MTA, Mechanics Union Tentatively Accept Pact

Ending the most bitter round of labor negotiations in years, leaders of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Amalgamated Transit Union have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract covering more than 1,860 mechanics and maintenance workers.

The tentative agreement, which was signed late Thursday, must still be ratified by the transit agency’s Board of Directors and union members. Mechanics joined the 32-day strike that shut down the MTA’s bus and rail operations this fall.

“We got a good contract,” union President Neil Silver said Friday. “I feel happy. It’s a fair contract in light of the financial constraints the MTA is under.”

Silver said he and MTA chief executive Julian Burke signed the tentative pact. MTA officials refused to comment, but said the agreement will be considered at a special closed-door board meeting Wednesday.

Silver also declined to discuss terms of the agreement. It was approved by the union’s executive board but a vote by the rank and file will not come until next week or early January.

The union leader said the pact “straightens out inequities” in the previous contact and represents a good deal after nine months of bargaining.

The mechanics union walked off the job Sept. 16 in support of 4,400 MTA bus drivers and train operators who went on strike after contract talks between the United Transportation Union and the transit agency broke down. The walkout effectively shut down the nation’s second-largest bus system, the Metro Rail subway and two light-rail lines, forcing 450,000 weekday riders to find other transportation.

The MTA board maintained a hard line during the walkout, demanding work rule changes to reduce the hourly cost of operating bus service. The drivers union ultimately agreed to a three-year contract that allows the MTA to reduce overtime and hire more part-time workers.

Silver said the mechanics’ agreement is retroactive to July 1, when the old pact expired. The new contract will run for 27 months, meaning that the MTA could again face labor unrest in the fall of 2002.

Silver would not say what concessions the union made. The MTA had been insisting on a variety of contract changes, including a provision to allow the agency to use less expensive maintenance workers to remove graffiti from bus windows and seat covers.