Governor Cuomo and MTA Transit Workers Union Settle on New 5 Year Contract: 1%,1%,2%,2%,2% Raises

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. from the Governor’s Press Office (Edited). April 17, 2014:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chairman Tom Prendergast, and Transit Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 President John Samuelsen today announced a tentative labor agreement to settle a 2-year-old contract dispute between the MTA and TWU Local 100. The tentative agreement protects fare payers while providing a fair and reasonable five-year contract to TWU Local 100’s 34,000 transit workers.

The contract retroactively covers 2012 and 2013, and settles contracts for 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Under the terms of the agreement, TWU workers would receive increases within the 2% cap that Governor Cuomo has achieved with state labor contracts (1% increase in each of the first 2 years, beginning with 2012, and 2% increases in the last 3 years).

Employees would pay an increased share of health care costs – increasing from 1.5% to 2% percent of the employee’s salary – but would receive important new benefits including paid maternity/paternity leave, coverage of health care for surviving spouses of deceased TWU retirees, and improvements to dental and optical benefits. 

The contract will have no impact on MTA fares and will be accommodated within revisions to the MTA financial plan. 

The tentative agreement is subject to approval by the TWU Local 100 executive board and ratification by the membership, and subsequent approval by the MTA board. 

“The transit system is the lifeblood of New York City, and the MTA employees are the ones that make the system work,” Governor Cuomo said. “They showed their dedication time and time again during Superstorm Sandy and its aftermath, working in difficult conditions to get the system up and running in record time. The resolution of this contract dispute is fair to transit workers, fiscally responsible for the MTA, and will have no impact on fares. I thank President John Samuelsen, who fights tenaciously for his members but also cares deeply about the system and its ridership, and Tom Prendergast whose lifelong dedication to the transit system made him the ideal leader of the MTA.”

TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen said, “This is a fair and equitable contract for transit workers. The agreement secures raises in every year of the contract, with full retroactive pay and provides for historic paid maternity and paternity leave, as well as important improvements to our membership’s healthcare, dental, and eye benefit package. The MTA is a vital part of this City and I am pleased to present a contract to the membership that recognizes their hard work, dedication, and service. I commend the hand of partnership extended by Governor Cuomo and I appreciate his leadership in helping bridge the divide and bring us to this contract agreement.”

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