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Thread: Amhe3rst 's Rank and File workers are in deep ,deep trouble

  1. #1
    AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH
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    Amhe3rst 's Rank and File workers are in deep ,deep trouble

    The Amherst Town Board have been talking about no raises for two years for rank and file workers excluding the police and fightermen. The Town Board has the 4 votes they need to stop raises. We landed in this position due to the horrendous managing of our Town's money in the last 8 years.
    This is only one of the method that will be used to help stop the Town from major economical chaos. Layoffs are the next step to save money. Our Supervisor's poor handling of the Town's money is almost scandlous.

  2. #2
    Devil's Advocate
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    Workers

    Well I am glad to see the Firefighters aren't getting a raise. They're VOLUNTEERS. Stop making up issues to bitch and complain about. And if you take a look at median salaries in the town, the employees for the most part make a good buck so don't worry your pretty head over it.....

  3. #3
    AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH
    Guest

    Checking on error but it's still going to be a rough time for our Town Workers

    If you seen the price of gasoline lately it's going sky high .Our Town workers have been used to a small increase in pay each year to keep up with the rising cost to live in Amherst. The Board will have to make up a 5 million hole in our budget next year. This can only be done by no raises been give out to Town Workers except the Police. I knew that our excellent firefighters were voltneers but they were mention in the Town Board work session last Monday. I have place a call to Town Hall to find out what will be increase for our firefighters.
    From your podt I can assume you are not a Town Worker ,so when they don't reved any raises it really doesn't affect youbut it does deeply affect our own Workers.

  4. #4
    Devil's Advocate
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    "Ain't that the truth"

    First let me say, Learn how to naviagate a keyboard a little better so we the normal folk may understand what you are trying to say. Second off, if the price of gas is making you plummet to poverty level maybe you should buy a 4 cylinder automotive. Your post is lame and full of holes and I seriously do not think you know what you're talking about. I could care less about the town workers and the money they make. Who fights for the private sector when they axe jobs? Who's there for us when they cut our salaries without warning? I don't have a union to "coddle" me and make sure I get paid if I take a crap on town time. Just because you go to town meetings does not make you educated on the issue. Stop drumming up B.S.!

  5. #5
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
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    A job is only worth so much. Seeing they are paid rather well i suppose they will just have to do without some items. Perhaps they can't live in amherst and will have to move to buffalo to raise thier families.

    Everyone should be paid somewhat fair but looking around what some get paid i would say it's MORE than fair and they should be greatful they even have a job. They wouldn't need a raise to offset thier property tax increases if property taxes didn't go up each year. Are they getting their health coverage paid for even though the cost has increased? There's thier raise. If family coverage was $1000 a quarter and by the end of the year the coverage is $1500 a quarter they GOT a raise. It's time to look at the cost per item not the name of the item.

    Good example: If a local gas station had a contest to give away a tank a gas each week for a year they would set a max limit of 20 gallons. They wouldn't leave the word TANK open ended. You'd have some smart ass driving up a 3000 gallon tank trailer.

    I mean the employees that are paid more than fair enough for what they do. Perhaps as you state "Ain't that the truth" they can trim the extra bodies the highway department doesn't need and throw a little bit of what is saved to the employees that do the work and give the balance back to the tax payer. NOT spend it on some other whim they want to.

    You stated they need 19 people but have like 40 or something on that order. I never got a straight story about what is going on about the highway department and thier hiring practices so i'm just repeating what i read in a few post here.

    You know what would be better? How about a 10% discount on thier town property tax? If they are paying $4000 a year in property taxes and they are given a $400 discount in the long run the $400 won't effect the taxpayer in the future. $400 a year savings would be the same as a monthly wage increase of $33 a month.

    This way the tax payer isn't stuck with contributing to thier retirement funds when it's based on a yearly salary and what ever overtime a few try to screw the taxpayer out of.

    A lot of people who work for the goverment don't have a clue how hard it is to recieve the pensions they are going to get. Thats why thier retirement should be handed to them to do what they please and if they lose it they can stand next to the other people that lost thiers too. I'm not being cold, i'm being realistic and covering the tax payers butt.

    OH this goes for all politicians too.... Seems they voted thierselves some rather pricey pension packs....

  6. #6
    AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH
    Guest

    I hope you feel better now that you released your angry at me

    I care a great deal what happens to people when times become difficult. I was the 12 child in my family. Times were never easy. I came here from Italy at age 7 . I always had a bit of trouble with your English words but I know I have the guts to tell the truth and to stand for what I write.

  7. #7
    Member Curmudgeon's Avatar
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    Any town employee (or any employee anywhere) is free to resign if they feel they aren't being compensated enough for their labors. This is called the "free market" and that is how our economy works in the USA. If the town is truly undercompensating their employees, they would all be quitting and getting better jobs elsewhere. I don't see that happening, so apparently they are getting fair compensation.
    Data is not the plural of Anecdote.

  8. #8
    Devil's Advocate
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    Great points

    WNY, those were great points. I know quite a few people at the highway department and I try very hard not to lean their way, as a matter of fact, I try to lean the other way so I am as fair as possible.One thing you had in your post was that someone stated (whether correctly or not) that the Hwy. had 44 employees and could get by with 19. I'll tell ya' what, I DARE them to try and keep up on town highway matter with 19 people. YOU WOULD GET KILLED. the highway department in my opinion is UNDERstaffed if you compare the service standards to what they were 15 or 10 years ago. It's funny how alot of people in the fall will complain to high heaven about how their leaves were picked up the same day they were left out 10 years ago and now with (insert name here) in charge they sit until the snowplows come! we need more workers! they say. But what the tax man comes 'a callin' all of the sudden "we have too many damn employees!!!" If you want to live in a "fairy tale" town, prepare yourself to pay "horror movie" taxes.......

