Tool's Disability Outrage

To further build upon kcjnes's remarks, you should also include our moderator for the excellent journalism. Unfortunately this is the best venue to express the discomfort of modern day politics. But it's contributions such as this that should be published on a bigger venue, such as the Times or a seminar.

That was a great read, LC.

But it's contributions such as this that should be published on a bigger venue, such as the Times

That would NEVER happen. The only way such a thing would get into a paper like the Times is if you agree with their point of view. Unfortunately, most mainstream media outlets today will only push a story if they can slant it to their point of view. The majority of Americans are sick of this kind of "journalism," (and I use that term loosely), which is why alternative media outlets have been able to grow and prosper.

Unfortunately, Journalism as we once knew it is dead. Remember the Maine!!!

Jay

Tool

I have to say, as an employee, your comments are greatly appreciated. It’s a pity that not only will it never make any of the local or national newspapers, but that it wasn’t a response from our union heads. In fact, as appalling as it may sound, neither the UTU nor BLE have responded to the media in defense of its members. The rumor around campus these days claims that the unions are choosing the silent method, choosing to allow the lawyers to do the dirty work while the employees at the LIRR are made out to look like criminals! Your comments are so well written, I kid you not when I say that numerous employees have not only printed a copy of it, but gone as far as to share it with our regular riders. Perhaps maybe it should also be posted at all LIRR stations for the public to read. What is there to hide? The truth? The truth that Ms. Williams will be walking away from the LIRR in a few years with more money in her pocket than anyone of us will ever see? The truth that there are laws in place that makes these disability claims legitimate? The truth that without proper research and experience, politicians and the media could never be able to determine accurately whether a person’s disability is authentic enough to permit an individual to file for disability?

What I would like to know is why so many of my coworkers are having surgeries to their arms, shoulders, and knees? Why so many of us feel that retiring with out some form of injury or disability is close to impossible? Since I have been working here on the LIRR, I have witnessed several people who not only have been injured enough to be out of work for some time, but to receive an injury that could possibly be categorized as irreversible. None of this is mentioned in the papers. There is no mention either, of the amount of hours that have been put in by employees, many who sacrificed time with their families, friends, on holidays and weekends. Yet the president of the LIRR makes well over $200,000 for the year without out sacrificing much in the way of her time. Notice that you never hear press conferences taking place on the weekends or on holidays! I myself would be shocked to see her in Jamaica past 5:00pm! I know this because she frequently rode on one of my trains daily. I certainly don’t make $200,000 a year, and I work on some of my relief days and Holidays! In fact, I will come out and say it! I don’t make $100,000 a year, I make much less, and I know that a huge percentage of LIRR employees make the same if not a little less or a little more than what I make. I would love to know how I can make that kind of money. But I chose instead to enjoy my life a little bit and not actually live at the LIRR. Even then so, those who choose to do so who are willing to sacrifice their personal time and life, should be able to do so without being classified as a criminal or a thief!! Theft is having all your time and effort spent to do your job taken from you because some overpaid hot shot punk in a cubicle at New York Times and Newsday says that you are stealing from the public!

Talking with a few folks at work, some of us are wondering if it would be possible if not necessary for employees to pool together and pay for a paid advertisement that would not only reveal the truths, but the lies that have been mentioned through the media. I would hope that it wouldn’t come down to that, and that at some point, whether it be the union or a politician, that would reveal the truth to the public and defend all of those who busted their asses over the years to make a living, and those who do so now. Tool, I wish it was you who was out there defending us in the public eye. It would go a long way to not only point out the true villains, but to provide both former and present workers with dignity and respect from both the public, media, and from our employer. I hope that more and more people will come across your post, and get a true glimpse at the truth.

Thank you, Mark, for your kind and very gracious message. In past years, Tool was a representative of both labor and management. It is frustrating to any employee to be publicly belittled by his own Company. Railroaders have weathered many such attacks over my 30+ years from the media, newfound railroad presidents and consultants. We all know that the job is frustrating enough when you're a concerned and conscientious guy. Most of us truly are. Most of us love what we do.

Choosing the best response to a media attack has always baffled corporations, public figures and media victims in general. The media has changed and the public has changed as a group so effective responses are not what they used to be. The public is angry. It's no coincidence that the Times broke their story at the height of public economic ire. A commuter unable to afford a ham sandwich will be incredulous to the facts. He's angry. If the Times reported that we ate babies, readers would want to believe it.

