Ending a two-year impasse, the MTA and the union for subway and bus workers in the city have agreed to a new contract that includes 8% raises over five years and will not increase the base fare beyond existing plans, Gov. Cuomo announced Thursday.
The deal, brokered with the help of the governor, calls for the 34,000 members of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 to receive 1% retroactive pay raises for 2012 and 2013, and 2% pay increases for 2014 through 2016.
It also includes two weeks’ paid maternity and paternity leave, and improved dental and optical benefits. Worker contributions to health care costs would increase to 2% of base pay, up from 1.5%.
“It was a long negotiation,” said Tom Prendergast, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “What we have here is a fair wage settlement for employees, an agreement consistent with our financial plan.”
The agreement, which must be approved by the MTA board, came after Local 100 President John Samuelsen wrote to Cuomo on Tuesday night, requesting that he help overcome stumbling blocks in negotiations.
The terms of the deal could influence contract talks with several other MTA unions, particularly ones for LIRR workers.
Cuomo said the deal would have little bearing, however, on Mayor de Blasio’s efforts to reach settlements with 152 municipal unions whose workers are laboring under expired contracts.
“I think these are separate situations,” Cuomo said. “The mayor will negotiate his contracts separately.”
The MTA’s budget plans call for the base fare to increase by as much as 4% next year.
“The MTA had earlier raised the possibility of a much higher fare increase, one at double the rate of inflation,” the Straphangers Campaign said in a statement following the announcement. “In the wake of widespread public outrage, the MTA pledged no more than a four percent increase, and possibly even less if the agency’s finances continued to improve.
“The devil is always in the details. So like many others, we reserve final judgement until we study the management-labor contract.”
clestch@nydailynews.com
