News & Information

General Recording Secretary Election

Tue, 03/12/2019 - 10:54am

Brothers and Sistors,

On January 10, 2019, TSO General Recording Secretary, Michael Lawson, was elected OA Transportation Vice Chairman.  As a result of this, his previous position as General Recording Secretary is now vacant.

This position will be filled by a General Election.  Nominations, eligibility requirements and the election process for this position shall be in accordance with our By-laws.  The Executive Council has designated the TSO Secretary Treasurer, Hubert Reardon, to conduct the election.  We have retained the services of the American Arbitration Association to conduct the balloting for this election if necessary.

Information on the election was mailed to every member in good standing on Friday, March 8, 2019.

If you have not recieved this information, please contact the Union Office.

MSII Tentative Contract Agreement

Tue, 03/12/2019 - 10:45am

We are happy to announce that we have reached a tentative contract agreement.  We believe this contract provides the MSIIs with important and significant gains.

Some of the gains we were able to achieve this round of negotiations include:

  • Two 2.5% Wage Increases with Full Retroactivity
  • $500 Pensionable Lump-sum Payment
  • Expansion of Night Differential Hours
  • A Full-Time MSII Union Representative 
  • $820 Annual Supervisor Maintenance Bonus
  • Increases in Annual Longevity Bonuses
  • OTO Pilot Program
  • Full Dental & Vision Coverage for Dependent Children through the Age of 26
  • Step Children Added to Death in Family

The contract ratification process will be conducted by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and will be done by electronic ballot.  The ratification vote will be open to only members in good standing.  Ballot Notification will be mailed on Friday, March 8th. Ballots are due back by Friday, March 22nd, at 10AM.  If the contract is ratified by the members, it will then go to the MTA Board on Wednesday, March 27th, for final ratification.

I would like to thank the Officers for all of their input, assistance and support in these negotiations.

Fraternally,

Vincent Modafferi

President

MTA Bus Interest Arbitration

Fri, 02/15/2019 - 7:52am

*** Implementation Update ***

The below dates have been confirmed:

  • Sunday, February 10th – New Wage Rates and 2% Medical Contribution rate go into effect.
  • Thursday, February 21st – MTA Bus RWA Deferral Commitments Due.
  • Thursday, March 28th – RWA’s are paid on a separate check.
  • 2% Medical Contribution in arrears to December 28, 2018 will be deducted from the RWA check in a lump sum.
  • New Union Dues Rates will go into effect with the GWI's on February 10th.
  • Military Buy-back is in effect

We still do not know when the new pension contribution rate will go into effect. We will continue to follow-up on this and let you know.

The Company is not going to have the RWA amount available to the members until AFTER it is paid and the commitment forms are due.  This was done when the last RWA was paid as well. 

RWA Calculator - Data should only be entered into the yellow fields.

***FINAL Arbitration Update ***

As we said from the very beginning exceeding the pattern would be an uphill battle.  However, we believed that if any bargaining unit would be able to break the bargaining pattern it would this bargaining unit in this round of negotiations, but as you can see the arbitrator upheld the contract pattern.  To say the least, we are very disappointed with the outcome. 

 

We had argued that the current disparity in wages between our members at MTA Bus and their OA & TA counterparts is the fault of the Company – for hiring those who were formerly non-represented at egregiously low starting wages and then expecting the Union to shoulder the entire burden of closing that gap through bargaining concessions.  Throughout this entire process, the Company would neither admit nor accept responsibility for the current wage disparity that exists.  We believed this process should have cured that problem, but it did not – which leads to the larger concern about the rigid application of a pattern to this dispute.  The word “pattern” is not in the statute.  However, the Company purposefully and without justification ignores the very specific factors set forth in the law – effectively reading them out of the stature – and holds that the only factor that matters is a pattern previously set by other bargaining units, without any consideration of the unique circumstances of this bargaining unit. 

 

We will begin negotiating a successor agreement in early January and will schedule a member meeting in January as well to discuss the award and our next round of negotiations.  I would like to thank everyone for their patience and support throughout this long and arduous process.   If you have any questions please contact me.

 

Fraternally,

Vinny

38th Annual TSO Scholarship Awards

Fri, 01/04/2019 - 5:58pm

We would like to congratulate the winners of the 38th Annual TSO Scholarship Awards.

MSII - Mike Schuster, Enzo Adamo, Filadelfio LaMarca, Strafford Anderson and Jose DeJesus.

OA - Tom Wilson, Maximo Martinez, Oscar Centeno, and Senad Bajramovic.

Queens - Richard Vaughan

I am happy to announce that our partner M3 Technology, is sponsoring four (4) one thousand dollar scholarship awards and our new partners, Pasternack Tilker Ziegler Walsh Stanton & Romano LLP and Central Medical Services of Westrock, are each sponsoring one (1) one thousand dollar scholarship award this year.  This is in addition to four (4) Scholarship Awards sponsored by the Union. There will be a total of ten (10) one thousand dollar scholarships awarded for the 2019 school year.

All of the winners and alternates will be drawn at the Holiday Party Thursday, December 20, 2018. There will be ten (10) winners, and ten (10) alternates drawn at 5:00 pm.

Application and Instructions

Are Your Beneficiary Designations Up to Date?

Tue, 10/23/2018 - 8:26am

During the Annual Open Enrollement Period it might a good time for you the check that your beneficiary information on your Pension and Life Insurance are up to date.

You can access this information through the BSC self-service portal or you can download the forms below. If your a member of the NYCERS retirement system click here.

MetLife Insurance Form

OA Pension Beneficiary Form

MTA Pension Beneficiary Form

TSO Gets Shorts Approved and Upgrades to the Dispatcher Uniform!

Wed, 08/15/2018 - 11:24am

After becoming aware that the operator unions had a contractual agreement with management discuss changes to their uniforms we meet with management to discuss changes to the Dispatcher uniform.  Through these negotiations, we able to achieve several changes to the current uniforms that will significantly improve their quality, performance and functionality.  We believe the most significant change to the uniform is that after years of patience and persistence were able to get the Authority to agree to allow the Dispatchers to wear shorts as part of their uniform.

All of these changes were supposed to go into effect in conjunction with the re-bidding of the current VF Solutions contract that was scheduled to expire in July.  Unfortunately, the Authority recently extended the contract until November 2019.  We are working with management to try and implement pieces of the uniform upgrade, before the expiration of the current contract, like the Polo shirts that are currently being distributed.

As for the shorts, management believes they will be able to have the dispatcher shorts available through VF Solution by the end of the year.  However, that doesn’t help us out for this summer.  In the interim, we have asked the Authority if they could source a model and vendor for our members to purchase “official” dispatcher shorts as a part of the summer uniform.  They have identified Aramark as the vendor and the below options.

https://shop.aramarkuniform.com/sc-catalog-pants-shorts-1?cat=52444

Only the following styles have been approved for purchase:

Male     #DEF – 20255 (Navy Blue)

            #DEF - 20259 – Cargo Style (Navy Blue)

Female #DEF – 20261 (Navy Blue)

            #DEF – 2541 – Cargo Style (Navy Blue)

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