Metro's high wage scale factors into its bus-service equation
Top-scale wages here beat even New York's and San Francisco's. Comparisons like that should generate some buzz at a meeting tonight (June 3) of of Metro's stakeholder task force.
Another meeting of Metro's stakeholder task force is on tap tonight, and there's bound to be a buzz about one of the big issues in Metro’s operating budget — high labor costs. Metro posted for the task force and the public last Friday some important facts on the drivers’ wage scale. The bottom line: It’s high.
So far the main focus of task force attention has been on the big shortfall in Metro’s revenue caused by recession-dampened sales tax receipts. They cover most of the system’s operating costs. The total projected shortfall for 2010 through 2013 is about $600 million compared to the sales tax projection in hand just two years ago. Lower revenues mean less service. Which routes should shoulder the cuts in bus and trolley service — as much as a sixth of the total hours of service — and who among Metro's patrons would suffer the biggest losses in service?
The level of service the system can actually provide in tight times depends on more than just revenue. It also depends on the costs of service — the operating expense for an hour of bus or trolley run time. Higher cost, less service. Lower cost, more service. Wages are 44% of the big-picture cost pie chart at Metro. Benefits are another 21%. So any growth in labor costs has a discernible impact on service.
Information Metro posted about the driver wage scale for 2009 is important, but it doesn’t document the entire wage and benefit picture. It talks only about drivers, not maintenance workers or managers. And it takes on only the wage scale, not the very significant question of benefits. Overtime pay, a big factor in overall employee earnings, also is missing.
Nor do the bare facts of the wage scale shed light on how either the King County Council or County Executive Dow Constantine intends to approach negotiations that are starting now with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587. Local 587 bargains for Metro drivers and maintenance employees. The current collective bargaining agreement expires Oct. 31.
Still, the driver wage scale information is news, especially for the comparisons Metro provided to other transit systems. Experienced drivers at the top of the wage scale in 2009 made $28.47 an hour, topping all but two cities on a list of 29 around the country — and including six other systems in Washington state. Nationally, only Boston and San Jose were higher than Metro. New York and San Francisco were lower. Community Transit (Snohomish County), Pierce Transit, Intercity Transit (Thurston County), C-Trans (Clark County), Spokane Transit, and Whatcom Transit (Bellingham) were lower by 8 percent to 25 percent.
An even bigger eye-opener was this: The five-year growth rate for Metro's top wage scale (2004 to 2009) was 3.9 percent per year. On the comparison list, only transit operators in Las Vegas hit a bigger jackpot; but in that city, the top of scale for drivers is still below $20 per hour.
What was the wage progress of Metro’s transit drivers compared to inflation? For the years 2004 to 2008, the Consumer Price Index for the Seattle metro area rose by an average of 3.2 percent per year. The 2009 CPI increase was only .6 percent, and this year's growth rate is even lower so far. So the growth of Metro drivers’ top scale has outpaced CPI. In all likelihood the wage picture for Metro drivers has significantly topped the wage gains of people who ride the buses and pay the fares, and likely also the wage gains of all ordinary citizens who pay the biggest share of Metro’s costs through sales taxes.
Especially considering the very-low inflation environment, the upcoming negotiations with Local 587 indeed present a big challenge to all concerned: politicians, patrons, and drivers, too, for whom the negotiations present a dilemma. If the wage scale continues to shoot up, service hours are going to be sacrificed, and drivers don’t get paid a thing for bus and trolley runs left in the bus barn.
Constantine shared in his Blueprint for Reform speech last March that in labor negotiations generally his administration would first discuss with the King County Council the parameters for bargaining and the identification of county goals and interests. Then, “Rather than negotiate in public we will meet with labor at the bargaining table to discuss our shared interests in an efficient and sustainable government.”
No word yet on what that might mean in the Local 587 negotiations, especially since important work rules and sick-leave policies also have to be bargained if recent performance audit recommendations are to be accomplished. State employees, meanwhile, already know that tight budget times mean no cost-of-living-adjustments are coming their way for fiscal years 2010 and 2011.
All that against the backdrop of Metro’s critical reliance on its drivers to keep buses moving on schedule, to drive safely in all traffic and weather, to collect fares, and to manage the system’s literal interface with hundreds of thousands of patrons every day. There’s a strong case that Metro’s drivers are its single most critical asset of any kind — human or material — in the day-to-day provision of service.
How will the task force take note of all this? Hard to say. But, one hopes, subject to some big picture perspective.
It’s critically important to get Metro’s cost structure right so that its patrons can benefit from the maximum number of service hours the revenues can support.
But when all the dust settles, the most important outcome will be how the system routes and schedules will be re-designed across the service area for an optimum level of productivity in Metro’s core mission of carrying people.
For the money spent, how many people, on average, will board the bus or trolley for an hour of service? How many passenger miles, on average, will an hour of service carry? Those results, one hopes, should be at least as high or, better yet, higher still than they are today. And these bottom-line results must be sensibly integrated with some of the other values a transit system should meet, like minimum service levels off-peak or on weekends and or in less-dense neighborhoods.
A lot more is at play here than just the cost of running buses and trolleys.
