GCRTA contract with ATU ties wage hikes to agency performance



On Monday, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s (GCRTA) board approved a contract agreement with the agency’s largest union, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 268.


Union members voted on April 3 to accept the contract, GCRTA officials said in a prepared statement. ATU members have been working under the terms of the current contract since it expired in August 2009.
Under the new agreement, eligible ATU members will receive a 3 percent wage increase, consistent with the increase in GCRTA revenue between 2010 and 2011, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2012.

In February 2013, ATU members could receive a wage increase of up to 3 percent based on GCRTA’s realized revenue increase between 2012 and 2013; in February 2014, workers could receive a wage increase of up to 3 percent based on the agency’s realized increase in revenue between 2012 and 2013. No wage increases will be awarded if revenue does not increase.

Members also will increase their contributions toward health insurance and copayments, and will receive credits for healthy lifestyle activities such as being a nonsmoker and getting annual physicals.

Also, full-time workers will receive a one-time payment of $1,000 and part-time workers, a payment of $500, in lieu of retro activity for 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The agency “is excited to make this agreement that ties a wage increase, if any, to RTA’s ability to pay those increases,” said GCRTA General Manager Joe Calabrese. “This is the only way to assure that if RTA’s services to the public are stable or growing.”
The ATU represents about 1,700 out of 2,300 GCRTA employees.

The Fraternal Order of Police, GCRTA’s police union, agreed to similar terms in July 2011.