Tentative Pact OKd by MTA and Key Union

The county’s transit agency and the union representing its bus and train supervisors have reached a tentative contract agreement, ending the prospect of a bitter strike, a union official said.

About 500 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union are slated to vote today on the tentative agreement, which was finalized late last week, according to union spokeswoman Susan Greenwood.

Greenwood said she expects union members will vote to approve the deal and put an end to two years of negotiations in which both sides repeatedly failed to find common ground on pay and benefits issues.

The union is small but important because its members are front-line supervisors, key to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s bus and train operations. Greenwood said the tone of the talks changed in recent weeks after union members voted to prepare for a strike.

Under the tentative deal, union members, who make an average of $63,000 a year, will be getting raises that will “balance out inequities in pay,” she said. It also calls for the stickier matter of improved benefits to be hammered out by a special task force of union and MTA leaders over the coming months, Greenwood said.

Negotiations with the supervisors union are regarded as a litmus test for the MTA. If the agency were unable to reach agreement with its supervisors, upcoming talks with its drivers and mechanics unions could prove to be more difficult.