The cash-strapped MTA plans to cut about 360 maintenance, cleaning, painting and managerial jobs in 2010 as part of its efforts to contain costs, according to a published report.
That means about 5 percent of the city's 1,201 subway-car cleaners and nearly 2 percent of its 1,515 station cleaners will be off the agency payroll next year, according to The New York Post. On top of those cuts, nearly 13 percent of the 2,420 managerial jobs at NYC Transit will be eliminated between 2009 and 2010.
The cuts are expected to save the agency $37.7 million, but they'll come from attrition and job reassignments, not lay-offs, according to the Post. A little more than $5 million of the savings will come from getting rid of administrative jobs, MTA subway and bus chief Howard Roberts told the paper.
Roberts was quick to say that he eliminated as many managerial positions as possible and had no choice but to slash cleaning jobs as well.
"I will cut somebody sitting in an office very, very quickly compared to somebody who was out cleaning stations and cleaning cars," he told the Post. "But this is the reality of the numbers and the [financial] pressure that we're under."
The MTA started getting rid of hundreds of station agents and customer assistants earlier this year as part of a multiyear plan that will conserve millions of dollars in addition to what the 2010 cuts are expected to save.
Agency skeptics are concerned that straphangers will bear the brunt of the cuts.
"The MTA says they can do more with less," watchdog Gene Russianoff told the Post. "In my experience, they usually do less with less."
