Subway operators and bus drivers in New York City’s transit system are working without a contract after negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority failed to produce a new labor deal.
(Bloomberg) — Subway operators and bus drivers in New York City’s transit system are working without a contract after negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority failed to produce a new labor deal.
While the MTA’s contract with its biggest union, TWU Local 100, expired late Monday night, its terms will remain in effect until a new deal is reached, Richard Davis, the union’s president, said in a statement. The group represents about 42,000 MTA employees.
“The MTA is showing a lack of respect for our members on issues big and small,” Davis said in the statement.
The MTA, a state agency, runs New York City’s subways, buses and commuter rail lines, the biggest transit system in the nation. The contract’s expiration comes after Governor Kathy Hochul and legislators struck a deal last month — as part of the state’s own budget talks — to direct more money to the MTA to plug its projected shortfalls.
The union is asking the MTA to pay for health care coverage for family members of transit employees who worked during the pandemic and died of Covid, Davis said. There were 110 confirmed Covid deaths among union members.
“We value the transit work force that kept New York moving during Covid,” Shanifah Rieara, senior adviser for communications and policy at the MTA, said in a statement. “They deserve a raise and we are trying to work out increases consistent with the approved state budget, and in line with recent labor agreements.”
The MTA’s 2023 budget includes annual wage increases of 2% while the union is asking for salary boosts that account for inflation.
The group is also seeking hazard pay, increasing parental leave to six months and a holiday to commemorate victims of the coronavirus. It also wants the MTA to pay for therapy for members’ autistic children.
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