Contract Update for all Units Without a Signed Agreement

Last week we met with the Authority on the MSII and MaBSTOA and Queens contracts. We have had several meeting so far on the MSII contract since this contract expired before the others, and we have made significant progress on mostly all of our MSII contract demands. This contract is slightly challenging, because we are rolling the Revenue Collection unit into this contract and we are watching to ensure that if supervisors get wage increases in another union we stay in line with those increases.

On the MaBSTOA and Queens contracts, we finalized some important areas of the contract that we have been discussing for months, and now have an agreement on those issues, but just like the MSII contract there are still a few important items remaining, which we should be able to resolve soon.

If you were at the union meeting last week, you know that I have put the MTA Bus contract negotiations on hold for now until I can get a solid framework in place for the MaBSTOA and Queens contracts. The reason as I had explained, is that there is still a $119,410 deficit remaining from the previous contract. When we had the NYSHIP/Aetna one time open enrollment, MTA Bus did not get the turn over needed to make an impact and pay off the debt when the other units did. But DO NOT worry I have plan and the MTA Bus contract will get resolved very quickly and it will all come together once I have that MaBSTOA and Queens framework in place.

Lastly, like the ATU Locals we are in discussions with the Authority as part of these negotiations, to amend the prescription drug formulary for active and pre-Medicare retirees. Those changes will be minimal and I will provide more information on that as we get near the end of negotiations, as we are still acquiring data and specifics on this important benefit.

We are meeting with the Authority Labor Relations team as often as we can to get all of these deals done quickly, but we also know, that we can’t rush this and make a mistake so we move at a cautious pace.

Thank you for you patience and I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving with their family.

Philip Valenti, President