 The fictional character in this portrait is Mr. X. He represents
the corruption that walks into every organization at the same time morality
walks out. He is the fixer, the briber the go-between. He is ultimately
responsible for everything from the crooked politicians that suck the blood
from the American public to the illicit business executives that pay them
to do it. There is nothing he won’t do and no place he won’t go
if there is money to be made. He believes that the riding public of New
York City, and the workforce of the Transit Authority are ripe for the plucking.
He’s right, he’s here, and he’s doing just fine. Mr. X is
involved in every aspect of the Transit Authority operations. According
to him, he thinks he has found a home here. The way things are going he
just might be right. Don’t be fooled into thinking this guy is only
interested in making the big deals. In order to survive and to thrive he
must make sure that the corruption is evenly distributed throughout the
entire system. This requires a lot of work on his part but the return on
his investment is enormous. Every time you see a foreman offer one of your
coworkers eight hours of overtime to engage in an unsafe practice that could
get someone killed, you can be sure Mr. X is around. Everytime you see one
of your coworkers take the bribe you can see the virus of corruption
spreading. So what's the big deal, nobody is going to get hurt because of
eight hours of O.T. Right? Wrong! The overtime does not belong to the foreman
to give. He got it from the chiseler that he works for who wanted
to show more production. The guy on top of him uses it to show his
boss what he really wants to see. The big guy is now able, through
an accounting process of statistical gymnastics to show that we can cut
a few jobs. This leads to the eventual farming out of our work to a contractor
who also does grease jobs. What gets greased? Big Wheels! |
 The 4 page format once used in publishing this
newsletter will no longer be in use. As many of our readers may remember,
this newsletter started as a 1 page publication. I expanded it to 4 pages
in order to accommodate additional contributions from other writers. The
contributions were too infrequent to sustain any justification for the expanded
format. This resulted in long delays between publications, as well as the
untimeliness of the content. This is largely due to the fact that I research,
write the articles and do the layouts as a one man operation. I will, as
a matter of policy, continue to speak out against the atrocities perpetrated
by the Transit Authority. Not only those committed against the TA employee,
but against the people of New York City as well. Since many of the things
I write about are a direct result of my experiences as a Safety Rep. as
well as a Shop Steward, I will be writing from a subjective point of view.
I will always give a priority to the problems encountered by our most vulnerable
employee, the worker who becomes disabled as the result of a job related
injury. The very reason for the first publication of this newsletter was
the result of a vicious retaliatory attack against me for attempting to
abate a hazardous safety violation. As an employee who was injured on the
job as a result of the gross negligence of the Transit Authority to repair
a well documented safety hazard, I was an easy prey for these bastards.
I nevertheless succeeded in the abatement of the hazard, but the ongoing
attempts to remove me require that I maintain a constant vigilance against
them. The one factor that has remained a constant throughout all the unpleasantness
of warding off my adversaries is the total lack of advocacy by a union which
has been completely dominated by an unscrupulous employer. The corruption
is so wide spread, it just can’t be resolved at the lower levels, That
means just one thing:
FORGET ABOUT THE FLIES... IT IS TIME TO ATTACK THE
MANURE PILE |
 The fictional character in this portrait is a
sweetheart called Mr. Y. He is the counterpart of Mr. X. He is the reason
that Mr. X is here. He is the Manager that will do anything, say anything
or swear to anything to make a buck. He is the person with enough authority
to enter into the illicit deals and contracts that are found to be so lucrative
to the constituency that is represented by Mr. X.. He is the lower part
of a huge network of organized skullduggery that has an agenda of finance
and power as a primary goal. An organization of well entrenched high end
corporations that have come to find out they can buy anything or anybody
that they want. This guy can be very dangerous. Primarily because as often
as not he has a limited overview of the whole picture. He is only told as
much as he needs to know in order to follow out the instructions of the
people that he really works for. The trouble with this character
is that he unwittingly becomes a party to a criminal activity that can result
in the loss of lives. What do I mean by unwittingly? Take a good look at
some of the characters that you work for. Now ask yourself this question.
Could someone like this make the same amount of money in the private sector?
Next question; then why, in the middle of a financial crisis, do we pay
first class wages for third class managers? The answer is a simple one.
This character, incompetent though he may be, will nevertheless carry out
his instructions no matter who gets hurt in the process. We are all aware
of the recent changes in our organizational structure. Take a good look
at some of the fair haired boys that will still be hanging on through a
system of favoritism geared to rewarding potential hatchetmen as opposed
to improving operations. One look at a compensation package at the highest
end of our corporate giveaway program and you know what I’m talking
about. Even the newspapers screamed about this sweetheart deal. |