The BLE Chairman's media blunder is legend. The velocity he added to the media accusations by his chest pounding arrogance was extremely damaging. He is an enormous liability to the members he is supposed to represent.

There are three ways to handle bad press. You can try to get out in front of the issue by presenting clear explanations and statements, you can jump on the bandwagon of reform and help root out some poor sacrificial saps, or you can hide your head in the sand and wait for things to blow over. It's too late for the former two.

Where the truth would be unacceptable to the masses either because it is too technical in nature or not favored by public opinion, keeping it in the limelight may not be the best strategy. It prolongs the attack and gives a face to the target. You are in this to win, not to revenge or to make people like you.

Mr. Public, whose dollar has been inflated by government schemes, whose home has been taxed into foreclosure and who lost his one week vacation can never be made to see how anyone, no less the lowly public employee should have a better deal than he. Nothing you say can make him accept that your responsibility or work hard earns you what he does not have.

You can parade lame railroaders with pacemakers, knee surgeries and all out before the public and they will respond that their legless dad/neighbor/friend in another industry gets zilch from the government, lost his house and eats cat food. Misery loves company and seeks a common enemy. Class envy has expanded to include anyone with a pension or vacation. LIRR workers are disdained by management and the public alike partially because they are less miserable and more affluent than those groups at a whole.

In a Republic, we are governed by laws. The law in this case is 98% on our side. Those receiving occupational disability annuities have met VERY SPECIFIC requirements of a 62-year-old program that is better than those offered to the general public. But this is subject to change at the stroke of your representatives' pens. Congress has less and less respect for law.

There's nothing short of public floggings that you nor I nor the media can say that will change the opinion of a disgruntled, overworked, underpaid constituency. Scandals that continue to victimize them make the weary and angry. Fleeced for politicians junkets, Wall Street's bailouts, affirmative action, capital program graft and railroad mismanagement, they want blood.

Our benefits are the grace of a once kind, benevolent and efficient United States Government and keen industry collective bargaining.

Corruption and financial imprudence has taken its toll on Joe Homeowner and he is lashing out at whatever is in reach. It is wise not to stick out your chin.

The future of railroaders' benefits are in the hands of lawmakers. We'd like to trust that the nation's railroad unions lobby for our rights and that elected officials have some respect for the rule of law and research its original intent.

Hello Tool......

An Old Dog like me wonders why the OTP is still so high with such a maligned and miserable workforce. It's typical to see this deteriorate as Williams continues her charge against her employees and their families.

A23, it would be a little harder these days than is years past. A less experienced workforce and the on-board diagnostic and data recording would be there. Also, the BLE is with the Company on these issues, so don't expect any organization or motivation from them.

It would probably be a great time to open public discussion on other political and safety related inconsistencies. On Time Performance calculations for example are flawed in terminals such as Far Rockaway, Long Beach, Hempstead, with trains being logged in three minutes earlier than their actual arrival. I'm surprised employees tolerate this outrage.

the M3's perhaps a little less literate...

Here's a short article from an obscure New York newspaper founded by Alexander Hamilton. It appears that Andrew Cuomo is having difficulty finding the fraud that he stated is pervasive in the Railroad Retirement system. Perhaps he spoke too soon when he said "all retirees should be jailed". The subpoenas issued were returnable yesterday and this is the result of the interviews.

From the New York Post

LIRR RETIREES LAWYERING UP

October 14, 2008

The vast majority of the LIRR retirees who were contacted by the state Attorney General's Office in the pension-scam probe declined to talk without their lawyers present, law-enforcement sources said.

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's staff quizzed about 100 former Long Island Railroad workers to see whether they had improperly received disability benefits, the source said.

Only about 20 agreed to discuss the matter, and those who did appeared to be receiving legitimate benefits.

Cuomo launched the investigation last month after revelations surfaced saying nearly 100 percent of retired LIRR workers received lucrative disability benefits. The applications appeared to have been rubber-stamped by the previously little-known federal Railroad Retirement Board.

Investigators have also subpoenaed records from doctors and "disability specialists," sources said.

Today's Newsday published an op-ed piece written by LIRR Public Affairs and carrying the by-line of embattled president Helena Williams.

Feeling the heat of a workforce she has been maligning publicly for weeks, the article insists that her present workforce consists of saints and supermen; that her previous comments only brand retirees as criminal scum. Obviously an ill-fated attempt to save face, regain some control over her alienated workforce and keep her anti-pension issues alive.

