As Sunday turned into Monday, the current contract between the MTA and TWU Local 100 expired. The two sides maintained talks throughout the weekend but were unable to come to an agreement. A strike seems exceedingly unlikely as, by all accounts, new MTA CEO and Chairman Joe Lhota and Union President John Samuelsen have a solid weekend relationship, but it’s unclear what impact the end of the contract will have on both the negotiations and transit operations.
In a statement released shortly after midnight, the authority vowed to keep open their talks. Considering the MTA’s current fiscal position, arbitration is not currently under consideration. “Even though the MTA and TWU Local 100 have negotiated through the weekend, we have been unable to reach a settlement prior to the expiration of the contract,” the MTA explained. “While we remain far apart, the MTA will continue to negotiate in good faith in the hope of reaching a settlement.”
The TWU, at least in public, took a more strident tone. Speaking at a rally to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., Samuelsen voted to keep up the fight. “I’m going to go back into the hotel and I’m going to tell the MTA chairman and the governor they can take their set of demands and shove it,” the union leader said. “We’ll fight them until they relent and give us a fair contract.”
Pete Donohue of The Daily News had more:
The MTA demands include establishing a new class of part-time bus drivers, five unpaid vacation days and overtime after 40 hours — instead of after eight hours in a day. MTA officials also have said any wage increases must be paid for by work-rule changes that cut costs.
One source close to the negotiations said there appeared to be pressure coming from the Cuomo administration not to grant workers even a small pay increase. The Cuomo administration last year reached deals with the state’s two largest unions that froze pay rates for the first three years of five-year deals…
Despite the bleak outlook Sunday, there was progress on some fronts, sources said. The MTA has agreed to improve the bathroom facilities for female workers in the subway and identify suitable locations for female bus drivers to make pitstops along their routes.
The biggest gap in negotiations ultimately concerns the money. Lhota has vowed to uphold former MTA head Jay Walder’s pledge to maintain a net-zero labor increase while Samuelsen is fighting against it. Simply put, though, the MTA and New York State do not have the money for an increase in the cost of the TWU’s contract. Things aren’t yet at a head, but with the contract expired, the future remains murky.
Without a contract, TWU workers can make their displeasure with the situation known. The union could institute letter-of-the-law slowdowns and other legal measures that can gum up transit operations. It is highly unlikely that the union would strike, but as Jan. 16 dawns, there is no contract in place between the TWU and MTA. Anything is now possible.
26 comments
So what is the TWU demanding? A “millionaire’s tax?” Done. Fare hikes? Done. Service cuts? Done. Deferred maintenance? Done. A big cut in management, and a 12 percent cut in management pay compared with theirs? Done.
We’ve had 30 years of “I’m just grabbing for me (or us), and donh’t you dare discuss what I (we) get and whatever happens to others at the same time.” From the top 1 percent. From the public employee unions, and in particular older and retired members of the public employee unions. From Generation Greed in general.
“So what is the TWU demanding? A “millionaire’s tax?” Done. Fare hikes? Done. Service cuts? Done. Deferred maintenance? Done. A big cut in management, and a 12 percent cut in management pay compared with theirs? Done.”
This. People support unions when their demands seem reasonable (“give mine workers fresh air”, “protect us from electrocution”, etc). Why is the TWU intent on seeming unreasonable?
What the MTA is currently demanding is more flexible work rules so that the MTA can schedule more effectively and “get more done with less”. That sounds reasonable. Not only that, the MTA is saying that they’ll offer pay increases in exchange for these work rule changes.
Meanwhile, the TWU is not seeming reasonable.
Some of the problem is all sides have been unreasonable, and the TWU is riding that. Before Elliot Sander, MTA appointments were almost exclusively political hacks being rewarded with status for how well they could fellate the governor. The top-level bureaucracy (“management”) is overpaid and overbearing, rules are enforced unfairly, etc.. Walder came in two years ago and had to reform Byzantium, but it’s going to be years before things like trust are built up to the point where rank and file workers at the TWU understand that the big bad management man isn’t just there to fuck ’em. Lhota hopefully will be able to continue pushing the organization in that direction.
But in the mean time, a lot of “unreasonable” people have their jobs protected by union rules or old style political patronage. And those “unreasonable” people quite reasonably know that they aren’t getting a better deal somewhere else, so they’ll fight tooth and nail for the status quo.
Moreover, everyone with power has grabbed out of the common pot, and tried to put in as little as possible, as if they had to do it before someone else did. We are a society of pillaged common pots. The MTA is one of them.
What Samuelsen should be demanding is that the city fully fund its pension funds right now, instead of intentionally underfunding them, with the transit system shrunk right now to what we will actually have going forward.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/l.....AnU0Vs0wKJ
How on earth, given the current state of the MTA budget, can the effort be “net zero increases” rather than “large labor cost decreases” — achieved not by cutting salary but by productivity increases and attrition, coupled perhaps with wage freezes and perhaps with small per capita increases?
