John Chiarello, president of TWU’s Local 100, posted a social media video on Thursday in which he called the MTA’s opening demands in collective bargaining for the union’s new three-year contract a “slap in the face” and a “disgrace.” He charged that the agency is proposing the union’s 40,000 New York City Transit members pay more for health insurance and emergency room visits, accept reduced overtime, and abide by stricter sick time rules.
“I’m pissed off, I think this is a slap in the face to our membership,” Chiarello said in the video — filmed in front of the MTA’s Lower Manhattan headquarters, where the union is hosting a May Day rally at 5 p.m. on Friday. The actions come as the TWU’s current contract with the MTA expires at midnight on May 16.
“We’re gonna fill this canyon from front to back with our members and let them know May 1, the TWU is laying our claim right here at 2 Broadway,” he added.
Chiarello said the MTA is offering 2% raises over the next three years.
But at the same time, he said the MTA wants to more than double workers’ health insurance contributions and impose higher ER visit co-payments. The agency is also floating employees work four days before becoming eligible for overtime, as opposed to the current three; and must call out sick at least four hours in advance, instead of the current one.
“Many people are not even awake four hours before they go to work,” said Ellen Moynihan, a spokesperson for TWU Local 100. “So if your shift starts at 8 a.m., they want you to wake up at 4 a.m. and determine whether or not you’re going to go in and then call in.”
Furthermore, Chiarello charged, the transit agency has proposed reducing workers’ flexibility in choosing their routes and schedules, which he called “pre-packaged picks.” Currently, workers are able to choose their routes and schedules, but the MTA wants to package those together.
MTA boss Lieber insists no demands for ‘give-backs’
FILE – MTA workers making track repairs in Brooklyn.Marc A. Hermann / MTA
Meanwhile, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber responded to Chiarello’s claims during an unrelated Friday news conference.
“We want to give people raises that allow them to keep up with the cost of living and reward our workforce that is the heart of the MTA system,” Lieber said during the event.
The transit boss insisted that the MTA is not demanding “give-backs,” but rather “things that are consistent with the basic realities of efficiency.”
“We don’t want to be creating overtime, instead of having people work four or five days a week on regular time,” he said. “We’ve lost 10 days a year, in terms of the average worker, in the last few years, to sick time and other kinds of absences. So, we have to develop a system, together with the union, collaborating with the union, that’s gonna make sure that the public is getting the full efforts of the people that they are paying for.”
The negotiations come as Local 100’s parent union, TWU International, is pushing state legislation that would require the MTA to keep two train operators on all subway lines that currently have them. Presently, most subway lines operate with two-man crews, except for the three shuttle services and certain routes during off-peak hours.
The union is pushing the measure to secure its members’ jobs out of fear that the MTA will seek to expand one-person-train-operation (OPTO), in which it would replace conductors with automated systems, leaving train drivers as the only human operators onboard.
MTA officials fiercely oppose the bill, taking issue with its restrictions on them expanding OPTO in the future.
Will the talks end in a strike?
New York City hasn’t had a transit strike in more than 20 years, and it’s too early to say whether the union is prepared to take such action if negotiations with the MTA go nowhere in the weeks ahead.
A source with knowledge of the TWU’s thinking said that Chiarello has indicated that nothing is off the table, including a possible work stoppage.
TWU workers last walked off the job in December 2005, breaking the state’s Taylor Law, which prohibits them from taking such labor action because they are classified as essential government workers. The strike lasted roughly two days before a settlement was reached, but the TWU was later hit with a $2.5 million fine for the walkout.
Moreover, the TWU Local 100 president at the time, Roger Toussaint, wound up being jailed for 10 days for leading the strike.
The talks are also heating up as five unions representing half of the Long Island Rail Road workforce have threatened to go on strike on May 16. The coalition of unions is demanding that the MTA give its workers higher raises without imposing new work rules.
Lieber on Friday said that a “strike is bad for everybody.”
“It’s bad for the workers, it’s bad for the public, it’s bad for the economy,” Lieber said. “We gotta figure out a way to avoid it.”