NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Tens of thousands of Metropolitan Transit Authority workers are in limbo this morning, after a contract between the transport workers union and the MTA expired at midnight.
Union leaders and MTA officials were working overnight to strike a deal, CBS2’s Janelle Burrell reported. A union leader told CBS2 that they have made some progress as of Monday morning, but they are still not where they need to be in the negotiation process.
Transit Union Local 100 represents around 40,000 workers with the MTA. They say that the MTA is offering them a two percent increase in pay, which is the same rate as inflation. The union says that is not enough, arguing that workers need more money in order to continue living in New York.
“We intend to bargain in good faith, but we are not accepting two percent raises, we’re not doing it,” TWU Local 100 President John Samuelson said.
Samuelson made a passionate plea to board member at a meeting in December, WCBS 880’s Marla Diamond reported.
“We move eight million people a day through the chaotic system,” Samuelson said. “We get assaulted, we get spat upon.”
Union workers are asking for a three-year contract with a five percent salary increase each year of that deal.
“Two percent is unacceptable,” John Mooney, of TWU Local 200, said. “We’ve been taking low ball numbers for the last five, six years — it’s unacceptable.”
“They move what, eight and a half million people a day?” union member Anthony Staley said. “That’s a lot of money these guys make with underpaid workers. We deserve way better money than what they’ve been paying.”
The contract that expired at midnight was a five-year deal with an eight percent salary increase over that five-year period.
Outgoing MTA president Thomas Prendergast has given the impression that a strike is unlikely, Diamond reported. Still, the NYPD has administered contingency plans to local precincts in case of a walkout.
An MTA spokesperson said the agency remains committed to achieving a negotiated settlement.
Transit workers will still be on the job Monday.
Source: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/01/16/mta-union-negotiations/