Letters to the Editor
TWU Deal Superior to DC 37's

To the Editor:

In last week's Chief, a column nominally focused on District Council 37's tentative contract with the city made erroneous assertions about the December agreement in transit.

In the Razzle Dazzle Column of July 21, Richard Steier gives the impression he is comparing wage increases in the DC 37 contract and the transit agreement: 9.42 percent over 32 months for DC 37 versus 11.1 percent over 37 months for TWU. (TWU claims a 10.87 percent gain on the general wage increase alone.) His conclusion is that the DC 37 deal "compares favorably" with the TWU deal. Why he makes this conclusion is unclear.

He then says the TWU "value" is "diluted by givebacks like the Local 100 clause requiring that members pay 1.5 percent of their earnings toward their health insurance premiums." While the health-care contribution in the transit agreement reduces the total value of the raises, the total monetary value of the transit agreement includes more than the wages and the health contribution. Why Mr. Steier feels free to pick some items and omit others is also unclear. Equally unclear is his description of the 1.5-percent health-care contribution. The 1.5 percent indeed reduces the total value of the raises, but it does not give up any existing benefit.

Additional monetary gains were made with real value that ought not be overlooked. An additional holiday was negotiated, Martin Luther King Day. Improved medical benefits for retirees. Again, real value. And, the pension refund. Significant value. The 1.5-percent health-care contribution would not have been accepted without these negotiated benefits that represented real gains for Local 100 members.

And the TWU list of "value" items goes on and on. It includes an annual equity supplement for 9,000 maintainer titles. Still more value. It increases disability pay; assault pay; increased funding to our training and upgrade fund; and for the first time, annual schooling at full pay for 40 transit workers and maternity/paternity money for the parents of newborns. Sadly, doubling the death benefit for those who die in the line of duty also has real value.

Each of these is an economic item and came as part of the total package, increasing the value to our members and the cost of the contract to management. A proper costing-out should take account of all such provisions.

The DC 37 list of "value" items included no new benefits, so was much smaller: Wages and a 0.34-percent equity fund on the last day of the contract.

Before deducting the 1.5 percent in health-care contribution from the total package, the transit agreement was valued at 12.85 percent. Do the math.

If the TWU agreement coming out of the first public-sector strike in a generation is to be a yardstick, it must be measured accurately.

CLAUDIA PREPARATA, Research Director, TWU Local 100