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CalPain Raises – Almost Too Painful to Post

The Mercury News is reporting that Caltrain's labor costs are up almost 40% over the last three years. Ay-yay-yay.  I know plenty of successful private companies whose raises over the last three years have not totaled even 8%.  40% is obscene and the "that's what the national union negotiated" excuse is, well, more obscene.

The average rank-and-file employee who works for Caltrain earned $68,307 in the fiscal year that ended in September, up from $49,862 three years prior, according to salary data provided by Amtrak, which supplies the workers.

For this, the Caltrain muckety-mucks are selling us down the river to High-cost Rail?  Time for a change of administration at Calpain.

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8 responses to “CalPain Raises – Almost Too Painful to Post”

  1. Kevin Hecteman

    Keep in mind that:
    1) As the story points out, Caltrain’s engineers and conductors work for Amtrak and are paid whatever is agreed to by Amtrak and its unions. Caltrain officials have no say in it.
    and
    2) Caltrain’s service area is one blame expensive place to live. I’d like to see how far $69K a year would go in, say, Burlingame. (The crew bases are in S.F. and S.J., and Caltrain crew members have to be able to get to one or the other in reasonable time — some on two hours’ notice.) And we haven’t even discussed taxes yet …
    I am generally not a big fan of the comments on stories — the heat-to-light ratio can be terrible at times — but you might want to peruse the comments on this one. Some good points are being made.

  2. holyroller

    Why do I keep viewing comments on this site regarding the income of a human being?
    Whatever money and other compensation a human being makes is the reason they choose their carrer.
    You people who continue to comment on the pay packages available to anyone for anything..
    Could you please propose what you believe is fair?
    Train employee-mechanic
    Truck driver.
    Pediatric Surgeon.
    Caretaker at Convelesant Hospital.
    School Teacher.
    Catholic Priest-yes they get a paycheck too.

  3. Lynn

    Fair is not the issue. Anyone who starts talking about fair must be a union-loving socialist. Caltrain is bankrupt. It’s sucking the taxpayers dry and all of these guy should be on unemployment. S*(t, that sucks the taxpayers dry more. Maybe we can sell the railroad to the chinese and get it over with

  4. Unsustainable

    Holy, spoken like a true government pension recipient.

  5. holyroller

    What US Taxpayer are Welfare Program are/you family member paticpating in?
    Please feel free to check any and all catagories…
    -MediCare
    Completely Free Health Care for the rest of your life at AGE 62
    -Cal Care, SAME THING.(If you do not believe me, check it out with my next door neighbor, Lynn Tillem(KGO RADIO)
    -Social Security
    -Unemployment
    -Education
    -Homeland Security.
    YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT!

  6. Unsustainable

    Answer: E) None of the above

  7. holyroller

    Unsustainable,
    So is ther any downside to be raised by Wolves?

  8. Unsubstantiated

    The fact that you think that not being subsidized by government aid is akin to being raised by wolves gets directly to the heart of what is inherently wrong with this country currently.

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