MTA reaches deal with largest NYC transit union — subway, bus workers in TWU Local 100 offered raises over three years, and bonuses

By Evan Simko-Bednarski | New York Daily News

NEW YORK — The MTA has struck a tentative deal with the city’s largest transit workers’ union after a month of contract negotiations.

The roughly 40,000 bus and subway workers with TWU Local 100 will get raises over three years under the terms of the deal, along with a $4,000 pay bonus.

Members would receive raises of 3% in the contract’s first year, 3% in the second year, and 3.5% in the third and final year.

The deal would also give transit workers 12 weeks’ paid maternity leave and four weeks paid paternity leave. That’s up from the current contract, which provides two weeks or paternity or maternity leave.

“These victories, and others you will see in this package, were not easily obtained,” Local 100 president Richard Davis said in a message to union members Wednesday. “The MTA took a hard-line stance, not wanting to give an inch of ground on wages or benefits.”

The contract would also extend medical coverage to the dependents of members who died from COVID-19, and pay for therapy for members’ autistic children.

Davis had called both issues “stumbling blocks” when talks faltered earlier this month.

The bonus — which the union is calling an “essential worker bonus” — will consist of $3,000 in the first year of the contract and $1,000 in the second year.

The contract also increases pay to maintainers and articulated bus drivers, and includes improvements to dental and vision benefits.

The contract, which was approved Local 100′s executive board Wednesday evening in a 39-2 vote, will need to be ratified by a majority of union members before going into effect. A TWU spokesperson said that vote is expected to take place in the next six weeks.

MTA spokesman John McCarthy confirmed the tentative agreement, but declined to comment on the details.

“We are grateful for the leadership of Gov. Hochul and the New York State Senate and Assembly for passing a budget that secures mass transit, and we acknowledge the hard work and dedication of both negotiating sides to reach this point,” McCarthy said in a statement.

The union had initially asked for six months of parental leave and the establishment of a “COVID remembrance day” in honor of the more than 110 TWU Local 100 members to die from the disease.

The MTA’s demand that members double their healthcare deductions from 2% to 4% was rejected in the final deal.

“We held the line on healthcare costs, defeated efforts to cut subway staffing, and won an unprecedented expansion of maternity and paternity leave for members having children,” Davis told his members.

Contract negotiations began in earnest in April, and extended just over two weeks past the expiration of the outgoing contract.

While Davis said the union “gave them hell at the bargaining table,” the contract fight was short and civil in comparison to earlier deals.

Contract talks in 2019 stretched over six months of bitter negotiations, in which the MTA accused union leaders of encouraging work slow-downs.

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