Contract Information
To: All MSII, MaBSTOA and Queens Supervisors
Re: Tentative Contract Agreements and Ratification Vote
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
We are happy and proud to present to you the Contract MOU for your Division of the Transit Supervisors Organization for 2020-2024 MSII’s and 2021-2024 OA/QU.
We know the last three years have been very difficult for everyone with COVID hitting our country and politicians in Washington destroying our economy. And with these negative impacts weighing heavy on all of you and your families it was incumbent on us as a Union to try and get as much as we can out of this contract. Almost all of the Unions working within the confines of the NYC Transit Authority follow the TWU Local 100 pattern and we did that here as well but in areas where we felt we should go our own way, we did.
One of the main components of this contract was the phase out of NYSHIP. We originally started talking about that with the Authority as a way to generate savings in the MTA Bus contract but the more we looked at it and discussed it internally the more we believed we should offer it as an option to all of our members. The SSSA joined us and we split the cost to hire an outside consulting firm (The Segal Group) to do a comparison of NYSHIP to Aetna. The results of that comparison made it clear that offering our members a choice to choose between two equal Medical plans NYSHIP and Aetna was the right thing to do and what the membership wanted.
The motivation for the Authority to engage in discussions on the NYSHIP phase out was that when a member retires with Aetna, the benefit stays the same but the cost of the plan to the Authority drops tremendously. So, they benefit with a cost savings after the member retires and we benefit now with the cost evaluation put back into our contract to be used as a credit.
We took that savings credit and put it back into the economic gains in this contract. We also made advances in other non-economic areas of the contract plus we cobbled together savings from all six of our contracts to create a long overdue and sorely needed additional full-time release position to work for the Local.
We have retained the services of the American Arbitration Association to conduct an electronic ratification vote. An information package will be mailed to every member in good standing which will include your PIN number and voting instructions. The polls will be open on Friday, April 21st through Friday May 5th. Once the vote is tallied on May 5th, we will publish the results on our website twu106.org. If ratified by the members, the agreement will then move to the MTA Board to be approved. Once approved by the Membership and the MTA board it will then go into effect. We will have Unit meetings for each contract to answer all the questions you may have. We are in the process of finalizing those dates and locations. Please check back here for that information which will also be mailed to you along with the MOU.
I want to thank all the Officers and Chairman that worked tirelessly on this effort to bring you this contract and I urge you to VOTE YES! Fraternally, Philip Valenti President
