Union: Lump-sum payment won't work
Heading into Thursday’s critical negotiating session with MTA managers, LIRR union leaders reiterated that they have no interest in a contract settlement made up of a one-time lump-sum payment.
On Wednesday, MTA chief negotiator Gar Dellaverson said the transit authority’s latest offer would give workers the financial equivalent of the 4.5% wage increase recommended by federal mediators, half a percentage point from the unions’ demands of 5%.
But rather than coming in standard wage increases, the money would be in a lump sum payment, which MTA officials have said would be more affordable for management over the long run.
In a statement Thursday, the coalition of five unions still “rejects the one-time payment gimmick,” in part because, without a real raise, wages would default to 2025 levels when the unions return to the bargaining table for their next contract.
“If the cost is no different to MTA as Dellaverson implies, than we will gladly take the money in a straight-forward wage increase,” Kevin Sexton, national vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and a coalition spokesman, said in a statement Thursday morning.
Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.
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