[PRCo] Re: Labor Issues, Transit Politics & C.D. Palmer

[John Swindler]

When I first started, it was mentioned on several occasions that the problem 
with the transit industry was that there were almost no new hires between 
about 1950 and early 1970s.  I forget who referred to it as a lost 
generation, but it fits.  Maybe V. Vuchic.  This was in reference to 
management.

Same also applied to lessor extent with operators.  No need to hire young 
drivers during 1950s and 1960s because the operations were shrinking.  The 
result in early 70s was a lot of older drivers who were essentially post 
WWII hires, and young inexperienced new hires who tended to get involved in 
most of the accidents.  With the new authorities at that time, drivers 
either had more then 25 years or less then 5 years, with very little in 
between.

My father also once commented, in reference to Homestead Works in late 
1970s, if you didn't have 25 years with US Steel, you were on the layof 
list.

John






>From: Fred Schneider <fschnei at supernet.com>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>Subject: [PRCo] Re: Labor Issues, Transit Politics & C.D. Palmer
>Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2003 11:26:43 -0400
>
>I wish I had not deleted it ... a note from Harold Geissenheimer a week ago 
>saying that
>Fitzgerald and Palmer were two different cats.  It would be relevant here.
>
>Palmer was an engineer in a job that required a people person.  The 
>Pittsburgh Post
>Gazette did not help the problem by  invariably publishing pictures of him 
>with a frown
>on his face.
>
>Another interesting study would be how the quality of job applicants for 
>management
>positions in transit changed from 1900 to 1950 to 2000.  Maybe I should say 
>applicants
>for any job.  By the time you compare those applicants to applicants for 
>all jobs you may
>just have created a double doctorate degree!   You can only hire those who 
>want jobs.
>The business may also have been long on benevolence, protecting those who 
>had been with
>the company for years even as the staffing needs collapsed, and promoting 
>people into
>positions they didn't deserve just to avoid furloughing them.   I remember 
>a wonderful
>story of a motorman here in Lancaster (Pa.) who was unable to function on 
>one man cars.
>He could run car.  He could collect fares.  But he could not do both.  He 
>became a
>nervous wreck.  So the company created an extra janitorial position.
>
>Ken & Tracie wrote:
>

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