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Message from the Council Chair - April 2004

With contract approval, Metro Transit is back in business

I’m enormously pleased that the transit union ratified a new, two-year contract, ending the 44-day-long bus strike. The new labor agreement is expected to be approved by the 17-member Met Council on April 28.

We eagerly welcome back our valued employees, and we’re working hard to win back our riders. Metro Transit resumed its full schedule of service beginning at 1 a.m. Monday, April 19.

The strike was painful for everyone—union members, managers and especially transit-dependent riders. But we believe the new agreement will help us slow the skyrocketing cost of health care benefits and permit more transit dollars to be used for transit service.

The contract will add about $19.3 million in costs over two years, or $4.3 million more than the Council's previous offer. The additional money will come from the money saved by Metro Transit during the strike and changes to health care. In comparison, the union's final comprehensive contract proposal would have cost an additional $37 million.

For bus riders, the good news is that Metro Transit will be able to avoid further debilitating fare increases or major reductions in service. Key elements of the agreement include replacing the current health plan for active employees with a new plan that is more affordable for both Metro Transit and its employees. It increases the existing co-payment for prescriptions from $7.50 to $12, institutes a $10 co-payment for physician visits and contains other cost-sharing measures that will encourage our employees to be prudent purchasers of health care.

The new health plan will reduce employees' monthly premiums for family coverage from the current $265 to $216 for 2004 and to $259 for 2005. The premiums will continue to be zero for the nearly half of ATU members who have single coverage. For Metro Transit, the new plan will reduce its costs for health insurance by about $700,000 a year, or 4 percent.

Again, I’m glad that we’re back in business providing transit service to the region.

Peter Bell

April 2004