Metro issues about 40 pink slips; more to come

Metro delivered its first round of layoffs last week as part of $81 million in administrative trims to the budget. About 300 total agency jobs are slated for elimination. (EXAMINER FILE)

Metro has issued pink slips to about 40 people and plans to cut dozens more in coming months as the transit agency tries to close a budget gap.

General Manager John Catoe said Thursday the first round of layoff notices had been delivered last week, noting it was “an indication of the tough economic times.”

At this point, the transit agency is planning to eliminate just over 300 jobs, though system officials said two-thirds of those are currently vacant. Amid the slashed positions are 13 train operators, 25 bus drivers, 17 rail-car cleaners and 47 mechanics.

Personnel costs accounted for 70 percent of the agency’s budget last year. Metro had been authorized to have 10,151 employees this year and the cuts would bring them to a target of 9,859.

In some cases, the job losses could result in additional overtime costs, according to a Metro report, while other jobs will be outsourced. Some trims will have “no significant impact,” the report says.

Jackie Jeter, who heads Metro’s largest union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, said the cuts of even vacant positions have an effect, putting strain on the people who remain.

And, she said, employees are nervous about other cutbacks. “There’s a cloud of fear over us because we don’t know what is coming down the pike,” she said.

Metro had originally proposed cutting 891 jobs in this budget cycle, with many of those spots slashed as fallout from proposed cuts to bus and train service.

But officials found other savings in recent weeks and scaled back the size of potential service cuts. That could mean fewer job trims.

The first round of layoffs are part of $81 million in administrative trims to the Metro budget that begins July 1.

Yet even with those cuts, the agency is still facing a shortfall with its expenses outpacing its revenues by about $30 million.

Metro board members have said they are wary of cutting back rail and bus service as the agency has proposed.

Instead they are considering various options including charging for weekend parking at Metrorail lots, adding retail such as florists to Metro stations, tapping into $230 million of federal stimulus money or asking for more money from regional jurisdictions that subsidize the service.