Voted Down Contract
Paratransit Drivers Make Strike Threat

By ARI PAUL

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Paratransit drivers are set to strike Dec. 10, but their union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, has done nothing to mobilize the workers, someone involved with union dissidents said last week.

EDDIE KAY: A grass-roots rebellion.

The last contract expired Aug. 31, explained Eddie Kay, an organizer for the opposition faction Members for Change, and while the union negotiators accepted management's contract offer, the majority of the roughly 1,400 members of the bargaining unit rejected it in two separate votes. Paratransit, which includes Access-A-Ride, offers services to commuters with disabilities and is a quasi-public arm of the MTA.

Pay More for Health

"The old-time workers go up less," Mr. Kay said of management's pay-raise offer. "There's almost no vacation: two weeks after four years."

Since 1997 the drivers had paid $15 per week, 40 weeks per year, in health care premiums, said Jeff Pollack, management's chief negotiator. That would increase to $20 per week, 52 weeks per year under management's proposal starting in 2009, and jump to $25 weekly in 2011.

Mr. Kay insisted this was unfair, which was why he believed the members rejected the offer. But the union has not prepared its members for the work stoppage, he said, and hasn't conducted any outreach to the press, other unions or sympathetic elected officials.

"They just feel that they've got to deal with the boss," he said. "They don't believe in struggle."

Local 1181 is currently in trusteeship, and the union had been under the control of the Genovese Crime Family for decades. In September of 2006, Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, whom Federal law-enforcement officials have identified as one of the leaders of the Genovese family, pleaded guilty to having "assisted persons connected to Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union to receive illegal payments from the owners of certain school bus companies whose employees Local 1181 either represented, sought to represent or would admit to membership ..."

Many of the union officials who were closely tied to Local 1181's corrupt leaders have maintained power under the trusteeship, Mr. Kay claimed.

Local 1181 Trustee Tommy Mullins said management has repeatedly rejected requests to resume talks.

"They are turning down a really good offer," said Mr. Pollack, adding that management promised the drivers more bonuses and other increases.

When asked if there was a way to avert the strike, he replied, "Only by opening up our checkbooks, which we are not willing to do."