Bad faith

To the editor:

The state legislature has passed a budget that requires $400 million in “efficiency savings,” in other words, concessions from the union, in the middle of contract negotiations with TWU Local 100. 

“Bona fide legislative action taken during the course of collective negotiations can violate the Taylor Law if it has a chilling effect on the negotiations.” (Lefkowitz on Public Sector Labor and Employment Law, Fourth Edition (2 Vols), Editors: William A. Herbert, esq.; Phillip L. Maier, esq.; Richard K. Zuckerman, esq.). 

What’s worse is that MTA CEO Janno Lieber has admitted to asking for that provision of the bill to be put in place so he could seek concessions from the union that we know he otherwise could not obtain through good-faith negotiations. Local 100 is negotiating as if nothing happened and the MTA’s contract proposal is going for blood: Less vacation time; less night differential; eliminating the weekend differential; double our health-care contribution; and eliminating the payment of time-and-a-half for time worked after eight hours, which unions have historically worked so hard to obtain in order to ensure that the employer doesn’t overwork the workers on a daily basis. 

Local 100 should file an improper practice charge with PERB and suspend any negotiations until a ruling is made. How can a union negotiate for fair wages and benefits with a $400 million cloud over its head? More than 100 Local 100 members were killed by Covid, the most of any government agency in the city and probably the country, and we were supposed to be compensated for the hell we went through the past three years with substantial hazard pay. 

Now it appears that we will in fact have less than we do now because Local 100 refuses to call on the state for violating the Taylor Law.

Ben Valdez