-----------------------

In other news, published in The Times today, the Railroad Retirement Board's Inspector General's report of the Time's accusations recommends that future retirees seeking occupational disability annuities submit to an independent doctor's examination. Government testing and examination costs will be phenomenal, but the examinations will insure the public that there is no collusion between doctors and clients. And the doctors will confirm the retiree's ailments.

The Inspector General's report also found no abuse of the system by retirees, but the Times apparently found that not fit to print.

What else is new, Tool? We get mother@#$%ed in the media until the truth comes out and then nothing. Fortunately for me, I only have 9,430 days to go before I retire....

With expectations of Attorney General Cuomo's successful bid for Governor, Newsday chose to print his Friday press release as if it were news:

LIRR pension agency failed to act years ago, Cuomo says

BY ROBERT E. KESSLER | [email protected]
October 18, 2008

The government agency that oversees the LIRR pension system had a complaint about possible pension abuses as far back as 2003, but did not act, according to a letter from the New York State attorney general's office.

In fact, one attorney for the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board replied to a whistle-blower that "the LIRR's experience with disability is probably right in the ballpark with other railroads," State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Friday.

"We believe that the [railroad board] provided misleading information to the LIRR about this issue, thereby forestalling by years this inquiry," Cuomo wrote in the letter.

LIRR management backed Cuomo's position Friday. Joseph Calderone, an LIRR spokesman, issued a statement that said, "The LIRR raised this issue in 2003 with the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, but it appears we were given misleading information by the board in response to our queries."

Cuomo's letter was not sent to the railroad retirement board directly, but rather to the inspector general's office of the retirement board.

Newsday has reported the inspector general's office, along with the FBI and federal prosecutors, have been quietly running a joint investigation into possible pension abuses by LIRR employees for six months before published accounts of the situation appeared, and before Cuomo's office got involved.

The inspector general's office is an independent federal agency responsible for overseeing the integrity of the retirement board. It is unclear what jurisdiction state officials could have over it.

Cuomo said Friday his office was the best one to investigate the scandal involving pensions for retired Long Island Rail Road employees so that the probe would be "free from any possible claim of bias or taint."

In his letter, Cuomo said that given the history of the situation, his office should run any investigations. In addition, the attorney general said the inspector general should provide his office with all the records involving LIRR retirees, including those seized during a raid in September at the railroad board's Westbury office.

Cuomo said the inspector general's office had rebuffed his initial request for information on Oct. 1, before the new information was known, telling him that "an external investigation was unwarranted."

Spokesmen for the retirement board, the inspector general's office and the U.S. attorney's could be reached immediately for comment.

What is interesting here is the political infighting that is breaking out from this bottom feeding. Again, no fraud has been found, no arrests have been made. The bottom feeding New York liberals continue to beat their chests and demand headlines. The problem is that while Newsday accommodates their requests, there's simply nothing to write about.

Not only doesn't Cuomo have a story, but Cuomo doesn't have jurisdiction in the case either.

This is the third time at least that The Railroad Retirement Board told him so.

Newsday will do what ever it can to bashh the LIRR or its workers.That rag has hated us for years.Now it has Ms. Williams in its corner as well.Seems any chance she gets to grab a headline or have a press conference,she's becoming a bigger media whore than Paris Hilton.Ive heard FBI agents interviewing a ret. engineer told him they were pulled off a detail investigating a car theft ring to investigate the disabilities.They cannot believe this B.S. either.

From Railway age:
Second exam recommended for LIRR disability claims

Federal investigators are recommending Long Island Rail Road employees --and, presumably, other railroad workers--filing for disability benefits through the Railroad Retirement Board should first undergo an independent physical examination.

The recommendation, if adopted, would change the way the Retirement Board decides disability cases for workers across the nation. The issue surfaced after The New York Times last month reported that more than 90% of LIRR career employees retire early and file for disability payments, out of line with other comparable passenger rail authorities, including Metro-North Railroad, like the LIRR a part of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

LIRR workers claiming a disability at present can select the doctor of their choice; many LIRR claimants reportedly used the same small group of doctors for their evaluations.

Hey Dutch, a lot of us use the same guy to do our taxes,maybe we should all be audited as well.

kmart wrote:Hey Dutch, a lot of us use the same guy to do our taxes,maybe we should all be audited as well.

The point being made by Dutch is the if railroaders who need to retire on disablity go to different doctors, there won't be an appearance of wrong-doing. If railroaders all go to the same small group of doctors, it would appear that there is something wrong going on, even if every claim is legit.