NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has reached agreement with transit workers on a new contract after six months of sometimes contentious negotiations, averting a possible strike.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Tony Utano said in a statement that the union’s executive board would meet to discuss the contract today and would report details to the union’s 37,000 members as soon as possible thereafter. He predicted the union would ratify the new deal “in overwhelming fashion.”
The New York Daily News reports that MTA CEO Patrick Foye said Wednesday’s tentative agreement “continues the forward momentum of NYC Transit that has led to a surge in subway on-time performance and ridership increases that reflect our customers’ returning confidence in the system.”
Union members had been working without a contract since May 15.
Thank you Charles.
ERASMUS _ In responding to ROBERT, you actually made his point! In industries where a union holds monopoly power (transportation, public safety, public utilities) a labor union is a conspiracy in restraint of trade. It’s illegal for the employer and ought to be illegal for the union.
When GM’s union went on strike, no skin off my nose, I don’t buy GM cars and even if I did I could live with buying from the competition if I had to. On the other hand if my local electric utilities union went on strike I’d be freezing in a Wisconsin winter. So, ERASMUS, ROBERT is correct. When MTA’s union gets a contract, the public loses.
You can be sure that anytime the union “wins” in contract negotiations then the taxpayers and the riding public loses.
Mr. McGuire:
I understand from your rhetoric that you do not like, and for that matter fully despise unions of any and all sorts. For the record, in my almost 18 years of employment (CA/NY/IA/NE) I have never been a union employee. I do agree that often times the unions are stuck in the past, or try to extort money from whatever employer they are negotiating with. However, every union “win” is not necessarily a taxpayer loss. Have you ever been in NYC during a transit strike? Or in the Bay Area during a BART strike? I have, on both counts. Would you consider complete gridlock to be a taxpayer win?