  9. #9
    Devil's Advocate
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    Ain't.....

    Please tell me where the "truth" is in your post about the town employees?? The way you put it, they better be afraid to ask for seconds or the supervisor will make them go back out and pick pockets for another three hours...................What will they do if their coffee price goes up 4 cents???????????? I WILL START A "SAVE THE AMHERST TOWN EMPLOYEES" FUND!!! Maybe we can get Jim Binner to do his Rodney Dangerfield impression for a telethon? or maybe the guy who got caught looking at porn sites can start a "town of Amherst likes it hot!" website and we can take the profits from that and give it to the lowly workers so their families can all eat real food again instead of dog scraps!

  10. #10
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
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    WNY, those were great points. I know quite a few people at the highway department and I try very hard not to lean their way, as a matter of fact, I try to lean the other way so I am as fair as possible.One thing you had in your post was that someone stated (whether correctly or not) that the Hwy. had 44 employees and could get by with 19. I'll tell ya' what, I DARE them to try and keep up on town highway matter with 19 people. YOU WOULD GET KILLED.
    Ain't that the truth mentioned that there was a study about the highway department and thier employement number were higher than normal for what is needed to be done. That's why i mentioned it was something i read as a post not factual. A lot of people really don't do research and just blantantly state facts which are not factual. It's all hearsay.

    The best is when someone without any business experience at all states this is the way things should be done with no background on a topic.

    OOOOHH wait.. most of the politicians don't really have any business experience and perhaps thats why we have the issues we do. I base my ideas on 23 years in business and getting to watch businesses that we dealt with when they were 2 employees 20 years ago and grew. Oh I also got to deal with companies that were large 20 years ago and basically faded away learning what things they did wrong. You learn a lot from watching the actions of successes and failures.

  11. #11
    Member yokes's Avatar
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    O/T

    OOOOHH wait.. most of the politicians don't really have any business experience and perhaps thats why we have the issues we do

    Major difference though. In business its up to the CEO what direction the entity goes in, they dont have to please the diverse group of people a politician must in order to be re-elected. The opposing lobbys, pick your side, make just about every politician lame before they take an oath. Only marginally un-offensive legislation is achieved with no real change

  12. #12
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    I can hold my tongue (fingers) no longer.

    All persons that draw compensation from the Town Of Amherst should receive no raise this year... period. The fact is that the operation cannot afford to give raises. What is so hard to understand about that. It is what people do in tough times.

    Further, I think it is clear that the Amherst Highway Department is overstaffed. When I hear that highway employees have time to spend redesigning a golf course, that's a pretty obvious signal that they do not have enough "highway" work to keep them busy.

    The Town Of Amherst has fallen into a trap. They have had the luxury of beinging able to grab more and more of my money each year to support whimsical spending. Now the well is starting to run dry. To damn bad. Amherst's employees need to fix the problem. I have witnessed no Highway employee (for example) speaking at Town Board meetings about how to save money... and it is usually the employees that really know how savings could be found. [I'm guessing that employees don't come forward because there is no motivation for them to do so. Why should they? After all, they might be the ones to be axed.]

    I have just realized who "Ain't That The Truth" is. That individual has an enormous chip on his shoulder and has for quite some time. I do not know exactly what was done to him, or by whom. He pick's and chooses his comments (attacks) on Town operations inconsistently. I don't know why.

    The Town Of Amherst is an operation in trouble. The condition cannot be corrected by the Town Board because they cannot be objective... they are owned by too many special interests. They need to look to individual employees for counsel about how to right the ship.

  13. #13
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
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    Re: O/T

    Originally posted by yokes
    OOOOHH wait.. most of the politicians don't really have any business experience and perhaps thats why we have the issues we do

    Major difference though. In business its up to the CEO what direction the entity goes in, they dont have to please the diverse group of people a politician must in order to be re-elected. The opposing lobbys, pick your side, make just about every politician lame before they take an oath. Only marginally un-offensive legislation is achieved with no real change
    No major difference except most good business people are not swayed from thier focus of thier company. Bad business are and they usually close up shop.

    I acutally look at my companies as entities which come first, then my paycheck comes secondary. That old saying a little of something is better than a lot of nothing comes to mind. I have watch business people overextend thierselves so bad that they are scrambling from sale to sale to just cover thier bills.

    Businesses need to please the diverse group of consumers who purchase thier products and services. If they don't they go out of business because thier diverse client group doesn't purchase from them.

    Only in politics can you basicly buy your voter "consumer" who votes you in by the lies you tell them. IF you lie about your product you usually only sell that client once.

    It's lies such as hillary stating the creation 100,000's of jobs. Who the heck fills her head that crap should be slapped silly. She lied to the public to get the votes she needed to win.

    Oh same for the partnership in buffalo with thier we will get 50,000 jobs. You need a pretty big set of balls to think you can do that with the system we have in place in NYS/WNY.

    I for one would NEVER even promise something like that knowing that would be harder than getting hit by lightning. Don't vote for people by thier words, vote for people by thier actions, thier past accomplishments and results.

    I know if someone came into my company and said hey i need a favor, can you buy your products from supplier A. Supplier A is 10% more costly than supplier B but doens't offer any advantages. Favor or not you wouldn't switch just because someone owed someone a favor. THATS selling out your company or in another words selling out the tax payer when you hear of those no bid contracts such as the giambra furniture purchase.

    YOu know what WNY finally needs. Someone that represents the tax payer, NOT someone that represents status quo.

    OK, getting off my soap box.

  14. #14
    Member yokes's Avatar
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    yeah but with only a small portion of people voting you have to cowtail to the "lobbys" to a get elected and b. stay elected.

    Sorry feeling particularly cynical today

  15. #15
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
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    Yokes...

    Meanie!

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