March 20, 2010 · www.gothamgazette.com

Gotham Gazette

Gotham Gazette: Social Networking Print Story

Share Story


Union Fined $1 Million A Day
December 20th, 2005

State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones approved fines of $1 million a day against the Transport Workers Union for violating state law by going on strike, according to the New York Times.

By Mark Berkey-Gerard on December 20, 2005, 4:32 pm
In category: Transportation | 2 Comments »

| More

RSS Feed RSS Feed


2 Responses to “Union Fined $1 Million A Day”

  1. Larry Littlefield Says:
    December 21st, 2005 at 6:41 am

    The actual reason for the strike, and one of the few good things Pataki did in 11 years as Governor. Search for TWU 20/50 Pension Plan and read the comments of members and critics. They are striking to replicate the pension which, with debts (which Pataki, Giuliani et at have already provided) led to the collapse of public services and the economy in the 1970s.

    MEMORANDUM filed with Senate Bill Number 3325-A, entitled:

    “AN ACT to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to the establishment of a twenty-year retirement program for employees of the New York city transit authority who are subject to article fifteen of such law; and to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to providing for employer pick up, pursuant to provisions of the internal revenue code, of certain additional member contributions required to be made by participants in the twenty-year retirement program”

    DISAPPROVED

    This bill would establish an age 50/20 year retirement program in the
    New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS) for Tier IV employees of the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA). Current employees could elect to participate by filing an irrevocable election with NYCERS within 45 days of the establishment of the plan. New employees would be required to participate, provided that new employees over the age of 41 may elect not to participate. Participants would be authorized to retire upon attaining age 50 and completing 20 years of allowable service, and would receive a retirement benefit equal to 50% of final average salary (FAS) for the first 20 years of service, plus an additional 1.5% for each additional year, capped at 30 years (or 65% of FAS). In order to receive this enhanced benefit, participants would be required to contribute an additional 5.5% of salary until they complete 20 years of allowable service, and in any case must pay such additional contributions for at least one year. The actuary retained by the proponents of the bill estimates that there would be no cost to NYCTA in this fiscal year or in any subsequent fiscal year. The Chief Actuary of the City of New York, however, estimates a fiscal impact of approximately $103.8 million per year, excluding health costs. The bill would take effect immediately.

    While I appreciate the important services provided by transit workers,
    I am constrained to disapprove the bill based upon the objections of the
    Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and the Mayor of the City of New York, who contend that this type of enhanced benefit should be the subject of mutual agreement through collective bargaining. In addition, both the Mayor and the MTA also note that the bill would impose unbudgeted costs on the MTA in this particularly challenging fiscal environment. Moreover, the bill suffers from serious technical deficiencies, including the failure of the bill to provide the usual requirement that the employee provide 30 days of notice prior to retirement. Accordingly, I am constrained to disapprove the bill.

    The bill is disapproved.

    -George Pataki

  2. mark Says:
    November 3rd, 2007 at 6:29 am

    no problem, with enviromental conditions, steel dust, asbestos. noise, back aches, you sue for disability, this then will cost billions. so we don’t need a 20/50. any md will tell you the cancerous effects of working in the subway, in fact my wife is a nurse, and when the union was on tv and the mayor, fighting over the pension, the doc stated “anyone who works in the subway should have a 15 year pension due to the health problems in the subway. so disability time and lawsuits are on the way. this is where politics fail.

Leave a Reply


RSS Feed