Contract Ruling Leaves Mayor, TWU At Odds
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On the same day Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled new technology that's supposed to make life easier for some Manhattan bus riders, members of the city's transit union fired back over its new contract. NY1's Bobby Cuza filed the following report.The mayor was on 34th Street in Manhattan Tuesday to show off new information screens that use satellite tracking technology to tell riders how long it will be until the next bus arrives.
He called it a victory for riders, but there was also a clear defeat Tuesday for the MTA -- the official release of an arbitrator's ruling that gives transit workers four percent raises in each of the first two years of their contract; three percent in the third year -- far more than the MTA had budgeted for.
"We had a balanced financial plan, now we're receiving this award. And it is clearly going to throw the financial plan out of balance," said Interim MTA Executive Director & CEO Helena Williams.
While workers will still have to pay 1.5 percent of their salary toward healthcare, that will no longer apply to overtime pay, and that percentage will no longer escalate.
Though he has no direct control over the MTA, the mayor cried foul when he got news of the award Monday.
"I don't see how the arbitrators can rule that way, if they have to look at the ability to pay," Bloomberg said. "Because the straphangers don't have the ability to pay more."
The union took the remark as a direct attack. In a released statement Tuesday, TWU President Roger Toussaint said "The last time we saw a Mayor champion such unfair, unequal treatment of a specific group of workers was Memphis, Tennessee, and the year was 1968."
The union says the mayor has made it a scapegoat for the MTA's troubles.
The TWU points out a number of city unions have also gotten four percent raises -- something Bloomberg says sets the agency apart from other entities.
"The city's finances are different than the MTA's finances," Bloomberg said. "The city's workforce is different. So there's no reason to think that if one does something, the others automatically have to get it."
The MTA says the contract will blow a huge hole in its budget, and could create pressure to raise fares.
As for the countdown clocks, they're being operated by a Long Island company as a pilot program free of charge.