Metro is appealing binding arbitration on its largest union contract, saying it does not have the money to pay for 3 percent wage increases.
The panel called for giving the union members a lump sum payment for last year equivalent to 2 percent of annual salaries, then 3 percent raises for each of the next three years.
A three-member arbitration panel issued the split decision late Wednesday to end a contract dispute between the transit agency and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents about 7,700 of Metro’s some 10,000 employees.
» Average hourly wage: bus operators $23.68, train operators $25.52.
» Metro’s average employee pay: $66,756, before benefits.
Source: Metro
The agency agreed to pay the $8.6 million lump sum, but said Thursday it planned to appeal the raises, which would cost $96 million over four years.
“We think the panel ignored the law,” Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. “If they were following the letter of that law, they would have known we are facing a budget gap.” The agency is anticipating a $144 million shortfall next year and is falling short this year because of lower ridership.
Farbstein noted that the jurisdictions that subsidize the system have had to cut back. Montgomery County employees, for example, agreed to forgo across-the-board pay increases. “A 3 percent annual wage increase is out of line with what other people in the region are seeing,” she said.
ATU Local 689 declined to comment, with leaders saying they needed to share the news with their members first.
The arbitration decision did not give the union all they wanted. Workers will have to pay more for health insurance premiums and co-payments. Any new hires after this year won’t get retirement health benefits. And the union had asked for 6 percent wage increases, while Metro had sought 1 percent lump sums for the first two years.
The arbitration decision did not give the union all they wanted. Workers will have to pay more for health insurance premiums and co-payments. Any new hires after this year won’t get retirement health benefits. And the union had asked for 6 percent wage increases, while Metro had sought 1 percent lump sums for the first two years.
“It is unusual to appeal a transit arbitration decision, however these are very unusual economic times,” said Arnold Zack, the former president of the National Academy of Arbitrators who teaches at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program.
In New York, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is appealing an arbitration decision that calls for increasing pay 11.3 percent over the next three years.
But Zack, who has helped mediate transit union contracts including at Metro, said arbitrators usually consider an agency’s ability to pay. “I assume that the arbitrators looked at all the evidence from the agency saying ‘we can’t pay’ and the union saying ‘here’s the money’ and decided they can pay for it,” he said.
Employees have been working under the terms of the old contract, which expired June 30, 2008. The appeal to U.S. District Court could take at least six months, Farbstein said.
