Metro-North contract dispute takes toll on rail workers

(Original Publication: February 5, 2007)

Dan Liberati doesn't blame the railroad for his financial woes.

The fact that the Metro-North Railroad foreman hasn't gotten a raise in five years because of a protracted labor dispute is only one reason among many that Liberati is now forced to downsize from his cozy North Castle home.

Of course, as the disagreement between a coalition of railroad unions and the railroad wears on, edging toward the possibility of a strike in August that no one really wants, it's the reason foremost on his mind.

Liberati, 53, who works in the railroad's structures department, said he and his fellow union members aren't holding out just for more money. Part of the problem, Liberati said, is that under the terms proposed by Metro-North, union members wouldn't see any of the 3 percent raise that management has proposed they receive for 2005. That's because Metro-North wants them to start contributing 3 percent of their gross wages toward their pensions. Until now, the railroad has contributed 7 percent of the weekly salary for employees with 19 years of service, and 3 percent for those with less time, while the union members had made no contributions. Another wrinkle is that the company wants them to start paying for their rising health-care costs by contributing 1.5 percent of their first 40 hours of weekly gross wages, with no cap on how high their contributions could go.

"That is more than the raise we're going to get, so we're losing money, in my eyes," Liberati said. "None of the union guys want this problem. All we want is to be treated fairly."

Liberati contacted Going Places after he saw another union member's comments in The Journal News, and saw, as other union members did, that this other foreman had earned $100,000 last year with lots of overtime. He wanted riders and readers to know that unlike conductors and engineers and railroad employees in some other jobs, some of whom can make $30,000 to $40,000 in overtime, he and his men have few opportunities to work extra hours and so take home much more modest paychecks. Liberati said he earned about $59,000 last year, and his pay had never topped $60,000. At these rates, he said, going without a pay increase for five years really hurts.

"We owe so much money, I don't know if we can hang on," he said, sitting at his kitchen table with his wife, Kelly, by his side. "Our only hope is to put the house for sale. If I had that $1,000 raise by now, maybe I wouldn't have had to sell. But a lot of it is my own doing. I can't blame the railroad."

The house where they've lived for eight years, the first one they have owned after 29 years of marriage, went on the market last month for just under $600,000, but Liberati said he'll be lucky to have a little something left after all his bills and the banks are paid. Liberati, born in Yonkers and reared in Valhalla, figures he will wind up moving up the line, commuting as lots of other railroad workers do, from the upper reaches of Dutchess County. He has been with the railroad for 23 years. The college graduate joined the railroad after another career, installing safety equipment, didn't pan out.

With the high cost of living in Westchester, both of his 20-something sons still live at home. One is a project engineer, the other is a Metro-North ticket agent. Liberati dipped into his home's equity to put them both through college and to pay off credit-card debt, and then dipped in again to renovate his home. When he took out the last adjustable-rate loan three years ago, Liberati thought a contract settlement would soon be reached.

"We were already three years into it, and I thought it couldn't be much longer," he said.

With one of the sons working and sleeping at odd hours, his wife is busy keeping their home ready to show at a moment's notice. She has had to rouse their ticket-agent son, who works nights, from his bed so Realtors could show the home, tidying the place to perfection before they arrive. She lost her secretarial job a few years ago and plans to renew her job search as soon as their house sells. The rent they get from a tenant in their legal accessory apartment helps, as does the rent both sons have been paying.

"If it wasn't for them, we would have lost the house to the bank, let alone make ends meet," Liberati said.

Another festering problem Liberati and other Metro-North workers have with the proposed terms, which haven't changed since the summer when union leaders rejected them, is that they do nothing to address a sizable pay gap between Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road workers who are paid more to do equivalent work. The gap goes back to the railroads' formerly separate history.

"We're hoping the new governor will be more mindful of the situation," Liberati said. "Twelve years of Pataki didn't get us parity with the Long Island Rail Road. For some reason, we're getting left behind on the pay scale. Parity is a huge issue with us. If we can just get close ... "

A presidential emergency board appointed to review the arguments on both sides was indifferent to the parity issue. The board's recommendations focused on the railroad's parent agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, having worked out similar deals with several other unions, and said the authority was following a pattern.

"I don't think the commuters realize our struggle," he said. "We can't walk out. We'll starve before we take the deal they're presenting us. We've gone five years on the job trying to keep morale high. We just want the riders to understand our situation."