Metro’s largest union said Monday it has won a major concession from management. Leadership of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents a majority of Metro’s workforce, said its threat of a strike, however, still holds until its other issues are resolved.þþMetro has agreed to hold a new “pick,” or job selection, for its 271 union-represented custodians, ATU Local 689 spokesman David Stephen said. The announcement is significant because Local 689 President Jackie L. Jeter said Metro’s reassignment of custodians from rail yards and bus garages to stations, without regard for seniority, represented the “last straw” precipitating union members’ July 15 vote to authorize a strike.þþUnder the agreement, Metro says it will return 33 of the 271 custodians to their previous work locations, which include “non-public” facilities such as rail yards and bus garages. But the transit agency said it retains the authority to outsource custodial jobs for those facilities. Metro agreed to hold a new work selection next week, the union said.þþ“Effective today, the parties have agreed to a resolution on the contentious issue of Metro custodian work selection,” Stephen said in a statement. “Local 689 now believes that WMATA has recognized its contractual violations.”þþAsked if the union and management were in agreement that Metro was effectively acknowledging such a violation, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said: “No.”þþThe union had alleged in two grievances and in U.S. District Court that Metro violated its collective bargaining agreement by reassigning the custodians without consultation from labor leaders. The agreement reached Monday took those actions “off the table,” Stephen said.þþThe development represented the first management concession since Local 689 members voted to earlier this month to authorize a strike, a potentially disastrous proposition that would bring the capital region’s transportation system to a halt. The union has laid out a list of grievances in a letter to elected leaders, including management efforts to cut costs by eliminating open positions and the outsourcing of certain operational work.þþStill, the “‘strike threat’ is unchanged until all the local’s issues that were outlined to Mr. Wiedefeld’s designees at the beginning of this negotiation process are negotiated,” Stephen said.þþThe union said negotiations will continue Tuesday. Union and agency leaders have met four times since the union’s strike vote, Local 689 said.þþEarlier Monday, Metro announced that it had reached a contract agreement with its second-largest labor group, AFL-CIO Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 2.þþThe five-year contract would provide modest wage increases for workers in exchange for larger employee contributions to their health-care costs. OPEIU Local 2 represents more than 1,000 administrative and office workers at the transit agency.þþ
Source: Washington Post
