Members Rebuilding TWU

John Samuelsen and his administration Can't Handle The Heat

The president of the Transport Workers Union walked out on contract negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Thursday, a clear sign that talks are definitely not on track. NY1’s Tina Redwine filed the following report.

They're supposed to be hammering out a deal. Instead, the head of the transit union and his aides bolted from the bargaining table Thursday to hammer the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for leaking information to the press.

“So you had bus operators, track workers, signal maintainers reading the newspaper today with a better grasp of what the MTA was going to do with the negotiations than the negotiating committee of the union, and that's an outrage and that is bargaining in bad faith,” said John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union.

In response, the MTA said “We do not negotiate in the press.”

But the Daily News reported at length how the MTA was going to tell the union Thursday it had to agree to $150 million in givebacks if it wanted a 1 percent wage increase for its 34,000 members.

Samuelsen said his proposal has been for a cost of living increase for his members to keep up with inflation.

“It's simply not an outrageous demand. It's a demand that allows us to keep afloat and to keep our families going over the next several years,” said Samuelsen.

The TWU president also said unlike members of some state unions that have agreed to no raises, his live in the city, which is more expensive.

MTA chief Joseph Lhota, who was not at Thursday's session, has said wage increases, however small, must be offset by savings from work rule changes.

For instance, if future employees work longer before earning a month's vacation, the MTA said it would save about $15 million.

Making 10 percent of the bus drivers part-time would save roughly $7 million, as would setting the overtime threshold at 40 hours per week instead of having overtime kick in when a worker is on the job more than eight hours on a day.

Samuelsen said negotiations will resume next week after he clears the air with MTA brass.

“We'll put a framework into place where we can bargain this contract going forward, without the MTA attempting to influence the outcome of this contract through the media,” said Samuelsen.

Either side can apply to go to arbitration at any time. The Public Employment Relations Board would then decide if both sides were truly at an impasse.