New Contract Between MTA and TWU
After all that harsh talk the past couple of weeks, the two sides came to a contract rather quickly. Tentative deal details according to the New York Times:
Last night the executive board of the union, Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, voted 37 to 4 to approve the tentative 37-month contract. Two members abstained.
The tentative agreement calls, for the first time, for all transit workers to pay 1.5 percent of their wages toward health insurance premiums, cutting into the raises they receive. That comes on top of the fines of slightly more than $1,000 that most transit workers face for participating in last week's illegal transit strike.
The settlement calls for raises of 3 percent in the deal's first year, 4 percent in the second year and 3.5 percent in the third year. The subway and bus workers' current base pay averages $47,000 a year, and with overtime, their average yearly earnings total $55,000.
And later in the article:
In exchange, the union indicated that it would agree to an important concession on health care - having all transit workers pay a percentage of their health premiums for the first time - to help the authority bring its soaring benefits costs under control. The agreement to have transit workers pay 1.5 percent of their wages toward premiums will save the authority nearly $32 million a year.
And additionally...
In another sweetener that union officials said was worth tens of millions of dollars, the authority will reimburse some 16,000 transit workers for certain pension contributions they made before 2001. That year, the annual pension contribution paid by most transit workers was reduced to 2 percent from 5.3 percent.
And finally:
Mr. Toussaint agreed to higher premiums - 1.5 percent - but he can say he obtained bigger raises - 3, 4 and 3.5 - than the Philadephia union received. In addition, his union was given extra money for training and Martin Luther King's Birthday as a holiday - two steps that taken together are worth nearly 1 percentage point.
Days before the strike began, Mr. Toussaint said he would accept raises of 6 percent a year, rather than 8 percent, but only if the authority agreed to a 25 percent cut in the number of disciplinary citations each year. Last year, supervisors issued 15,200 such citations to the union's 33,700 members.
As part of its final offer, the authority agreed to hire an independent consultant to help improve the disciplinary system so that it resulted in more efficiency and fewer disciplinary actions.
The union also originally called for a far more generous pension plan, proposing that workers be eligible to retire with a pension equal to half their annual pay at age 50 after 20 years on the job. Workers now can receive such pensions at age 55, after 25 years on the job.
One thing I must ask: This is all that the transit workers went on strike for? Seems like it is not what Roger Toussaint said would be the minimum that the union would accept. It's a better deal than the MTA said was the "final offer," yet it must be just me when I say the strike seemed to have been a waste of time and money, especially given how quickly they came together and wrote a new contract.
Last night the executive board of the union, Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, voted 37 to 4 to approve the tentative 37-month contract. Two members abstained.
The tentative agreement calls, for the first time, for all transit workers to pay 1.5 percent of their wages toward health insurance premiums, cutting into the raises they receive. That comes on top of the fines of slightly more than $1,000 that most transit workers face for participating in last week's illegal transit strike.
The settlement calls for raises of 3 percent in the deal's first year, 4 percent in the second year and 3.5 percent in the third year. The subway and bus workers' current base pay averages $47,000 a year, and with overtime, their average yearly earnings total $55,000.
And later in the article:
In exchange, the union indicated that it would agree to an important concession on health care - having all transit workers pay a percentage of their health premiums for the first time - to help the authority bring its soaring benefits costs under control. The agreement to have transit workers pay 1.5 percent of their wages toward premiums will save the authority nearly $32 million a year.
And additionally...
In another sweetener that union officials said was worth tens of millions of dollars, the authority will reimburse some 16,000 transit workers for certain pension contributions they made before 2001. That year, the annual pension contribution paid by most transit workers was reduced to 2 percent from 5.3 percent.
And finally:
Mr. Toussaint agreed to higher premiums - 1.5 percent - but he can say he obtained bigger raises - 3, 4 and 3.5 - than the Philadephia union received. In addition, his union was given extra money for training and Martin Luther King's Birthday as a holiday - two steps that taken together are worth nearly 1 percentage point.
Days before the strike began, Mr. Toussaint said he would accept raises of 6 percent a year, rather than 8 percent, but only if the authority agreed to a 25 percent cut in the number of disciplinary citations each year. Last year, supervisors issued 15,200 such citations to the union's 33,700 members.
As part of its final offer, the authority agreed to hire an independent consultant to help improve the disciplinary system so that it resulted in more efficiency and fewer disciplinary actions.
The union also originally called for a far more generous pension plan, proposing that workers be eligible to retire with a pension equal to half their annual pay at age 50 after 20 years on the job. Workers now can receive such pensions at age 55, after 25 years on the job.
One thing I must ask: This is all that the transit workers went on strike for? Seems like it is not what Roger Toussaint said would be the minimum that the union would accept. It's a better deal than the MTA said was the "final offer," yet it must be just me when I say the strike seemed to have been a waste of time and money, especially given how quickly they came together and wrote a new contract.
posted by Will at 11:13 PM
1 Comments:
Great blog I hope we can work to build a better health care system as we are in a major crisis and health insurance is a major aspect to many.
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