Saturday, June 27, 2009

Defending Seniority And Pay

Some of the issues that led the Unions charge for an Arbitrators decision Stemed back to the day after Thanksgiving agreement that secured pay and extras for operators who opted to stay for them. But as time moved forward Management in the Department of Buses tried to implement a special schedule for all other holidays.
In as early as May 2009 the Management team for the Department of Buses met with the Union From the OA and TA to discuss the issues of the elimination of the M6 route, due to the reroute of Broadway instituted by Mayor Bloomburge, transfers of operators to fill shortages and making July 3rd a Saturday print.
The Unions position was to save the M6 in which we did through our friends in Albany but the issue of transfers was a all together a different animal because the Department of buses was going to violate seniority to fill their shortages. The Union requested that things be left alone or give us a General Pick The MTA refused.
On June 1,2009 the summer pick was originally scheduled to begin, but 2 issues prevented that from happening.
Management wanted to transfer operators where they needed them and make Friday July 3rd a Saturday print to reduce the cost to the Agency. The TWU Local 100 took the issue before the Arbitrator who ruled that the Authority is not permitted by contract to change weekday pay to Saturday pay but can use the changed print just as long as weekday pay is preserved. Also the issue of transferring was decided in favor of the Union where a mini consolidated pick would be conducted in full seniority order that was to effect about 482 operators This issue turned out to be a win for our Union because we defended the issue of Seniority

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