What is ACRE to do? ACRE and the promotion of retirement at age 62 with a 20% cap on overtime earnings for new hires.

ACRE is committed to a contract similar in terms to the Metro-North Coalition agreement. This contract contains changing the retirement conditions from age 55 with 30 years of service to age 62 and capping overtime earnings at 20% of an employee's base pay for new hires. ACRE is in full “ACRE contract promotion mode”, circulating misinformation concerning components of the proposed agreement and demeaning the value of the Teamsters agreement. Misinformation serves ACRE's interests in several key areas. Erroneous information keeps the membership off balance. The appearance of each new bargaining position creates the illusion that ACRE is actually negotiating a contract. ACRE is attempting to discover a viable concept to sell the contract to its membership. Member reaction after receiving misinformation provides ACRE with feedback, if a positive reaction, ACRE confirms, if negative, ACRE will deny. Why would ACRE delay releasing this contract for ratification? It could not possibly be because of the hand held computer issue or the relocation of the GCT crew facility. Either of these issues could be negotiated separately from the collective bargaining venue. The hand held computer should be negotiated as the carrier nears a date for implementation of the device for on board ticket collection. The crew facility issue can be negotiated as the construction on the new facility progresses. The Railway labor Act provides the ability to negotiate these issues separately. A labor organization should retain leverage to attain a fair settlement of the issues.

During the ACRE Local Division 1 monthly meeting on June 20 th , Bottalico received questions regarding the age 62 with 20% cap for retirement concerning new hires. Apparently members are concerned that in future contract negotiations the MTA will attempt to place all employees in the age 62 with a 20% cap, pension plan. A member inquired if a sidebar agreement is possible guaranteeing all current members employed at the time of the contract ratification would be exempt from the new pension tier. Bottalico's response was evasive. Bottaloco's reply to similar concerns was that ACRE did not have to accept age 62 with a 20% cap in the future for all members because the MTA defined pension plan could only be altered by action of the State Legislature. That statement is not true. The MTA defined pension benefit is not a state pension. This pension was obtained by collective bargaining and ACRE is currently negotiating to raise the retirement age and overtime earnings cap for new hires.

ACRE officers are informing members the Teamster contract is not a good deal. A recent Westchester Journal News article mentioned that the Teamster contract was valued at 8% higher than the Metro-North Coalition contract. The Teamsters claim the figure is closer to 12%. ACRE contends in their synopsis of the June 20 th meeting that a faction of the Teamsters actually received 1% less than the Coalition. The cost of a contract is computed for the total cost factor of the entire agreement, and is not divided into segments. ACRE is attempting to convince members the Teamsters contract is not a good agreement because ACRE has already accepted the Metro-North's Coalitions contract terms.

The officers of UTU Local 77