Most of our readers know by now that my most recent allegations of incompetence in our system of purchasing has created some rather hard feelings between myself and my supervisors. I have, as a result of my persistence, managed to obtain a position of extreme disfavor. I am no longer consulted on computer related problems, I am no longer allowed the free use of the fax machine or the telephone lines and as a matter of fact I have just recently been told that I am not allowed to be in the office. The truth be known, it’s rather embarrassing to ask one of my colleagues to make copies for me because I am not allowed to access the machine. I have consulted with an attorney, about the possibilities of bringing charges of discriminatory actions to bear on those responsible for this outrageous, irresponsible behavior. The purpose of this of course was to make my feelings of being discriminated against a permanent part of the record that may be referred to at a later date when they make their move to get rid of me. I expect them to try to make me a part of the upcoming layoffs, they will no doubt use my job related injury to say that I am not capable of doing the full time work that I am already doing. Make no mistake about it, these people are about as vicious and unscrupulous as they come. They say that they want feedback, but in reality, all they want is corroboration. The policy; plainly and simply, it’s their way; or it’s no way. My ability to make contact with the vendors who have supplied me with pricing is virtually an impossibility, the purchasing department however suffers from no such handicap. They have managed to call my vendors and somehow they have been able to get much worse prices from them than I did. This is not an easy thing to accomplish. For example; a vendor that gave me a price of $25,000 to make the necessary molds for the manufacture of the plastic covers, gave our purchasing department a price of $40,000 for the same item. I received prices of xxxxx based on a volume of 700 pieces, they asked for prices based on 100 pieces. Can you imagine anybody in their right mind paying $40,000 for an item in order to produce $1400 worth of product. I explained to the purchasing department that the vendor was already aware of the outrageous prices they were currently paying, and that even after I made them aware of better pricing, it still took a year and a half, and an embarrassing article in the newspaper to generate an inquiry. In short, the vendor already had a pretty good idea of what he was dealing with before he ever even talked to the TA. On the other vendor, the one that gave me the prices on gaskets ($2.11 as opposed to the $31.00 we are currently paying), I spoke to the same salesperson as I spoke to a year ago just to confirm the prices she gave me (a written quote). She in turn spoke to her sales manager just to make sure she could still honor the quote, she assured me that it was still good. Shortly after this, the purchasing department spoke to the vice president of the same company in order to find out that the price was no longer any good. I have asked the purchasing department to share their records of the conversations and the quotes that they had received from my vendors, the least they could do based on the information I gave them, to say nothing of my trip out to Brooklyn to meet with them. Apparently, they do not feel the need to reciprocate. I was told that the information would have to go through John Fox before giving it to me. I said if that's the case, why not send it to the Inspector Generals office, he will send it to me;......they won’t do that either.

Not be deterred from my original plan to reduce prices that the TA is paying, I informed the purchasing department of my latest involvement with a vendor that can furnish us with competitive prices on switch components. I faxed them a copy of the prices right after I sent them to`our suggestion program. It is my understanding that the purchasing department was already aware of this vendor, they just were not able to get any pricing from them. I can hardly wait to see what they are able to do to screw this one up. My recent involvement with the purchasing department and the Inspector Generals office leads me to believe that I will have to take this investigation to an even higher level. I an writing this article on Friday, August 11, 1995 from my home. My inability to be able to use the facilities of the Transit Authority in order to improve the facilities of the Transit Authority forces me to take a vacation day in order to do this work. What a God Damned shame it is that the responsibility for well being of such a talented work force should be left in the hands of the people who now control it. One thing I should make clear based on my recent experiences, we really need an in depth investigation of our activities. I no longer believe that the outrageous prices that we are paying, or the quality of some of the goods we are receiving, is a result of incompetence.

Special Note: A gentleman from the chaplains office stopped in a few weeks ago just to let us know he was around to offer his help to anyone who wanted it. His name is Harry Berkowitz, 718 694 5646. Thanks Harry, nice meeting you.

The following statements were taken OUT OF CONTEXT from The Local 100 Presidents Report of July 1995, and a publication titled "What's Happening With the Pay Raise dated August 8, 1995. The material in bold print represents brief exerpts from union publications, the print in Italics are my own feelings about what I consider to be their ongoing meaningless, counterproductive rhetoric.

We secured a hard fought agreement that temporarily canceled these cutbacks.

Nothing gets temporarily canceled, this is a play on words clearly intended to pacify morons.

The Union has been working steadfastly.

I doubt it, but I should hope so, God knows they’re well compensated for what They’re supposed to do.

Our relentless efforts on several fronts.

A variation of working steadfastly. (see above)

Every local 100 officer is working in unity.

