Metro, union dispute racks up legal bills
By: Kytja Weir
Examiner Staff Writer
November 16, 2009
The contract dispute between Metro and its largest union is costing both sides tens of thousands of dollars.
Already Metro and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 have paid $60,000 for arbitration to settle the contract, according to the agency.
Arbitrators handed the workers a win, so now the transit authority and the union are racking up legal fees that Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said could cost up to $75,000 more. Those costs do not include all the staff hours spent on the issue over the past 18 months.
Metro says paying to fight millions of dollars in raises is worth the cost of legal fees.
The transit agency and union that represents more than 7,000 Metro employees have been at an impasse over a new four-year contract since May 2008. The arbitration panel was supposed to solve the problem.
But the day after the arbitration decision earlier this month, Metro said it planned to appeal it. The agency formally filed the appeal on Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, said Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel.
The union, meanwhile, already filed its own case, asking the same court to enforce the decision from binding arbitration.
The transit agency has agreed to pay $8.6 million in raises ordered by arbitrators as a 2 percent lump sum for workers. But the agency contests the order to provide 3 percent raises in each of the next three years. Metro says the arbitrated pay package would cost the agency $104.5 million overall but couldn't break out the exact cost of the 3 percent raises. But it appears this year's increase would cost Metro about $13 million in implemented.
The transit agency has agreed to pay $8.6 million in raises ordered by arbitrators as a 2 percent lump sum for workers. But the agency contests the order to provide 3 percent raises in each of the next three years. Metro says the arbitrated pay package would cost the agency $104.5 million overall but couldn't break out the exact cost of the 3 percent raises. But it appears this year's increase would cost Metro about $13 million in implemented.
Metro has argued that the arbitrators did not follow the law, failing to take into account the transit agency's ability to pay workers the 3 percent raises.
But the lead arbitrator, Richard Kasher, who was chosen by both sides, wrote in his decision on the contract that he had "given full consideration to the economic conditions."
The union, meanwhile, says that the transit agency has plenty of money and did not prepare for a settlement it knew was coming.
Last spring Metro cut $19 million from this year's budget for the anticipated wage settlement and personnel costs, even though its finance staff called both actions "high risk."
Some workers have also complained that Metro is fighting the raises just after the board gave General Manager John Catoe a better deal when it renewed his contract in September. On top of his existing $375,000 salary and housing allowance, he will receive an annual $6,000 wellness perk and $27,000 per year for retirement.
