New York Transit Union OKs Tentative Deal

[papau]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NYC_TRANSIT_STRIKE?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

Dec 28, 5:28 AM EST


New York Transit Union OKs Tentative Deal (MTA is a Pataki state agency, Bloomberg had no say but likes deal)

By NAHAL TOOSI Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- A tentative contract for transit workers reached after a three-day strike stopped the city's buses and subways is heading to union members for final approval.<snip>

The deal, announced late Tuesday by union President Roger Toussaint, requires workers to contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries toward their health care premiums. The union previously paid no health care premiums.

Pay would increase by 10.9 percent over three years. It does not require new employees to contribute more to their pensions, which had been a sticking point in negotiations.<snip>

<snip>The contract also would establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday and provide paid maternity leave for workers, who previously had to use sick leave. It also would not raise the retirement age for new hires from 55.<snip>

[closeupready]

1. So a 2% raise the first year,

when you subtract the 1.5% health care premium co-pay from the roughly 3.5% first-year raise. Stingy.

[corporate_mike]

4. Not really

Your calculation would assume that health premiums equal their salary.

[closeupready]

5. Incorrect - 1.5% of their salary = 1.5% of their salary

subtract that from the roughly 3.5% annual raise (for the first year) and you get about 2%.

[ny_liberal]

10. That's a lousy raise

n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Actually this appears to be a modest win for the union.

The MTA was trying to move the retirement age from 55 to 62, add a 6% pension contribution from new hires and a larger increase in health insurance contributions.

The whoremedia is playing this as a management victory over a confused and misguided union leadership, but I beg to differ: management caved under pressure and the basically union held the line on their pension and health benefits, added in modest pay raises, improved retiree health benefits and improved work rules. You will have to search through the corporate bullshit to figure this out though.

[papau]

3. I agree - the media slant was as always anti-union. n/t

n/t

[Psephos]

6. Wish I could get that deal n/t

[papau]

7. Average pay is $15 per hour after 10 years of service - you do not get

rich under that contract.

[closeupready]

8. Nope, not in New York.

Let's not forget that the price of real estate - that thing which drives all other prices up or down with it - has skyrocketed in the last 10 years.

[Psephos]

9. Like I said, wish I could get that deal n/t