[PRCo] Re: Government Corruption (was Wheels__&__Shoes)

[ktjosephson at earthlink.net]

----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Harold Geissenheimer"



> Greetings
> No apology.  PAT had good dedicated employees at least until 1976
> when I went to Chicago.

Now I'm curious about the following.....

How was morale in the ever shrinking streetcar department during the Dameron
era? People are often resistant to change. Perhaps part of our survival
instinct. I would guess that operators' opinions about becoming bus drivers
varied considerably. I can imagine the dilemma facing high senority motormen
who wanted to stay on the cars and had to move from one division to another
as bustitution advanced. I'm sure there were others who didn't care what
they operated, as long as they had a job. And, of course, others stated that
as long as the buses they would be driving were new and air conditioned,
they wouldn't miss the streetcars.

I wonder about the mechanics and car shop crews. Did PAT lose many highly
skilled and experienced trolley repair and service workers? Did some retrain
to service diesel coaches? What about track, overhead and signal workers?
Going from close to forty routes serving three quarters of the city to just
a half dozen serving part of one quadrant in about eight years must have
caused all sorts of reassignments, etc. What was done for linemen,
electricians and track crews who were no longer needed in their former
positions?

I would also take a guess that morale may have been low throughout the ranks
of PRCo during the final years due to an uncertain future, C.D. Palmer's war
with the union and perhaps media and political criticism of the company.

But then again, PAT did inherit dozens of people who spent their entire
career working with the various aspects of urban rail transit service. I
would be inclined to agree with Jim Holland that such people's job skills
would be of little value to the likes of John Dameron.

To me, there is no comparison between those who serve their country in the
military to others who seek a county, state or municipal job. Those of us
who have never served in the armed forces cannot imagine living with the
uncertainty of military service. The Cold War was real and I'm sure Harold
could share some tense moments he faced during those twenty seven years he
served. Yet many of us, lifetime civilians, whine about having a vacation
day cancelled or having to work unexpected overtime. I think about my young
relatives who may be redeployed to Afghanistan or Iraq any day and then I
know I have little in my life to complain about.

 Most of my coworkers give a  full day's work for a full day's pay, always
willing to go above and beyond their job description to help an often
indifferent or ungrateful public. But the public's tax money pays our wages
and most of us know that. But there are people as Fred described...lazy,
manipulative, always ready to stir the pot or dump their work load on
others. These are the stereotypical "government workers" that give all of us
a bad name. Yes, people like that exist in the private sector. But at least
where I live, people like that often find themselves without a job after
pulling their nonsense at a resort, casino, factory or private health care
facility. When we get stuck with them in our public facility, they seem to
avoid work, discipline and termination, while destroying the reputation of
our entire operation.

The RTC has a private company operating the local transit system with
publicly owned buses. The monorail is a separate operation with private
investment. The bus drivers are poorly paid, have little job security and
the politics they face are awful. Morale is very low. They face intense
traffic congestion and since our surface transit is marketed as a "safety
net" for those who can't drive, or who can't afford an automobile, the buses
carry many mentally ill street people, Operator assaults are common, the
buses reek and are filthy inside, the NABI and Flyer coaches overheat and
breakdown frequently during the summer. It's a bad situation all around.

K.