Port Authority, union head for showdown

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_562093.html

By Jim Ritchie
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, April 13, 2008

The demands that brought labor talks to the brink of a Port Authority bus strike three years ago might seem like child's play this year.

CEO Steve Bland said his goal is to have the 2,400 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85 receive the same benefits -- at the same cost -- as managers and other non-union workers.

"We have to get to parity," Bland told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in discussing the upcoming labor talks.

According to authority figures, parity would require union workers to pay 13.1 percent of the price of health premiums rather than the 3.3 percent they started paying in 2005. It would mean they work more years before retiring. Workers would no longer receive health care coverage for life, among other changes.

Those are the key moves Bland envisions will be required to satisfy Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, who vowed in November to withhold transit revenue generated by new taxes on alcoholic drinks and rental cars until the agency cut labor costs.

"We're really only asking to make the same sacrifices that others in the same organization have already made," Bland said. "It's not exactly an easy sell."

FULL story at link.