Bus Drivers Being Taken for a Ride
I am an Orange County Transportation Authority driver and I see a new breed of CEOs roaring across America, stuffing their pockets with gold while generating destitution and despair.
I’m not talking about Bill Gates, Microsoft’s CEO, with talent and vision, creating jobs. The executives I have in mind extract the American dream both monetarily and mentally from their employees. Workers are brainwashed to believe cuts in pay and benefits will give them security. Many people grow thankful for any job after seeing human beings living in the streets.
In reality, it’s the favorable profit and loss statement that impresses stockholders to give the CEO power. As stocks rise in value, so goes the CEO’s pot of gold. Merger has become a favorite word among CEOs, as long as there are junior corporations with excellent P&Ls; just for the grasping. Once obtained, profits become further enhanced by removing administrative tasks to the parent corporation, thereby lengthening unemployment lines.
In the last year, top CEOs made on average $4.7 million--that’s $2,260 per hour. Just this year, Bank of America’s former CEO made over $11 million in a buyout. He used the “trim pay and benefits” method, in addition to the “service-charging the customer to death” method to assemble his wealth. Wells Fargo’s CEO just recently pulled the merger handle by convincing First Interstate Bank stockholders that the wheels would stop on gold bars. This is just a short example of what is happening nationwide. Has the time come for a maximum wage limit?
Just four years ago, I experienced the merger process, and it made me tense. My preceding CEO liked “serving the public” and seeing business grow. I’m not sure what my present CEO’s goal is. With rail and freeway construction he builds, but when you turn to the bus operations, it’s all chop and trim. This whole thing is making me nervous as a result of my co-workers voting to accept $400 per month in pay and benefit cuts. OCTA’s Stan Oftelie has done a clever job convincing the majority of bus drivers that: “On account of the Orange County bankruptcy, it’s a tough contract and will require every coach operator to make sacrifices for the good of the organization and to maintain jobs.”
I challenge my CEO, Stan Oftelie, being so concerned about his organization and Orange County, to tell us what personal sacrifices he is making to pay and benefits.
TERRY G. CRANE
Brea
* Re Dana Parsons’ column (“Bus Driver’s Rough Ride on the O.C. Bankruptcy Express,” April 21):
As a former Orange County Transportation [Authority] employee, I agree with many points, but the lack of “team spirit” and “prima donna” attitude of many of the bus drivers, such as Lucinda Murphy, is perhaps the reason we hear so much about privatizing these days.
Those who have already been downsized out of or otherwise lost their career jobs are happy to have any job. Perhaps OCTA’s drivers need a lesson in humility to better grasp this concept. She slams the mechanics and their contract negotiations but fails to mention the bus drivers outnumber mechanics probably 6 to 1. She fails to mention when the mechanics’ contract was negotiated, the drivers made it clear they would not honor a mechanics’ strike--yet the union is making it mandatory that the mechanics honor the driver strike. Some team spirit that is!
Further, how many people know how to work on a bus properly as opposed to how many people can drive? Pretty clear who is the unskilled labor. Yes, OCTA management, Board of Supervisors and directors haven’t a clue what public transportation is all about; that’s why I no longer take the bus to work but drive.
If Lucinda likes her job so much, why does she find so many things wrong with it? If the shoe fits, shut up and wear it; otherwise, try to do something constructive about what you don’t like!
LINDA MORRISON
Fountain Valley
