Big-ticket MTA projects like the Second Avenue subway could be in danger if its largest labor union doesn’t agree to cost-cutting measures, the agency warned yesterday.
A day after Transport Workers Union Local 100 bosses laid out a laundry list of demands — including “fair” wage increases — the MTA pushed back with a financial plan that left little room for labor’s wish list.
The 2012 proposed budget relies heavily on the TWU — which crippled the city in a Christmastime strike in 2005 — accepting either no raises or slashes to benefits that will save the MTA money.
Not doling out any raises for three years will save the agency $323 million, according to MTA Chief Financial Officer Robert Foran.
But even more importantly, no raises will stop the agency from immediately plunging $181 million into deficit in 2012, he said.
That deficit is projected to balloon to $513 million by 2015 if the 34,000 TWU members on the MTA payroll get raises.
Although those deficits are in the operating budget as opposed to the capital plan — which funds mega-projects — the two are inextricably tied.
That’s because the operating budget pays off the debt needed to fund the capital plan.
Deficits in one could doom the other, Foran said.
“They really are that linked,” said Foran. “Achieving that fully funded capital program requires that balanced financial plan.”
But TWU president John Samuelsen said workers shouldn’t be punished because the city’s mass transit is routinely underfunded by the state.
“It’s unfair,” he said.
In addition to expecting the powerful TWU to suddenly abandon its calls for pay raises, the MTA is also relying on a host of sources, including state subsidies and tax revenues that are dedicated to the agency.