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Comments:
Posted Thu, Jun 3, 4:18 p.m. Inappropriate
The only true wage cost that should be considered for comparison is the "total wage package." Bus driver’s hourly wages may be high, but the benefits may be lower than others. One cannot get a true comparison without all parts being compared. Overtime has nothing to do with wage comparisons. Overtime is used to keep total costs down by not adding additional people to the payroll, thus keeping the benefits down and the overall costs down. Overtime was designed to be a punishment for employers to encourage them to hire more people. With benefits, it works the other way now. I have no idea how Metro compares to other municipalities from this article as there is incomplete information. I would assume neither side wants the total package out there as both sides will take a hit in the public view from their perspective.
One other small nit to pick: Although I did not see it in this article I see it in many Crosscut articles and both in house and “reprinted,” when Boeing or Paccar has a reduction in force, it is a layoff, not a firing of say 500 people. Firing 500 people denotes they did something against company policy and or broke company rules. When 500 people are released due to lack of work, they are victims of an economic problem. Thus they should not be degraded by referring to their termination as firings. I only insert this comment here as I am seeing it too often in economic reports. And, I know other writers read Crosscut and may take notice.
Posted Thu, Jun 3, 6:57 p.m. Inappropriate
An excellent article, but MacDonald failed to mention is that under Washington State law, transit drivers have access to interest arbitration just like police and firefighters. This severely handicaps or practically eliminates local government's ability to truly negotiate wages, benefits and working conditions. A failure to reach an agreement (either management or labor says "no") sends the negotiations/dispute to a third party arbitrator whose decision is final and binding on both parties. EVERY management labor negotiator in local government will tell you that labor comes out the winner in the overwhelming majority of arbitrations.
The Washington statute is biased in favor of labor since is requires comparison with comparable West Coast jurisdictions - not Community Transit, not Pierce Transit, not any other transit agency in the State.
King County should take a tough stance in its upcoming negotiations with its bus drivers, but it would be better if the state legislature gave local governments the authority to ignore labor agreements and eliminate cost of living increases like they do year after year.
Posted Thu, Jun 3, 7:20 p.m. Inappropriate
More and more I see attacks on public employees. To me this is just another example of the war the affluent have been waging on the middle class. Yes, we have class warfare in the U.S.--the rich against everyone else.
The propagandists for Reaganomics have won the propaganda war--low taxes and limited government which benefits the rich and no one else.
Public employees, who happen to have won in the economic struggle middle class wages and benefits, are being demonized by the affluent and their well-oiled propaganda machine.
Middle class people in America need to wake-up to what is going on and not become dupes and suckers of the class warfare being waged against them.
As a bumper sticker that I saw states: "At least the war on the middle class is going well."
Posted Thu, Jun 3, 8:19 p.m. Inappropriate
Why all the focus of cutting wages for frontline workers? Why no focus on the wages and benefits of the bloated, overpaid, redundant management and administrators at top-heavy King County?
Want to save some real money right away?
START AT THE TOP
The $100K Club
http://pstransitoperators.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/the-100k-club/
Posted Fri, Jun 4, 7:23 a.m. Inappropriate
I happy to pay Metro's bus drivers a fair wage. Any compare between metro driver wages with other systems ought to also include performance compares: retention, efficiency, safety record etc. We often get what we pay for. In my experience Metro is the best bus system I've encountered anywhere. The people who drive the buses are a huge part of that, as Doug notes.
MacDonald focuses on one easily hyped side of the story.
This does not mean to say that it would be reasonable for any new wage rates to follow the pre-great recession trend. That's can't happen at Metro or any other government agency right now. Not until we can see light at the end of this long dark tunnel.
Posted Fri, Jun 4, 8:29 a.m. Inappropriate
The Deep-bore tunnel and related surface street redesigns are the worst of engineering imaginable. Charges of Criminal Dereliction of Duty should be filed against SDOT and WSDOT directors involved in these projects, including Douglas B MacDonald. How do you like them apples, pal?
Posted Fri, Jun 4, 1:53 p.m. Inappropriate
This comment came to the editors of Crosscut, and Mr. Hamilton asked that we post it:
There is something wrong about his article that I can't figure out.
I have been a Metro driver for 31 years. Our COLA has never been over 80% of whatever the cost-of-living is. One contract year, after many many months, we were given a 'raise' that brought us up to par with what we would have gotten if we had gone with the contract offered months before.
This has all been through the contract so where did the numbers come from for his quoted 3.9?
As for benefits, two thoughts:
1] does the public want drivers who are sick or disabled driving their bus? If not then we need good solid benefits so that we are not compelled to drive in that condition.
2]The majority of long term drivers without a disability is small. In fact the number of drivers who actually are physically able to work to retirement is smaller- without some of the best (and they are getting more onerous for us too) we would be in very bad shape.
Sincerely,
Jay Hamilton
Posted Sat, Jun 5, 1:43 p.m. Inappropriate
Seattle only has one public transportation system, whereas the large cities referenced have multiple, competing alternatives. That affects the prevailing wage. Who operates the Sound Transit light rail and bus routes? King County Metro does.
As a former part-time driver of 9 years, I'm well aware of Metros fiscal position, and their approach to problem solving, as I experienced it first hand; this will go down the hard way, so I see little need to waste my breath, so to speak, on the matter; however, the working conditions are harmful to drivers health. I have no desire to go in to specifics, but I experienced chronic illness while employed as a bus driver. Ultimately, I was deemed unfit for employment. Its been the healthiest thing for me. My chronic condition continues to abate progressively, and my new found capacities have opened up countless possibilities. You could not pay me enough to return to that job.
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