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Hand
Delivered
March
10, 2008
Peter
A. Cannito
President
of Metro North Railroad
347
Madison Avenue
New
York, NY 10017
Dear
Mr. Cannito,
I
am a Metro North locomotive engineer. I am trying to retire.
I am 61 years old and have worked at Metro North for more
than 20 years. I had hoped to retire as of Feb 1, 2008 and
I began to set the retirement process in motion early last
fall.
I
have not been able to retire, because Metro North has been
unable to provide accurate payroll and years of service
figures on which to determine my retirement income. The
figures initially used provided me with a ridiculously low
retirement income figure. Everyone admits there is a problem
with the figures and I have heard many excuses for why this
happened. I was told that they are correcting the problem
but the problem remains. Of course no one says they are
in charge or responsible for solving the problem. It seems
it is always someone else's job. No one seems to have answers.
Mike
Doyle was able to work with Shirley Joshua to send updated
years of service and wage corrections to the Information
Technology department. This was done at the beginning of
February 2008. There is still no resolution and I have no
knowledge if the MTA pension department has received this
information.
I
was finally able to get an appointment for March 18 at 10:00am
with the MTA pension department to turn in my retirement
forms. I have no confidence that the figures that will be
shown to me will be correct.
The
situation is beyond absurd. Locomotive engineers agreed
in our last contract to a proposal that encouraged us to
retire early. When we try to take advantage of this provision,
Metro North is unprepared. No one wants to take any responsibility
for this yet no one will give the task to someone with authority
to straighten it out.
This
is a bureaucracy strangling itself.
As
the president of Metro North, I am appealing to you for
assistance in straightening out this problem. I ask this
of you not only for my sake but for all those who seek to
retire with similar situations. Your earliest attention
to this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Barbara
Peterson
Locomotive
Engineer
109796
CC:
Michael
Doyle, General Chairman ACRE
Gregory
Bradley, Vice President, Human Resources &
Diversity
Leonard
DeSimone, Finance & Information Systems
Raymond
Burney, Director Labor Relations
Shirley
Joshua, Director Human Resources
Dean
LoGiudice, Director Claims Services
Chris
Donaldson, Superintend Crew Management
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