employees while they were busy at work on trains to get their stories.

While I never expected that engineers and conductors could pull down more than $100K a year, I have no complaints about that whatsoever. Considering that those earning so much are working plenty of overtime to get there, I say each and every one of them deserves it. Despite the fact that railroad employees don't need a college degree, there's a lot of stuff you have to know. I got an MNR Employee Timetable off ebay a few years ago... and even WITH a 4-year college degree, a lot of that stuff is just over my head.

To put it another way... if you're a commuter on the railroad, trusting the engineer and conductor to get you somewhere safely... don't you think they deserve to be paid well enough to care about their job and do it properly? I certainly do. While it's not a job that requires a "prestigious" degree from Yale or Harvard, it's certainly a specialized skill which requires a lot of specialized training and little room for error.

Not to mention the cost of living... at least the reporter was fair enough to mention that, even if briefly.

My thoughts... maybe the reporter is jealous. Being a journalist/broadcaster myself, I know it's not a lucrative field to be in. But, we know that going in, and we do it more for a love of the job, not so much for the money. If Ms. Halbfinger is starting to get miffed about her salary being lower, maybe she needs to turn in her Associated Press Stylebook apply for a job with MNR!