MTA Hardball: Demand Added TWU Givebacks; Pension Refund Out, Tough Concessions Are Revived

MTA Hardball: Demand Added TWU Givebacks; Pension Refund Out, Tough Concessions Are Revived

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority filed a petition for arbitration with the Public Employment Relations Board Jan. 23 that contained a contract offer considerably downgraded from the one transit workers rejected by seven votes two weeks ago.

PETER KALIKOW: Putting on the squeeze. In a move that could further roil an already testy relationship with Transport Workers' Union Local 100, the MTA stripped maternity leave stipends, assault pay increases for Conductors, Operators and Bus Drivers, and a pension refund of between $8,000 and $14,000 for approximately 20,000 union members from its latest offer.

Discarded Demands Back

It also reinstated a demand for a new pension tier for future hires, and most of its title consolidation demands, including the creation of a Subway Operator title that would open the door for the expansion of One Person Train Operation throughout the system.

MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow, noting that it would probably take some time for PERB to declare an impasse, said he was "ready to meet with and listen to the union in the coming days."

Local 100 President Roger Toussaint slammed the MTA for making the "horrible" proposal.

"It's not clear to me whether they're serious or they're posturing," he said. "It's got all of the worst features, and more, of their original proposal."

Some union officials said the MTA made extreme demands in an effort to push Local 100 toward binding arbitration, something Mr. Toussaint has said he adamantly opposes.

Playing Hard to Get

The Local 100 leader said that his aides who coordinate negotiation meetings with the MTA reached out to management several times starting from the day the tentative pact was rejected.

"We have not gotten a callback. If their instruction from Albany was to get the pension refund off the table, they will look to make a beeline to binding arbitration," Mr. Toussaint said.

The MTA has proposed a 39-month deal - two months longer than before - with the same wages offered in the rejected pact - 3, 4, and 3.5 percent - and the same 1.5 percent contribution of gross earnings from employees toward health-care premiums. It also kept a rider stipulating that the contribution rate will be increased annually "by the extent to which the rate of increase in the cost of health benefits exceeds general wage increases."

All employees hired after Dec. 16, 2005 would contribute 4 percent of their biweekly gross wages to NYC Transit toward their pensions, compared to the 2 percent rate for incumbent employees. Sick-leave regulations would return to pre2002 policies that required doctor's notes for every absence and allowed transit inspectors to stop by an employee's house unannounced to make sure the person was home. The old policies would stay in place, the MTA said, until sick leave usage levels in any one calendar year returned to 2002 levels.

Some Leniency Now

Currently, workers with a low rate of sick-day usage can take up to three days' absence without having to produce a doctor's note or account for their comings and goings at home. That policy was one of the major "quality and respect" initiatives won in the 2002 contract.

The proposed deal also calls for full integration of the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority with NYC Transit. The issue of seniority for annual job pick purposes would be decided by giving existing MaBSTOA employees "super-seniority" within their current bargaining unit positions. If they want to pick outside their current unit, they'll be listed after the "super-seniority" people already within that unit.

Employees hired after Dec. 16, 2005 would go on a "common seniority list" to select open positions anywhere in the department after the grandfathered employees made their picks.

Broad-Banding Returns

The MTA also reinstated the broad-banding demands that were dropped late in the December negotiations. One Person Train Operation "will resume except Conductors will remain on the trains (two man crews) but out of the cab and in the cars where they will perform 'eyes and ears' operations," the agency wrote, and "rules modernization" would have Cleaners performing "incidental tasks [like] removing graffiti or similar spot painting, changing light bulbs" and other general maintenance assignments.

Station Agents would perform housekeeping in booths and at kiosks, and Station Customer Assistants would perform platform conducting and incidental cleaning.

The MTA is also seeking to create a new Subway Operator title. A Level 1 Operator would handle all the existing duties of Conductors. Level 11 would meld existing Conductor and Operator job duties together, allowing the agency to widen its implementation of OPTO throughout the subway system.

Penalty Notices

Just a few days before the release of its impasse petition, the MTA sent out notices letting striking workers know how much they'll be fined for their three-day strike and when the agency will be docking their pay. The state Taylor Law says a worker can be docked two days' pay for every day on strike.

Workers who crossed picket lines may face fines as well - from the union. A January meeting among Track Division members ended with a resolution to strip picket-line crossers of their seniority. It also called for such workers to face fines equal to those levied on striking members. The fines would go to the union's Widows and Orphans Fund.

The resolution was scheduled for a vote at the Jan. 31 executive board meeting. Its sponsors said if it passed, it should become union policy. Mr. Toussaint dismissed the move as illegal, explaining that workers' seniority rights are defined by the state Civil Service Law. Attempts to change or remove seniority would open the union up to "actionable claims," he contended.