Gov. Cuomo 'saves' MTA-Transport Workers Union 100 contract deal

Gov. Cuomo 'saves' MTA-Transport Workers Union 100 contract deal
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/gov-cuomo-saves-mta-transport-worker...
Like the "White Knight from Mount Kisco," Cuomo helped get the new contract with retroactive raises and improved benefits negotiated for bus and subway workers. “Everything was being orchestrated,” one government official said to me. “All of it. The timing. When it was done. How it was done. Nothing was left to chance.”
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Sunday, May 4, 2014, 5:43 PM Updated: Monday, May 5, 2014, 11:57 AM

TINA MACINTYRE-YEE/AP
Transport Workers Union Local 100 sent a letter urging Cuomo to get personally involved in negotiations on April 16.
If the latest episode of the MTA-TWU drama seemed a bit scripted, it’s for good reason.
It was scripted.
In what might be dubbed the “Fairy Tale of Albany” or the “White Knight from Mount Kisco,” the hero who saved the day was Gov. Cuomo. He came to town during Holy Week and helped get a new contract — with retroactive raises and improved benefits — for some 34,000 bus and subway workers who have been toiling without one for more than two years.
This wasn’t a covert maneuver. It was more like Paul Revere coming to town, but in a souped-up muscle car.
On April 16, Transport Workers Union Local 100 set the stage for the charade rescue with a letter that urged Cuomo to get personally involved in negotiations.
A Cuomo staffer pushed the theme in a phone call with me that night. Local 100 and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had made some progress but not on major issues like wages and health care costs, he whispered. The administration staffer would only talk on “background,” meaning his name or position was not to be printed.
“They are far apart on the big stuff,” the staffer said.
In reality, much of the contract had been hammered out by the two negotiators: MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast and TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen. The two men had been meeting privately for days at MTA headquarters — and at Cuomo’s Midtown office.
On Thursday, the next day — the very next day after the staffer said the two sides were far apart — the White Knight announced that a new contract had been achieved.
“Everything was being orchestrated,” one government official familiar with the Holy Week crusade said to me afterwards. “All of it. The timing. When it was done. How it was done. Nothing was left to chance.”
Local 100 was more than willing to go along with whatever script came from Albany in order to get the deal, which doesn't have "zero" percent raises for any of the years it covers and beats the emerging municipal wage pattern.
MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg challenged that characterization.
Samuelsen and a spokesman for Gov. Cuomo also said the characterization was untrue.
“These negotiations were private, but there are two incontrovertible facts about them -- the deal wasn't finalized until the afternoon they were announced, and it never would have happened without the governor getting personally involved.”
If the deal is ratified, bus and subway workers will get get an immediate 4% raise, at a time when when the MTA had been demanding a wage freeze or significant work rule changes. Workers also will get improved dental and vision plans. No wage freeze. No work rule changes.
Cuomo did help seal the deal by getting the MTA to agree to extra sweeteners for Local 100, like healthcare for the spouses of deceased retirees.
It was all in the script. Nothing left up to chance for a governor running for re-election.
PDonohue@nydailynews.com
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/gov-cuomo-saves-mta-transport-worker...