It looks like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority blinked in its contract showdown with the Transport Workers Union.
The deal gives transit workers wage hikes of nearly 10 percent over four years. In return, TWU members will have some higher health care co-pays and take slightly fewer days off. The agency also expects savings from new “shift-swapping” rules.
As Nicole Gelinas notes, the contract ups the MTA’s payroll expenses by $310 million a year once all raises kick in, while the offsetting savings seem unlikely to reach anything like that level.
Which means the deal adds up to $265 million a year to the agency’s deficits by 2022 — when it was already facing shortfalls over $400 million a year. Maria Doulis of the Citizens Budget Commission told The Post that she doesn’t see how the agency can break even without making “sacrifices” elsewhere.
MTA chairman Pat Foye called the deal “fair to taxpayers, our riders and the tens of thousands of Transit employees who have worked hard to improve subway and bus service.” But that “fairness” seems likely to mean fare hikes and fresh taxpayer bailout.
The average transit worker is getting 10 paid weeks off a year; this deal looks to trim that by just a day and a half. Is that really the best the MTA’s negotiators could do? Maybe so — if Gov. Andrew Cuomo was unwilling to order a tougher approach as the TWU staged service slowdowns and threatened other job actions.
Can the MTA do better with the Long Island Rail Road unions? Let’s hope so — because the deal guarantees the TWU even higher raises if LIRR workers get them.