Ask three different local 100 officers a question, you will get three different answers, there is no unity.

We have gained some breathing room.

The breathing room is the few seconds we get between rounds so that the cut man in our corner can get the bleeding stopped long enough for us to continue the fight. Don’t forget, if we get knocked out, the fight is over, the income we generate, or the blood money we fork over to the union stops coming in. Not unlike many other fights, this one is fixed, we’re going to lose, and we’re the only ones not getting a piece of the action.

We certainly have not given up the fight to bring Pataki and Giuliani to their senses.

The vane attempt at this time to bring the governor and the mayor into this conflict is used solely for purposes of obfuscation. That is to cause us to lose sight of the real enemy, make no mistake about it, it is the TA, not the mayor or the governor that is responsible for the outrageous misappropriation of funds. The union, finding itself to be impudent, and totally ineffective in what we are supposed to perceive as a struggle against the TA, now proposes to present us with another enemy. This is bullshit, enemy identification is sometimes more than half the battle, don’ be confused. We have two enemies, we work for one, and we pay the other to work for us. In reality, the union and the TA, have a common interest, they both live off our sweat and our blood. They are out to get as much of it as possible, stopping just this side of killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

We had our economic consultants review the plan.

See Below

"And this is the Union's economic consultant."

We will continue to put pressure on to find money to close the gap.
(No doubt the pressure will come from the money found by our economic consultant on page 2)
We may very well be forced to take certain actions.
This will be a refreshing change of pace. What actions? Careful now, we don't  want to commit to anything. (God forbid)
This union will not allow its members to be used as pawns.
A pawn by its very definition, is a person, or an entity used to further the purposes of another. Clearly, we fall well within the boundaries of that definition. We are in fact used in that manner by the very authors of this statement, the very entity that states "will not allow it's members to be used as pawns".
We will work with management to find legitimate ways
Let us know when you get tired of working with management and decide to work with the people who pay you (on second thought..................)
We will work energetically to keep management from farming out
When they do farm out, there will be people who don't know what there doing, working for people who don't know what there doing. That will not only put an end to their labor problems, it will also put an end to the safety of the system.
We will continue to work with other labor organizations and public interest groups.
Why the hell would they want to work with us, they already have problems of their own, and we have clearly demonstrated that we don't have one damned thing to offer.
Unless we can turn them around I'm afraid we will be pushed into an all out war
It would be nice to have the chance to shoot back for a change, where will you guys be when the shooting starts?

What's happening with the pay raise.
Good question, how about a good answer.
The Authority intends-we believe totally illegally-to delay implementation of the August 1, 1995 wage increase for those who opted into the new pension plan.
How is it possible for such a plan to come into effect without the Union having prior knowledge of it. Do you really expect us to believe that a plan of such enormous consequences, involving the amounts of money we are now talking about just popped up on the spur of the moment without any consultation whatsoever with their legal consultants over the statutory ramifications of such a controversial move. Are we so out of touch with our so called political allies that not even a whisper of such an outrage managed to leak it's way to the AFL-CIO, The International arm of the TWU, or any of the other political bloodsuckers that we support through our political contributions? Really, how much bullshit do you expect us to swallow.
The union has been working at a feverish pace.
So have the people that have been paying your salary. The only difference is that we are forced to produce something for our efforts. The money you guys get comes right out of our check before we even see it. Frankly, that's the only God Damned way you would be able to get it. We don't care how hard you work, only how good your work really is, believe me.............it aint good!
The union got it's hands on an interoffice memo from one TA boss to another announcing their intention to delay implementation of the increase
So what the hell is the big secret? Give us the names of the TA bosses involved, exactly what did the memo say. Why don't you publish it so that we can all see who these people are.
The authority apparently had no intention of informing the union.
Does this mean that your previous statement "We will continue to work with management" is in fact no longer practical, that you recognize them for the lying bastards that they are?
We demand that contractual wage increase be made immediately.
Don't tell us about it.............TELL THEM!
What has been done?
Tell us about it Brother, what has been done?
The union immediately insisted on emergency arbitration.
By God if that don't shake em up, nothing will.
The Authority is not complying and is playing waiting games.
Thats not fair, lets all go home and tell our mothers.
We are demanding the earliest date possible for this emergency arbitration.
Go get em tiger
We are also continuing talks with the highest ranking officials at the Transit Authority.
Those are the guys to go after all right, it wouldn't do much good to take this up with the Foreman.

TWO NEW JOB OPENINGS JUST CAME UP IN THIS BUDGETARY CRISIS:
Chief of Operations. Service Delivery $104,600-$156,900