I like this idea, but it's not really up to the station agents to police the fare collection mechanism, is it? Especially with those damn MetroCards; cross referencing that with the GPS data collected from that chip in my butt is really gonna get me in trouble one of these days.
It's tough to find good coverage about this one; the only thing I could find was that the union wants 9% per year over the next three years and the MTA offered 9.5% over the next four years. The union claims that this would bring them in line "with the rate of inflation" -- have they been stuck at some level for long enough that 9% per year would catch them up?
/jordan