If you know a bus or subway worker, drinks are on him or her.
Transit workers overwhelmingly ratified a contract with retroactive raises that means each will get a check for several thousand dollars, union officials announced Monday afternoon.
The deal — granting annual raises of 1% for each of the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 and 2% raises for 2015 and 2016 — is expected to be approved by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board.
The 34,000 bus and subway workers also will get an improved dental plan and two weeks of paid maternity or paternity leave — but will face higher insurance premiums. The deal calls for health care contributions to go from 1.5% to 2%.
The MTA had demanded a three-year wage freeze or work-rule changes to pay for any raises but eventually settled for less.
“We fought back hard and walked away with raises in every year of the contract, unprecedented gains in our medical benefits and avoided major concessions,” Transport Workers Union Local 100 President John Samuelsen said. “Our members recognize that and have ratified the contract in an overwhelming and unified fashion.”
The contract was approved with 12,400 union members voting in favor and just 2,600 voting no — the largest margin of passage ever for a Local 100 contract ratification.
The new deal runs from Jan. 16, 2012, to Jan. 16, 2016. By the end of the pact, nearly all bus drivers will make the top rate of $67,444 a year and train operators will top out at $71,765 annually, before overtime.
Most workers will get retroactive raise checks of between $3,000 and $5,000.
The contract also promises all but one bus model will be outfitted with partitions to protect bus drivers from assaults by Jan. 15, 2017.
And within three months, the MTA will put a DNA kit on each bus to help identify lowlifes who spit on drivers.
Line-of-duty death payments to families of transit workers fatally injured on the job will increase to $250,000 from $100,000.
The MTA did not secure any work-rule changes in the negotiations, but new hires will have to wait a few more years before getting the top hourly rates for their job titles.
