By Philip Newman
The MTA approved a $13.5 billion budget for fiscal year 2014 week in its monthly meeting, which included a long discussion of whether to set aside $25 million to increase transit service and loud appeals for raises from restive transit workers nearing two years without a union contract.
Before the vote on the budget, two members of the board, Mitchell Pally, of Suffolk County, and Allen Cappelli, of Staten Island, broached the subject of whether a fund of $25 million ought to be reserved for restoration of bus and subway service.
“There are significant places where this fund can be used,” Pally told the board. “We have people who wait 60 and 90 minutes and if you miss the train, you wait 90 minutes more. That’s unacceptable in today’s world.”
In the end, the board voted to table the matter for additional consideration until April.
Nearly 20 public speakers took the rostrum before the board’s business meeting began starting with John Samuelsen, president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union.
Samuelsen told the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that the transit workers had worked tirelessly day and night to bring back the city’s transportation system from disaster resulting when rivers of water poured into subway tunnels from Hurricane Sandy.
“We are certainly not asking for the stars,” Samuelsen said of the workers’ demand for a labor contract. “We’re looking for raises that keep up with the cost of living.”
His appeal was followed by a long line of representations, many vituperative, from members of Local 100.
The 35,000 employees have had no union contract since Jan. 15, 2012.
The MTA has said it must have three years of no pay raises if its financial plan for financial recovery is to succeed.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at timesledgernews@cnglocal.com or phone at 718-260-4536.
