New MTA Boss Says Discipline Needs Fixing;
Hopes to Find Right Balance in Dealing With Unions

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Elliott "Lee" Sander, the new Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has been popping up in some unexpected places this winter.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang WALKING THE FRONT LINES: MTA Chief Executive Officer Elliot Sander signaled his willingness to mend fences with transit workers by breakfasting with Local 100 President Roger Toussaint during his first week in office and talking with workers in all titles, from Cleaners to managers in the field. Labor-management relations is a 'bilateral and not a unilateral exercise,' he says. 'Both parties need to have the will to improve the relationship.'

"I sold my first MetroCard last week, up in The Bronx," Mr. Sander said Feb. 9 during an interview. "I've been going out into the field and talking with workers, and I've had the pleasure of learning a lot from them. I've been talking with entry-level workers, mid-level workers and supervisors and managers, too, to learn about their concerns."

His Own Listening Tour

The former city Transportation Commissioner under Mayor Giuliani started touring MTA properties from practically his first day on the job, and the press initially made much of his efforts.

Mr. Sander's democratic approach was a novelty after two years of strident arguments between MTA Chairman Peter S. Kalikow and Transport Workers' Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, who often likened the role of MTA managers to that of "overseers" on colonial plantations.

The press attention faded relatively fast, but Mr. Sander continues to make his rounds.

"I've been incredibly impressed by the men and women I've met who are doing the work of moving this system," he said. "I'm really proud to be leading them."

He's not a novice at finding common ground between union bosses and agency managers. In the 1980s, while working as a Senior Deputy of Buses in the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority, he was told to develop a pilot project at the 126th St. bus depot that would turn around the city's moribund surface transportation system.

'Job Action My First Day'

"I was confronted with a job action on my first day," he recalled. "We had an exceptional amount of labor-management strife that year, but it was an extraordinary experience, and it laid the foundation for the very successful turnaround that's been acknowledged by all that occurred in Surface Transit in the '80s."

Mr. Sander said the changes came about despite intense labor activity and strong management response because each group ultimately was able to execute its appropriate role, and the conflict never became personal.

"There was a time in the early '80s when there was a strong perception, which privately senior executives of the TWU acknowledged, that they were running the place," said Mr. Sander. "I think there was a recognition by all that it was not a healthy situation and we needed to work together to find an appropriate balance between labor and management."

Besides the baggage left over from the December 2005 strike, and the subsequent bitter battle over the MTA's refusal to ratify the contract that ultimately got settled in arbitration, Mr. Sander is aware that many transit workers feel they're victimized by the agency's disciplinary system.

Union: System Excessive

Mr. Toussaint has called it excessive and punitive, noting that thousands of disciplinary charges are issued against workers each year, some of them recommending dismissal for minor infractions, or simply the appearance of an infraction.

Mr. Sander said he discusses how the disciplinary system works with Local 100 members during his field trips, as well as with mid-level MTA and New York City Transit managers. Based on conversations so far, he concluded that only a small number of supervisors abused the process.

"The majority of the workers I spoke to all said that it was not every manager who is not sensitive to situations and resorts to discipline, but maybe 10 to 20 percent of managers," said Mr. Sander. "But my read of it is that Mr. Toussaint is correct to say there is an issue."

Won't Address Past Woes

He noted that the MTA in 2002 attempted to overhaul the system during a brief period of good relations between Mr. Kalikow and Mr. Toussaint. Things quickly soured, however, and little had been done since then. Mr. Sander didn't comment on why the 2002 rapport between the union leader and then-MTA head fizzled, saying he preferred to focus on the future rather than the past.

But he is adopting one of Governor Spitzer's campaign suggestions and creating a blue-ribbon panel to investigate the disciplinary system. He said it would include labor leaders, management representatives and academics with expertise in the field.

The panel will also address training, workforce development and section planning. Parts of it will have a strong labor relations component, the MTA chief said, and others will focus more on organization and development.

Enjoying Toussaint

"I have discussed this panel with Mr. Toussaint and he has been engaged in the talks we've been having. I have enjoyed the interaction that I have had with [him]," Mr. Sander said. "I think we are both committed to improving the quality of life of our employees and strengthening the bonds of the organization, and those two things go together."

Also high on Mr. Sander's priority list is avoiding a possible strike by the coalition of 12 unions that staff Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road. Along with improving the transportation system's overall security, Mr. Sander said, getting a collectively-bargained contract in line with the pattern set by Local 100 and other unions for Metro-North and LIRR employees was key.

He also hopes to improve conditions for women transit workers, who started to come on the job in larger numbers in the 1980s but must still deal with ill-equipped stations and bus depots. Women won a maternity stipend from the MTA for the first time in this last round of bargaining, but still struggle with discrimination on the job and in outdated MTA policies.

"I'm going to do everything possible to ensure and encourage a diverse work place that's representative of the 21st Century," Mr. Sander said. "And I'm very excited about the opportunity to improve labor-management relations at the MTA, which I think is so important to the quality of work that we do everyday."