I’m seriously asking here. Is the power stacked such that cutting labor costs, even in times of fiscal emergency, is totally impossible? Has Cuomo instructed the MTA that it’s OK to antagonize workers to the point of wage freezes but calculated that an overall payroll reduction would lead the union to work in frenzied fashion for his ouster? Have the MTA and TWU done polls that show that typical New Yorkers believe that TWU workers really should make so much to do so little?
“Is the power stacked such that cutting labor costs, even in times of fiscal emergency, is totally impossible?”
Yes. Wages can only go up, not down, unless the government agrees to less work in exchange. Health insurance costs automatically to up, without limits, and there is no say.
Consider this.
http://mycrains.crainsnewyork......z1jdGvS5VV
Those with power get more and more automatically, because of binding, legally enforcible deals they have made with themselves. Everyone else gets less and less because it “sort of just happens.” And don’t talk about it. The top 1 percent will accuse you of being a socialist, the public employee unions will accuse you of being against the middle class.
“Wages can only go up, not down”
This is a basic empirical principle of economics, known as “wage stickiness”. (There is also “price stickiness”.) The way one is supposed to deal with it is by a constant, low rate of inflation, so that it is possible for real wages and prices to drop. (Though you never want all of them to drop at once, you merely want, say, the wages of hostlers to drop as horse handling becomes less important and motor cars take over.)
You are talking about the general economy. That taboo ended in the private sector long ago.
For public employee unions, the same contract remains in effect if no new contract is agreed to. So they can only get more, not less. Same with pensions.
The exception is high inflation, as you say, which can create real losses, which is what most people have had since 1973.
But we have low inflation now, and the most recent public contracts allowed the public employees to double it while pension contributions have soared to 40% of payroll for NYC funds as a whole — and it is not enough.
No, the taboo did not end. Even in the countries that have engaged in the most savage austerity, private-sector wages have barely come down (link).
That “take…and shove it” attitude is exactly the same type of theatrical, childish, delusional antics that makes the tea party look so ridiculous. Both want theirs at the expense of the wider public too, and have the same degrees of entitlement.
Why are so surprised? A privileged welfare class that already receives largesses from the public treasury wants more. This is how these things always go.
Well, I guess I better pay more taxes. Sure, I haven’t had a pay raise since 2008, I don’t even know what a pension is (though I am hoping to retire by 70), don’t get OT, and I pay over $1k/month for my “employer-sponsored” healthcare. But as long as someone gets to live the dream, I am happy.
“A privileged welfare class that already receives largesses from the public treasury wants more.”
that would be the 1%.
Them too. The one percent have their salaries set by their cronies on the board. The political union class have their pensions improved in deals with the politicians they support.
The serfs pay for it all, and have no say. Younger generations especially. I hope the TWU does hold firm on the MTA’s “screw the newbie” proposals. That they have not done screw the newbie deals makes them not as bad as the other unions.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. As someone in his mid-30s who’s a member of the sucker class (middle-class, work in a service industry on a salary for a private employer, no subsidies beyond mortgage interest and child tax credits), rent-seeking by any group peeves me.
I do like the honesty of the screw the newbie deals. At least exposes the truth of the matter.
So then don’t pay for health insurance. Get treated at the emrgency room and spend the 12k you save on a nice vacation. Stop enriching predatory insurance companies. If enough people don’t buy coverage, insurance companies will go bankrupt and we can have single payer or, at a minimum, a public option.
What’s wrong with a 5% wage increase each of the next 5 years with no concessions whatsoever? Oh, that’s right, it’s because we don’t live in a fantasy world!
Given that inflation is around 2%, demanding continuous raises at more than twice the rate of inflation — without any productivity improvements — is, indeed pretty unreasonable.
Inflation is only 2%? Really? Then why are rents in NC up nearly 10%. Gas is up by nearly 10% too. If you cherry pick certain itmes, yes, inflation is 2%. But in the real world, it is much much higher.
No, you are the one cherrypicking. CPI is about 2%. This has been explained to you before.
You are absolutely right that some of the prices you are cherrypicked are up, and you’re right that it sucks. And the one you didn’t cherrypick is most telling of all: the unlimited Metocard fare went up about 17% in 2010, and is up 65% since 2003 – think that’s about 7.4%/year from 2003 to 2010. Naturally, you can thank your beloved TWU’s need to have suburban perks for the fact that NYC working class is shelling out ever more for transportation.
What exactly is a “suburban perk”?
Driving to work, and getting free parking, while us plebes have to take the trains and buses?
sorry, the TWU are the working class.
and since when do they live in the suburbs? funny, every one i’ve known has lived in NYC.
They are indeed working class, but many do indeed live in the suburbs. And they get better-than-working class compensation.
Regardless, I don’t care what their social class is. Pretending they’re the lumpen proles stuck with rail/bus commutes is disingenuous. They certainly don’t have those people’s best interests at heart.
People have expenses other than rent. I doubt you’ll be happy if your wage is indexed to the cost of televisions and other household appliances.
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