Banker & Tradesman file photo
The main union representing MBTA workers says it’s negotiated a new contract with the agency aimed at taking a bite out of the agency’s employee retention crisis.
Jim Evers, president of the Boston Carmen’s Union (Amalgamated Transit Union Local 589), plans to join Gov. Maura Healey, MassDOT Secretary Gina Fiandaca and MBTA General Manager Phil Eng to formally unveil the deal at the Red Line’s Cabot Yard at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“The landmark deal signals increased efforts by the administration to ensure the authority retains experienced and trained workers with the larger goals of shoring up MBTA workforce numbers and ensuring the availability of quality service for all riders,” the union said in its announcement of the press conference.
While the T has been recruiting at its fastest clip ever, Eng told WBUR’s Radio Boston on Tuesday, it’s still failing to bulk up staffing levels enough to fill the thousands of critical safety and operations positions that federal transit regulators say it needs. The most visible face of this staffing crisis, for riders, has been long wait times between trains and unreliable buses due to operator shortages.
These service problems, along with rampant and tough-to-rein-in slow zones on the T’s subway lines have been partly blamed by many in the downtown business community for the challenges getting employees to return to the office full-time, along with a related increase in traffic on Greater Boston’s roads.
Data presented at a July 13 MBTA board subcommittee meeting showed the T had only added a net of 321 staff year to date despite making a total of 768 external and 288 internal hires due to 115 retirements, 131 “voluntary separations,” 127 hires who did not start and 74 firings. The data showed departures from the agency began accelerating in July as the Federal Transit Administration’s report landed, detailing extensive challenges before the agency.
Advocates blame the staffing problem on decades of under-investment in the T by Beacon Hill and select malign incentives in T workers’ previous contract, management inattention to recruitment problems in years past and a hiring freeze imposed under the Baker administration during a significant portion of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Carmen’s Union said the new contract being announced Wednesday will run for four years. It adds wage increases and longevity bonuses aimed at retaining workers, including “targeted” salary increases for hard-to-fill positions like welders and overnight workers, and recruitment incentives like signing bonuses that have been offered by the T as part of its recruitment drive. It also includes quality-of-life measures like improving bathroom access for T workers, expands bereavement leave to cover domestic partners and “clarifies” language in the contract covering instances where riders assault T employees, which the union described as “an increasing problem.”
The new contract comes just over two months after the T announced a deal with the union that would let it dramatically speed up bus driver hiring by eliminating a longstanding requirement that drivers start on a part-time basis.
It also comes as the state’s unemployment rate hit a record low of 2.6 percent, upping pressure on the T and all employers looking to fill posts. The same July 13 presentation stated the T had only hit 77 percent of its goal to hire 2,088 people during its July 2022-June 2023 fiscal year, even though it had increased hiring a dramatic 69 percent over the prior 12 months.
