Contract Negotiations

As you know the TSO along with all the other unions in the MTA follow the TWU Local 100 pattern of bargaining and as you may or may not know the last contract that Local 100 negotiated there was not much in there other than wages that really had great value. What there is of value that we don’t need we are working on getting items that we want and that work for us but negotiations are tight.

Another hurdle we are dealing with right now is that the Authority is looking for us to make up for a Local 100 give back from the Elevator Dept which allowed for farming out of work which saved the Authority money. We are being asked to make up for that give back in the form of extending our contracts by two months. This is a problem!

We are simultaneously negotiating six contracts with some of the same proposals in all of them and some proposals that are unit specific. As time goes by, we get closer to making a deal but this is a very slow process as Labor Relations has one person negotiating 35 contracts and its prime vacation time.

I am doing everything possible to wrap up all of these contracts ASAP but like I said, the process is slow but it’s moving forward which is better than being stalled out.