April 19, 2013
By NYC Council Candidate Ben Kallos
New York, N.Y. – The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has been proven to be hypocritical in its unequal treatment of senior management versus regular employees, according to compensation documents obtained by Ben Kallos, a City Council Candidate for the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island.
“No contract for workers – no contract for the Chair!” exclaimed Kallos. “The MTA’s rewarding of executives while punishing workers is hypocrisy, especially when using tax dollars.”
None of the MTA’s 54,000 union employees have current contracts. In stark contrast, both of the past MTA Chairmen had generous employment agreements.
“The MTA Chair must not accept a new contract until every one of his employees also has a current contract,” suggested Kallos. “The next MTA Chair can immediately save taxpayers millions currently spent on lawyers instead of riders by ending unnecessary arbitration of MTA employee contracts.”
All of the MTA’s 54,000 workers that are represented by unions are currently working on contracts that have already expired. The MTA is currently negotiating contracts that when adopted would already be expired.
In 2012 the MTA paid former Chief Operating Officer Charles Monheim $285,000 after his demotion. On Chairman Lhota’s departure in December, Lhota granted $253,000 in pay raises and payouts to three members of senior management, stating “there’s nothing more sacrosanct in common law than contracts being honored.”
**Benjamin Kallos is NYC Council Candidate for District 5 to succeed Jessica Lappin.
