ST. LOUIS • Transit bus drivers, mechanics and other employees are expected to vote today on recommendations made by a neutral mediator in the Amalgamated Transit Union’s ongoing negotiations with Metro.
The union representing Metro bus drivers, MetroLink operators and mechanics is the largest at the agency at 1,500 workers. But citing a breakdown in talks, the ATU Local 788 took a strike authorization vote in June.
Both sides have been in nonbinding discussions for more than a year. Metro and the union have until this week to respond to the mediator’s findings.
“We’re split pretty much 50-50” on the findings, said Michael Breihan, president and business agent of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 788.
The union will vote to accept or reject the mediator’s recommendations dealing with retiree medical benefits, active employee medical benefits, pension and wages. But Local 788 filed a response late Monday that generally accepted the mediator’s recommendations for pay increases and preserving the pension.
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The mediator concluded that Metro should keep the workers’ traditional pension plan, with some revisions, instead of replacing it for future hires with a 401(k)-style plan, according to a copy of the report released late Monday.
Metro leaders say they fear the pension program will threaten the agency’s financial bottom line unless the change is made for future union employees. But union leaders insist the traditional pension could be salvaged.
On Monday, the transit agency criticized the mediator’s findings to keep the defined benefit pension plan and increase worker wages.
The mediator acknowledges the pension plan is “critically underfunded,” Metro’s lawyers say in response to the report, but “errantly and irresponsibly recommends a series of ‘Band-Aid’ solutions” put forward by the union.
Metro, in its response, added that the mediator’s recommended salary increases — which include a large retroactive pay hike — fail to “properly evaluate the agency’s ability to pay (the) increases without significantly impairing service to the public.”
The mediator also recommended following Metro’s proposals for current employee medical insurance and retiree health care.
Ken Leiser is the transportation writer at the Post-Dispatch. Read his Along for the Ride column online and every Sunday in the newspaper.
