Transit workers rally over disputed wage agreement

Hundreds of members of Transport Workers Union Local 100 and their supporters marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall yesterday in a self-proclaimed "Day of Outrage," organized to protest the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's refusal to increase worker wages.

In August, an arbitration panel awarded MTA workers an 11.3-percent wage increase over the next three years. The three-person arbitration panel — consisting of one impartial public member, one individual representing the employer (the MTA) and one representative of the employee organization (Local 100) — was appointed to decide the stipulations of transport workers' employment in February. The MTA rejected the panel's decision, and is now appealing to overturn the ruling.

Yesterday's protest began in Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn at 4 p.m. as ralliers distributed union ponchos and bandanas. Local 100 workers gave speeches and led chants such as "No Contract, No Peace" and "Take a Hike, Mike."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg does not support the arbitration panel's decision; he claims the MTA cannot afford the wage increases.

Others, like Local 100 leader Roger Toussaint, disagree.

Toussaint told media in August that Bloomberg approved wage increases for workers in a private conversation last October.

"[Bloomberg] used us politically," train operator Larry Smith, 53, said yesterday. "It's like he's trying to get rid of unions."

Brooklyn City Council member Charles Barron spoke at the rally, emphasizing New York's surpluses and Bloomberg's deception. He encouraged "power to the people."

"We got to get on board with the union. [They] are right," Barron said.

Yesterday's event was the second "Day of Outrage" this month. Local 100 members held a similar event Oct. 13, which was accompanied by rumors of a slowdown. The union last organized a service slowdown in 2005, shortly before MTA workers went on strike.

Ashley Mason is a staff writer.