The ACRE- Are we truly leading or just following in everyone's footsteps ?

Everyone is aware the UTU Committee on the Long Island Railroad settled their contract establishing the tone for our current contractual situation. ACRE will follow the UTU’s lead and include the defined pension benefit to their list of requirements to settle a contract on Metro North. Before the UTU settlement, ACRE did not promote or pursue this benefit in contract talks with the MTA.

Since 1994, the LIRR UTU Committee has either set the pattern or influenced our bargaining status on Metro North. The conductors and trainmen on Metro North have not gone ahead of the LIRR since January of 1991. Local 77 signed, at that time, for a 15% pay increase over a three year period. Ed Yule, the LIRR UTU General Chairman, settled his contract soon after, but found the wage offer from the MTA had changed. He agreed to a 5% wage increase in each of the first two years of the agreement, and a 0% increase for the final 6 months of the agreement, for a contract two and a half years in duration. He also included expedited arbitration for his next contract, assuring him the ability to seek self help, or strike, within provisions of the Railway Labor Act if he reached impasse in the collective bargaining process. The expiration date of the contract was
June 30, 1994. In early 1994, prior to the expected showdown between management and the UTU on the LIRR, Jim Phelan presented to his members an ill-advised contract offer that included a zero percent increase in the first year. This offer was poorly timed for several reasons, but primarily because Ed Yule was expected to exercise his right to strike in July. Reportedly, the zero percent increase was “set in concrete” by then Governor Cuomo. Phelan’s membership rejected the contract proposal, and the first year zero was withdrawn when Ed Yule struck the LIRR for approximately two weeks in July 1994. After the LIRR UTU agreed to a contract, Phelan signed a deal in November 1994 including expedited arbitration for the next round of collective bargaining. This allowed Tony Bottalico to utilize the option in the summer of 1995 and threaten a series of one day job actions that led to Local 77 presenting their collective bargaining request to a Presidential Emergency Board in early 1996.

Our contract that expired on 12/31/02 was also a result of the LIRR UTU settling an agreement ahead of Metro North’s train and engine service unions in January of 1999. The wage package was the same for both the LIRR and Metro North. The LIRR General Chairman, Mike Canino, also enhanced the offset applied to the defined pension benefit for his 1974 through 1987 members. This change means thousands of dollars more per year in the pension allocation for these members when they retire.

And now, at this juncture, we are in the same situation that has prevailed the past few collective bargaining sessions. Essentially this is what ACRE claimed would not happen with the formation of their union. By banding several crafts together and negotiating on a united front, ACRE would potentially establish the contract pattern. This has not proven to be true in theory or practical application.