TWU Joins MTA Against Halt Of Health Payouts

By ARI PAUL

Attorneys for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Transport Workers Union Local 100 are trying to stop a Federal court from halting deductions of the 1.5-percent of earnings that transit workers pay for medical coverage.

IRVING LEE: Wants funds accounted for.

A group of transit workers, led by Train Operator Daniel D'Antonio, filed a lawsuit in June 2006 charging that while New York City Transit workers made additional health-benefit contributions in the mid-1990s to pay for full health coverage for retirees between the ages of 55 and 62, a past administration of Local 100 concealed from them the circumstances under which that payment became linked to legislation granting a full pension at age 55 after 25 years of service. In early December, the plaintiffs moved to have all of the 1.5 percent of earnings workers contribute toward their health coverage put into an escrow account while health-benefits finances are being audited.

MTA, TWU Object

An MTA attorney asked U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood Jan. 7 to rule against the group of workers.

"Nowhere in the plaintiffs' original complaint, amended complaints, or even the proposed second amended complaint is there any mention of the '1.5 percent wage deduction' monies," Ching Wah Chin said in court papers this month. "In fact, plaintiffs have not brought, relative to the '1.5 percent wage deduction' any charge before the New York State Public Employment Relations Board, or any grievances under the controlling collective bargaining agreement."

Local 100 attorney Kent Hirozawa told the judge, "Plaintiffs do not articulate with any specificity the harm that they believe would result from denial of the injunction they seek."

Plaintiffs' Response

The 1.5-percent contribution is a source of controversy within Local 100 and a major reason why members narrowly rejected the wage pact reached after the three-day strike of 2005, only to have similar terms imposed on them by an arbitration panel. In a lecture at Cornell University's School for Industrial Labor Relations Manhattan location in November, Local 100 President Roger Toussaint argued that in exchange for the contribution the union won "seamless cradle-to-grave coverage."

In response to the union and agency's arguments, Mr. D'Antonio said in an affidavit Jan. 15, "I believe that when this matter is finally exposed, it will be seen that the 1.5-percent collection way overpays for the benefits involved. It is believed, and I believe and allege here upon information and belief, that this money is being collected not for benefits, but for the defendants' use to pay debt service on bonds it has issued. This misapplication of funds alone requires that the funds be monitored by an outside source."

Train Operator Irving Lee, who is a plaintiff in the case, insisted that the injunction was a necessary part of the case and said he wanted to see the eventual end of the 1.5-percent contributions.

"We are demanding the termination of the medical tax," he said in an e-mail. "We want to audit these funds to find out how much of our contributions are actually paying for retirement benefits."