“MARTA used to be the trendsetter” on pay, he said. The union says MARTA’s pay rates are far lower than comparable transit agencies nationwide and now even lower than some regional partners like Cobb and Gwinnett counties, where Dunams says he recently negotiated new contracts. He also claimed that current General Manager and CEO Collie Greenwood has incorrectly told employees in town hall meetings that MARTA is working on a cost of living pay increase, when the negotiating team has said no, creating a “conflict of stories.”īut MARTA says its “offers have all been substantially higher than have ever been negotiated,” including an 11 percent raise approved in the previous contract. Dunams says he has proposed raises in the range of 13 percent and that MARTA’s have been as low as 1 percent to 2 percent. Dunams praises Parker’s intent to “give a nice contract” in the next negotiations but says MARTA now says it’s a “burden” to give a substantial raise.Įxactly what is being sought is itself a matter of dispute and neither side gave specific numbers. 31 was a one-year extension, negotiated as a pandemic emergency move under former General Manager and CEO Jeff Parker, who died in early 2022. “ATU’s overall concern about outsourcing contracts – which we regularly do to support cleaning in the stations – is an attempt to increase union job headcount at the expense of cleanliness, efficiency and improved customer experience,” said Fisher. However, it also defends outsourcing of jobs. MARTA says it is “a proud union employer” that continues to offer fully funded pensions. MARTA says Jackson Lewis also represented the transit agency in the 2019 contract negotiations, “in which MARTA gave employees the biggest raises they’d seen in more than a decade.” The union is protected from “union-busting” by federal laws, MARTA says. Among the MARTA tactics now, Dunams said, is a request for a five-year rather than three-year contract that would make the next negotiations coincide with a union leadership election. The firm is widely criticized in the labor movement for representing firms and institutions that are attempting to stave off unionization and for a history of allegations of hardball tactics, though many of those date back more than 20 years. “We must draw the line, however, on their desire to now negotiate in the media.”ĭunams says MARTA is the one dragging out negotiations, in part through the hiring of the “union-busting” law firm Jackson Lewis to join in the talks. “We remain ready to settle this contract, but respect ATU’s insistence on a protracted process,” said MARTA spokesperson Stephany Fisher. MARTA says it “has been eager to bargain in good faith” and blamed the union for dragging out talks that began May 31, 2022. He said he spoke at the MARTA board meeting “because I’m trying to hold my members off… but if the company doesn’t recognize the strength of their employees, the employees might make an action.” Negotiations on the previous contract in 2019 included a sick-out by bus drivers. “They actually used to call us frontline heroes and they want to give us zeroes across the board,” Dunams told SaportaReport of the first post-pandemic contract negotiations. ATU 732 President Britt Dunams joined other workers in discussing the negotiation at a May 11 MARTA Board of Directors meeting where labor officials and liaisons from regional organizations and the Atlanta Mayor’s Office were in attendance. The contract negotiation is being watched closely by labor advocates. An underlying issue is actual and potential outsourcing and the ability to attract operators as MARTA plans major system expansions. After dragging on for nearly a year, contract negotiations between MARTA and its labor union are heating up with mutual accusations of delays and misinformation, and talk of workers staging an “action.”Īmalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 732 members are nearly five months past the expiration of a previous contract and apparently remain far apart from MARTA on pay rates, which they claim are lower than national and regional transit agencies.
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