Contracts Update

The current state of affairs for contract negotiations is as follows,

This week we finally received the first draft of the MSII contract. We have been asking for and waiting for this draft since March 27th. When we reviewed the draft we saw that much of the minor but important working conditions that we had agreed to verbally were stripped out. We have already requested a follow-up meeting to go over this contract with the President’s office.

The three bus contracts, OA/TA/MTA negotiations have not moved in months. In my last meeting with the Authority I told them to draft on paper what they want at the BCC, and I will look at it. I have asked for that draft and have not received it as of yet. Plus, there are other issues on the table they have not finished discussing which as you can see, we have a ways to go still.

Any contract that is agreed to by union leadership has to be ratified by the membership and then by the MTA board and there is no MTA board meeting in August. And its prime vacation time for those important people we need to meet with in order to get a contract nailed down.

I realize this is not the news you want to hear right now but as you live your life you need to know what’s going on in order to make short-and- long term financial plans.

As always, we will continue to be relentless in our efforts to try and settle these last four contracts. And we thank you for your continued support and patience.

Two other things you should know,

My Philip.Valenti@nyct.com email is no longer active, so any emails going to that address I do not get any more. Send emails to pvalenti@twu106.org only.

The NY Post reported yesterday that the MTA was paying Paige Graves, their General Counsel, $344,000 a year, which is $100,000 more than the Governor https://nypost.com/2026/07/10/us-news/mta-general-counsel-paige-graves-to-abruptly-resign/ . That’s nice right! We can’t get a contract but the Executives at the MTA are making that kind of money!

Philip Valenti, President