New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority made a
This filing delays the start of any labor disruption until July 19 at the earliest, an authority spokesman said.
"The MTA wants to resolve these contract issues at the bargaining table, where they belong. But the recommendations of the first presidential emergency board ignored the enormous burden that a 17% wage increase over six years - without a single change in work rules or other cost offset - would place on the MTA's budget," the authority said in a statement. "If those terms were applied across the entire MTA workforce, they would be equivalent to raising fares 12% - or cutting $6 billion from the capital budget for keeping our system safe and reliable."
The MTA's budgetary goal is three years of "net zero," or equivalent givebacks for pay increases. "In recent years our customers have seen fares rise while service was cut. Their employers have paid a new payroll mobility tax to fund the MTA. The MTA has cut almost $1 billion in recurring annual expenses," the authority said. "The MTA hopes the second presidential emergency board will take everyone else's sacrifices into account as it begins this process."
December recommendations of the first emergency board failed to settle anything.
"We are hopeful that a second board will assist the parties in achieving an agreement," LIRR president Helena Williams wrote White House director of intergovernmental affairs David Agnew.
Standard & Poor's rates the MTA's primary credit, transportation revenue bonds, A-plus, while Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service rate them A and A2, respectively.
