New MTA Chief Takes Stand on Pay Raises

New York, NY —

New MTA chairman Jay Walder says his agency is right to have appealed an arbitration ruling that gave transit workers a pay raise. In August the Transport Workers Union was granted an 11 percent hike over 3 years, but Walder says the arbitrator didn't follow the Taylor Law, which governs public employees. "The arbitrator is required to make a decision on a specific set of legal criteria. And our legal arguments indicate how the arbitrator had failed to make a decision on the basis of that criteria," Walder said.

In response, union spokesman Jesse Derris says the MTA has failed to show the court how the arbitrator's decision was arbitrary or capricious. He says unless it does, a court will reject the MTA's appeal. Transit workers are holding a protest march across the Brooklyn Bridge this evening, demanding that the MTA give them the raises.