Metro is suing one of its unions, fighting an arbitration panel’s decision to give union workers raises and to limit the hiring of outside contractors in their place.
The transit agency filed the suit against the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 2 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia late Thursday, a surprise decision after the agency lost a similar and expensive suit just six months ago.
“The federal district courts in D.C., Maryland and Virginia have all enforced arbitration awards against Metro, so the odds aren’t really in their favor,” the union’s attorney David R. Levinson told The Washington Examiner.
The union represents just over 700 white-collar employees at the agency such as the workers who monitor trains in the operations control center, secretaries and aides. All told, they represent less than 7 percent of the work force.
“We regret that this creates uncertainty for our employees,” Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said. “However we are appealing because the arbitration board’s award would interfere with our ability to supplement our work force using contractors, which could slow down much-needed safety and state-of-good-repair improvements.”
Since 2007, the agency has eliminated 116 of the Local 2 positions, legal documents show. The union has argued that consultants are now earning higher pay rates to do similar work. Metro had at least 34 contracting firms working for the agency in fiscal year 2008, according to the arbitration documents.
The three-person arbitration panel ruled in its Jan. 13 decision that Metro could not hire contractors in place of the union workers. Metro would need to bring back qualified laid-off workers first.
The decision also called for the union members to receive a 2 percent lump sum payment for the 2008 fiscal year, then 3 percent raises for each of the subsequent three years. However, health care benefits would end for retirees who started working at the agency after 2009.
The court papers do not spell out how much the wage hike would cost Metro, but back-of-the-envelope calculations put it around $18 million over four years.
Stessel said the ruling for raises hadn’t taken into account the financial challenges facing Metro.
But Metro lost a separate high-profile fight after spending some $1.5 million in legal fees over a similar arbitration panel decision with its largest union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, just six months ago. That union represents 70 percent of the agency’s workers, including most bus and train operators.
The Local 2 arbitration panel had postponed making a decision on the contract that expired in 2008 until the bigger fight with ATU Local 689 was resolved. For some 25 years, the smaller union’s contract has mirrored the pay raised in the bigger union’s contract.
