MTA, Unions Dig In for Strike Over Workweek

The critical issue driving the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its bus drivers toward a strike early Friday is management’s more-work-for-less-pay proposal, which envisions some drivers working four 10-hour days each week without overtime.

With the bus drivers union calling the proposal totally unacceptable--and the MTA refusing to withdraw it--the issue of longer workdays for less pay has driven the nation’s second-largest bus system to the brink of a devastating strike.

Julian Burke, the MTA’s chief executive officer, criticized the union’s refusal to negotiate Tuesday, and conceded for the first time that a strike appears imminent.

Burke expressed frustration with the union’s refusal to entertain proposals on the four-day week and other management efforts to rewrite what he called “antiquated work rules.”

“If we make no progress at all,” Burke said, “I certainly am going to recommend to the [MTA] board that they have to get ready to stand a strike because we haven’t had any reasonable negotiation.”

Goldy Norton, spokesman for the drivers union, said: “They are dug in. We are dug in. As long as they stay with the [four-day workweek], there is no way in the world we are ever going to get anywhere.”

Norton said union leaders told the MTA from the first day of negotiations last spring that the proposal was unacceptable.

“They were told they would not be allowed to destroy the work rules,” Norton said, calling the proposal a threat to the earning power of union members. “They refuse to accept the message. They are forcing this strike.”

The drivers union has set a deadline of 12:01 a.m. Friday for its walkout if no contract is reached. Unions representing MTA’s mechanics and clerks have said they will honor the drivers’ picket lines.

The issue thrusts the MTA and its unions into the heart of a national debate over how long commercial truck drivers, bus operators and others should be allowed to sit behind the wheel during each workday. Numerous studies link long hours behind the wheel to fatigue, stress and injury.

But the MTA sees the four-day workweek as a crucial element in a new labor contract to reduce costs and help pay for an ambitious expansion of bus and rail service.

The transit agency denies that there is any connection between driver safety and the 10-hour day, saying that the current contract dispute is all about money because the MTA train and bus operators already work long hours in their pursuit of maximum overtime.

Indeed, the MTA’s goal in the contract talks is also about money--the hourly cost of operating a bus. Burke said the agency already has reduced its cost from $108 to $98 an hour and wants to shave off an additional $2 with the new contract.

The United Transportation Union, which represents 4,300 bus and train operators, views the four-day-week proposal as a “take away” because union members would be losing overtime pay they now receive.

The MTA contends that its drivers make an average of $50,000 a year, with some making as much as an additional $20,000 in overtime.

The proposal is targeted at about 400 drivers, who now work split shifts that require them to be on duty 10 hours a day while being paid for eight hours. Currently, these drivers can work up to 10 hours a day and receive time and a half pay for the two overtime hours. Under the proposal, sometimes referred to as the “4/10/13 plan,” they would work four days, get paid for 10 hours, and be required to be on duty for 13 hours. The other three hours are spent on preparation and breaks.

Not only would the proposal deprive drivers of overtime pay that they now receive if they work a 10-hour day, but the MTA plans to reduce the demand for future overtime by moving in more part-time drivers to replace full-time drivers who retire or leave the MTA.

Expanding the dispute beyond pay and overtime issues, the bus drivers union contends that the work rule changes could endanger the public because of additional stress and fatigue on drivers.

Transit agency officials were particularly rankled when United Transportation Union General Chairman James A. Williams alleged that “we believe this is a serious threat to the safety and well-being of the schoolchildren and others who are dependent on public transit.”

MTA officials insist that money, not safety, is the issue. “If there is that much concern about drivers’ safety and fatigue, then why are they allowing their drivers to work so much overtime now?” asked Marc Littman, an MTA spokesman. “We are only targeting drivers who are working long shifts now.”

The issue of safety is especially critical to the MTA because the agency already has one of the highest worker injury claims rates in the transit industry.

The MTA raises the issue in a “talking points” background paper released concurrently with the negotiations. It points out that the transit agency’s workers’ compensation claim payment rate is six times that of New York City Transit. The MTA contends that it could operate almost 280 more buses a year for the $70 million in workers’ compensation claims it pays each year.

However, several recent studies indicate a link between long hours behind the wheel and fatigue and other health problems.

The California Employment Development Department notes in its occupational guide for bus drivers: “Current laws limit driving time to a maximum of 10 consecutive hours. Drivers who work a 10-hour shift may experience fatigue, particularly when driving in poor driving conditions.”

In drafting a law governing work days last year, the California Legislature declared: “Numerous studies have linked long work hours to increased rates of accident and injury.”

Federal regulators have long debated and experimented with limitations on the number of hours commercial truck and bus drivers can work.

A proposal studied earlier this year by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration led to a recommendation that the drivers on split shifts get at least nine consecutive hours off-duty during the 24-hour period with an additional three consecutive hours off-duty at some other point during the same 24-hour period.

“Tougher standards are being proposed for these drivers because of their high level of fatigue-related crash involvement,” a U.S. Department of Transportation announcement said last April. “Long-haul drivers have the highest number of fatigue-related crashes and regional drivers have the second highest number of these crashes.”

According to a research paper last year by the National Education Assn., a group that represents teachers and school bus drivers, reported a variety of repetitive stress injuries among drivers.

“The vast majority of drivers (88%) said they have experienced physical pain related to their work,” said the authors of the study. “The pain includes back, shoulder, elbow, hand, and knee problems, as well as headaches. Nearly half (45%) of the drivers said they have at one time considered, or do sometimes still consider themselves to be disabled. Almost two-thirds of the drivers (62%) said they experience moderate to severe pain some or most of the time.”

The study defined repetitive stress injuries as damage to the soft body tissues of the shoulders, arms, hands, upper back and knees.

Tom Conner, the MTA’s chief of operations, said most of the agency’s workers’ compensation claims involve bus operators. Their injuries can involve back problems from the driver’s seat bouncing when a bus hits potholes, repetitive motion injury from steering wheels, traffic accidents, violence against operators, stress, and slip and fall cases.

But Conner insisted that the four-day week could help drivers by giving them more rest time with an extra day off, and possibly reduce workers’ injury claims.

“[The four-day week] gives them an opportunity for more rest time during the week than they are getting today,” Conner said. “So we can’t have made it any worse than it is.”