*** Arbitration Update ***

At the Arbitrator's request, both the Union and the MTA have agreed to draft Stipulated Facts, which should be ready for submission within the next few weeks.  The Arbitrator has also suggested that the parties include in the Stipulated Facts additional cost savings proposals.

At this time, there's no way of knowing what the Arbitrator is really thinking or what's causing the delay.  If I had to guess, I would say it’s probably the additional cost of funding the increase to the pension multiplier within this award.   If it becomes a choice of funding over pattern wage increases or the pension enhancement, we would prefer the pension enchantment, because it's a permanent solution to a difficult problem that has been around since the companies were private.  Also, there are retroactive wage increases included in the "pattern" and we're ready to negotiate the next round of wage increases once we're done with this.  Hopefully, once the parties have submitted the Stipulated Facts we'll have an Award shortly thereafter.

As of today, the arbitrator has still given us NO indication as to when an award will be issued.

We are disappointed but not entirely surprised at the delay.  This has been a very unique and complicated arbitration, especially the pension issues.  For better or worse, we are pretty sure the arbitrator will be looking at the Local 100 and recent ATU 1179 & 1181 pension settlements for direction and guidance on this issue in our award.  We all knew from the beginning that this was going to be a very long and drawn out process.  We are now at the end of that process and ask everyone to remain patient.  As soon as we have any additional information, we will post it to the website.

Hearings and witness testimony were completed yesterday.

 The Union presented witness testimony and exhibits that clearly demonstrated our argument and case that the MTA Bus supervisors are doing the same job, working for the same employer, and in many cases the same locations as the OA and TA supervisors, but are being paid less.

We also presented testimony and exhibits demonstrating to the panel that to achieve a comparable wage replacement rate (pension) for the supervisors, as provided for in the MTA Bus Local 100 pension award, the multiplier would have to be significantly higher than the $130 awarded to the hourly employees.

The Company did not have any questions for or cross examined any of our witnesses, nor did they dispute our claim that the MTA Bus supervisors are performing the same duties as the OA & TA supervisors.   Their case is based solely on the principle of pattern bargaining and how it has been historically applied to all the Unions under the MTA umbrella.  They also argued that the pension improvements in the Edelman Award were paid for by Local 100.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Arbitrator Wittenberg decided to leave the “record open” for thirty days to give both sides the opportunity to review the testimony and exhibits.  Closing briefs are due on June 8, 2018, at which time we will ask the Arbitrator the issue a decision as soon as possible.

As I have said along, we face an uphill battle attempting to overcome the pattern bargaining argument.  However, we believe the situation in MTA Bus is so unique and beyond any sense of fairness that if any case is going to “break” the pattern it would be this case at this time.  We remain optimistic that we will be able to make progress towards closing the gap on the pay inequities between MTA Bus and the OA/TA.