If Gov. Cuomo thought his first half- year in office was tough, wait ’til he takes up his newest challenge: finding an MTA boss who can win affordable transit-union contracts.
That task became necessary when agency chief Jay Walder suddenly announced his plan to resign from the post in October — just as contract talks get under way.
And the need for such a replacement became even clearer last week when the agency announced its budget plans.
Unless the MTA can wring a fiscally manageable deal from its 59 transit unions — including a three-year pay freeze, as state-employee union leaders agreed to — some 9 million riders a day could face more fare hikes, more service cuts, shod dier maintenance, more delays in capital projects — or all of the above.
Can the governor find someone who’s up to it?
Cuomo certainly understands the need to curb labor’s appetite in light of Albanys’ fiscal ills — having gotten the state’s two biggest unions, the Civil Service Employees Association and the Public Employees Federation, to accept freezes.
Their members will also have to chip in more for their health-insurance costs.
And though both deals still need to be OK’d by the rank and file, they represent impressive gains — not just because they’ll help Albany close a budget hole without huge layoffs but also because they set a key precedent for other public-sector unions around the state.
Such as the transit unions.
Then again, the transit unions are a whole ‘nother ball of wax.
CSEA and PEF are tough bargainers — and often demand packages wholly divorced from fiscal reality.
But at least sometimes, like this year, they can be shown the logic of taking the lesser of two evils: freezes, like so many private workers faced over the last few years, or painful, large-scale layoffs.
Transit Workers Union Local 100 boss John Samuelsen, on the other hand, has already drawn the line against a similar deal for his members.
“Local 100 is not agreeing to zeros,” he wrote in these pages — ominously.
And the TWU, recall, is the union that staged an illegal strike — shutting down the entire transit system — during the cold, Christmas-shopping week in 2005.
What will happen this time around?
The $12.7 billion budget Walder released last week is indeed precarious. It avoids additional fare hikes or service cuts and closes a $250 million hole, but it also assumes the transit unions will do their share, follow the example of the state unions and accept freezes.
And for that to happen, the MTA and its riders need a shrewd and steely-spined bargainer driving the train.
Finding someone who fits that bill will be among Cuomo’s most essential missions over the next couple of months. Some 9 million riders are counting on it.