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Our
current leadership turned down the Metro-North Management
Pension Plan during the 1999 contract negotiations. Instead
of negotiating the management pension plan, they decided
to continue with and improve the Vanguard Pension Plan.
Instead of securing a 1½% across the board Vanguard
pay increase for all union members, our leadership thought
of and pushed through the famous two-tier Vanguard payout
(4% for under19 years of service and 7% for over 19 years
of service). Their justification was “since our goal was
to increase the Pension Benefits of members reaching their
retirement ages who do not have ample time to allow their
Vanguard accounts to mature, the only alternative we felt
remained was to boost their Vanguard Contribution for the
remaining time they have prior to retirement. If we went
with a 1½% across the board increase, this increase
would not have achieved our goal of recognizing
members who did not receive any Vanguard Contributions for
years of service prior to 1989, it is important that we
begin to build the accounts of our senior members who have
not enjoyed this pension option in their early years”. What
about the long-term goals of the entire membership and future
employees? This leadership just favored the interests of
current senior employees.
In
other words, make the new and junior employees pay for the
golden parachutes of the senior employees walking out of
the door. “Don't worry, your day will come”.
Now
for our officers' most famous line concerning the Vanguard.
Can our Vanguard be taken away? “No. The only way to lose
your Vanguard is to negotiate it away. If we elect
union representatives willing to do that, we should have
our heads examined ”.
The
pattern of favoring the short-term interests of senior members
continues with this ACRE contract. Our leaders once again
favored the senior members, who again, received the lion's
share of benefits, while the junior and new members got
to pick up their tab.
In
1999, if our current leadership had forgone what was best
for a few retiring senior employees (Besides Engle, how
many employees actually retired between 1999 and 2002),
and instituted the Management Pension Plan, which would
have been most beneficial for all current and future employees,
we would have entered the 2003 – 2006 round of contract
negotiations in the same capacity as the Metro-North police.
We would have had already secured our pension, so what would
have been left, just work rules and wages. Instead our leadership
just favored the portion of the membership who had the most
votes (not only for the contract, but also for the election
of officers) and went along with their special interests.
Rate increases of 0-3-3-3 verses 3-4-6-8, no comparison
here.
Well,
how did it all turn out? How did our leadership's pattern
of following the popular senior contract vote bargaining
position work? Just ask any Metro-North police officer.
Ask any new employee how much is deducted from their paychecks
weekly for health and welfare benefits? This ACRE contract
has too many open-ended issues that must be resolved with
future wage concessions. The 3% salary cap and retirees
medical for starters. In 2000, the membership received just
a 3% pay raise. What type of pay raise did our ACRE officers
receive? ACRE officers negotiated and instituted their own
MTA Metro-North full-time salary release positions behind
our backs. Does anyone see a pattern here? The only thing
that can be agreed upon with our officers over the past
few years here, is that “ we really do need to have
our heads examined”.
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