What Was That About Again? No, Seriously . . .

The MTA and the Transport Workers Union reached a settlement on a new 37-month contract, striking a deal that — for current transit employees — is in fact worse than what was first offered by the MTA:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the transit workers’ union announced a settlement yesterday in which the authority abandoned its demand for concessions on pensions and the union agreed to have all workers pay a portion of their health insurance premiums.

Last night the executive board of the union, Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, voted 37 to 4 to approve the tentative 37-month contract. One member abstained. The city’s 33,700 subway and bus workers are expected to vote on the agreement early next month; some are expected to oppose it out of unhappiness over having to pay toward health premiums for the first time.

The agreement calls for transit workers to pay 1.5 percent of their wages toward the premiums, cutting into the raises they receive. That comes on top of the fines of slightly more than $1,000 that most transit workers face for participating in last week’s illegal transit strike.

The new contract includes raises of 3 percent in the first year, 4 percent in the second year and 3.5 percent in the third year . . . in other words, exactly what the MTA offered to the union just before it went out on strike.

And instead of pension contributions for future employees, now all transit workers will contribute money towards their health care premimum. So going out on strike not only cost the average transit worker $1000 but now they will have to pay for health care as well. Smart, smart move.

Transport Workers Union board members were ecstatic:

“These were huge items for our membership,” said Marvin W. Holland, a station cleaner and board member who voted to approve the contract. “If it took a strike to get it, so be it. I think this is an overwhelming success.”

Meanwhile, in an impressive display of moving goalposts, TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint apparently decided that all he had to do was outdo Philadelphia transit workers’ recent contract:

One union leader close to the talks said Mr. Toussaint was eager to be able to show his union’s members that he delivered a better contract than the one received by 5,000 Philadelphia transit workers after their one-week strike last month.

The Philadelphia workers received raises of 3 percent a year for three years and their union agreed, for the first time, to have workers pay 1 percent of their wages toward their health premiums.

Mr. Toussaint agreed to higher premiums but he can say he obtained bigger raises than the Philadelphia union received.

It’s admirable to “refuse to sell out the unborn” — the recent police contract that lowered rookie pay to around $25,000 was an egregious example of a union selling out its “unborn” — but I find it very difficult to believe that current transit employees will be happy about actually getting a worse deal by upholding that noble principle. They should vote down the contract. And I would totally understand why.