MTA May Appeal Arbitration Panel Decision
I urge any of my readers to please wake me up when the children go to bed. The children I am referring to are the MTA bigwigs who, like a child who lost a game, want a do over in regards to the recent arbitration panel’s decision to award transit workers from TWU Local 100 with a 11% raise. The agency is considering appealing the decision of a panel they practically forced down the throats of union members to decide the stalemate between the two parties. Pete Donohue of the New York Daily News had more this past weekend:
The MTA is considering challenging an arbitration panel’s decision to grant transit workers generous wage hikes, officials said Friday.
A state judge can throw out a contract after concluding arbitrators didn’t properly apply the criteria mandated by the legislation, including an employer’s ability to pay wages and benefits.
The pact grants transit workers staggered annual raises totaling 4%, 4% and 3.5% over the three-year contract.
Click here for the complete report.
The idea that an appeal is under consideration sickens me. The MTA needs to get over the decision as they don’t get do overs because they did not like the final verdict given. I find it even more disturbing that the PR work will be out in full force to showcase their own employees as being undeserving of these raises.
The fact of the matter is the agency failed to properly budget for wage increases as they fully expected the bully pulpit they share with the Bloomberg administration to side against transit workers. The outrage that these raises have garnered from some might be the worst. Why is it okay for cops, firefighters, teachers, etc…. to get decent raises but those who get many of those people to work safely each day don’t? Talk about complete hypocrisy!
I think the unnamed union spokesman in the Daily News article I quoted put it best when they said the MTA’s legal review is:
another attempt by the MTA to mask its incompetence
So true, so true….
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Comments
[…] the MTA due to poor planning on their part complains about the decision & considers challenging the ruling. While they continue to look into that possibility, the TWU is looking to strengthen the legality […]
[…] to union members by an arbitration panel. I first noted the agency was considering doing this 10 days ago when they were in the beginning stages of studying for a possible appeal. Pete Donohue of the New […]
put the shoe on the other foot,the union couldn’t do shit if the mta won at arbitration. I hate this agency and this daily news reporter
[…] desire to have the 11% raises awarded to TWU Local 100 members, by an arbitration panel, overturned. A few days ago, two MTA Board members shared their feeling that the raises awarded to workers […]
I couldn’t have said it any better!. I thought the arbitration process was final?. I bet if Transit workers were awarded NOTHING!, the good old Suits at the MTA wouldn’t be crying foul!.. If you can appeal the Arbitrators decesion then why didn’t TWU appeal our last decesion when we went out on strike and came back for the same contract we rejected?… Something doesn’t smell right…. What Transit Workers NEED is a good PR firm!!!!..