TWU Local 100 has gone nearly two months without a new contract as the union representing close to 40,000 New York City Transit workers and the MTA presented much different views on the state of negotiations.
While Local 100 President John Chiarello took to social media last week to describe the talks as a “war” and accuse Gov. Kathy Hochul and the MTA of proposing “unacceptable” terms, agency spokesperson Tim Minton maintained the negotiations are “routine” and “productive.”
“For those of you who have been asking for a contract, the reason why we don’t have one is because the MTA keeps offering us unacceptable garbage,” Chiarello said in the July 3 video. “Yesterday, they gave it to us in writing. Raises below the rate of inflation and abysmal givebacks.”
Among those unacceptable terms that Chiarello named were plans to double current members’ health insurance contributions, raise total health insurance costs for new members to 10%, and boost charges for emergency room visits. He said the MTA’s proposal also includes taking away members’ seniority rights to pick their routes and schedules if they are out on 30 or more days of leave.
Meanwhile, MTA spokesperson Tim Minton presented a far rosier view of the negotiations in a statement to amNewYork responding to Chiarello’s video.
Rather than a war, Minton said it is “not even a Cold War, just routine negotiations including productive talks with Local 100 on ways we can improve service for riders.”
John Samuelson, president of TWU International, the parent union to Local 100, told amNewYork last week that the MTA is offering 2% raises over the next three years, when the rate of inflation is at 4%, something he called a “significant concession.”
Samuelson also predicted MTA honchos would likely try to raise the prospect of expanding one-person train operation (OPTO), a process by which they replace train conductors with automated systems, during the negotiations. TWU has long fought against OPTO because it would take away jobs from many of their members, but the MTA argues it could yield significant savings for the agency.
“They haven’t yet raised OPTO in this negotiation, but they will,” he said. “They’ve done it every single time.”
Both houses of the state legislature passed TWU-backed legislation this past session that would require the MTA maintain two-man train crews on every line that currently has them, which exlcudes the system’s three shuttles and some lines during off-peak hours. However, the bill needs Hochul’s signature to become law and she vetoed a similar measure last year.
The talks come on the heels of five Long Island Rail Road unions, representing roughly half of the system’s workforce, going on strike for three days in May amid their own heated negotiations with the MTA. Ultimately, the two sides reached a resolution that allowed them to restore service, and claim victory.
