MAY 31 -- Thank you, brothers and sisters, for your support and solidarity as we battled the MTA during an extremely difficult series of contract negotiations. With your help, I’m pleased to report that we prevailed.
--We secured a tentative contract with solid annual raises of 9.8% compounded over three years – and $4,000 in Essential Worker Cash Bonus payments – that are substantially better than the city pattern.
--We held the line on healthcare costs, defeated efforts to cut subway staffing, and won an unprecedented expansion of maternity and paternity leave for members having children.
--We made sure that medical coverage will be provided to the families of our brothers and sisters who died after contracting COVID-19.
And we enhanced medical coverage for retirees. In the great tradition of trade unionism, we are taking care of our members as well as the old, the young, and the sick.
These victories, and others you will see in this package, were not easily obtained. The MTA took a hardline stance, not wanting to give an inch of ground on wages or benefits. In fact, the MTA wanted us to pay for our own raises and contract improvements through significant concessions and givebacks, including doubling our paycheck deductions for healthcare from 2% to 4%, and expanding OPTO with the removal of Conductors from trains. Those demands were defeated.
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