The bar carts and commissary counters in Grand Central Terminal don't seem to be coming back as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has furloughed the workers who ran them in the midst of an investigation into the beer operation's finances, according to a union rep.
The 18 trackside carts have been missing and the two snack counters have been closed since December, when auditors began looking through the books of the stands, which were cash only. Transport Workers Union Local 2001 president John Feltz said that as the investigation proceeded, his members continued to report to work, only instead of slinging beer, they had to answer questions from auditors. Last week, he said, MTA management informed the workers that they were being placed on furlough, and that the commissary operation was being discontinued.
"Thirty people’s lives were devastated by doing what [the MTA] did, at no fault of my members," Feltz said.
Details of the decision do not appear in the minutes of recent MTA board meetings. Feltz said he hopes to bring a group to the next one in March to get answers.
"My members’ families are entitled to an explanation about why they can or can’t continue to be in this business," he said, adding, "Passenger rail always runs at a deficit but that commissary did bring money in to Metro-North."
(Nathan Tempey/Gothamist)
In recent years, the commissary and carts grossed more than $6 million annually.
Regarding reports that money had gone missing, Feltz said, "I know rumors are out there about what it’s all about, and those are complete falsehoods."
Any inventory issues were the result of "pure mismanagement," he said. Three staffers were suspended during the investigation, and Feltz said that the two managers have since retired with full pensions. The managers made $83,000 and $93,000 in 2015, according to payroll records.
MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said that in all 25 people have been furloughed. Four other rank-and-file commissary workers have retired, and one position was vacant at the time of the shutdown, he said.
A spokeswoman for the MTA's Office of the Inspector General said that its bar cart investigation is ongoing. Donovan reaffirmed this, and said, "As such, no decision on the future of the commissary has been made."
Commuters who regularly patronize the carts have said they miss the convenient source of cold beer, as well as the friendly faces providing it. Two petitions calling for the MTA to bring back the carts and counters have garnered more than 500 signatures. Several upper-level stores and lower-level food court eateriesin the terminal still sell beer.
The furloughed workers are collecting $55 a day in federal railroad unemployment, Feltz said, and the MTA has said it will try to look for new positions for them. None have been reassigned so far. Donovan said most have applied for positions as train-car cleaners.
In September, Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy announced that the beloved in-train Metro-North bar cars, discontinued in 2014, are returning to the New Haven Line. No date has been set, and it's not clear if the latest changes with the commissary staff affect the plan.
Updated to include new information from the MTA.
