This isn't about being anti union. All recent articles on the matter compare against Western European systems that are also under union.
For construction:
We use 24 employees VS 10 standard in W. Europe for operating the tunnel boring machines (same machine in both places).
Reporters recently learned about an instance where the MTA became aware of 200 people on a 700 person construction site, the east side access, that were not able to be attributed to having any role.
For operation:
We use 2 employees on every train instead of 1 standard in Western Europe, partly because of dated technology that requires a driver and a spotter. But even on the L train, which could have automated driving with its modern signals (the only line in the system with it), the union hasn't even allowed testing of automation standard in W. Europe.
For maintenance:
Because of 24/7 service, every maintenance team needs people to look for oncoming trains and work needs to be stopped and restarted each time. All for 1% of ridership occurring weekdays from 12:30a-5:30a (an offering atypical elsewhere in the world)
All these resources can and should be used, but they can be used to greater effect. I don't want a single person fired or their wages changed (in fact I want more people working for or contracted by the MTA, with a greater variety of bidding contractors), I want them to be utilized at levels reasonable by other unionized parts of the world so that we are doing even more to improve the Subway.
