A few weeks ago the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association reached an historic agreement with the city for workers on the Staten Island Ferry to receive the “prevailing wage,” more than doubling their salaries.

Engineers went from making $64k to $145k, while Chief Engineers went from $69k to $180k. Granted, they went 10 years without an increase in pay, but this is still a massive increase with huge retroactive pay. This was done because of a ruling made by the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) which required that these engineers be paid the prevailing wage (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22187518-meba-v-olr-prevailing-wage-case-aug-23-22).

What’s even more impressive is that they were able to get massive increases for workers not entitled to the prevailing wage. Mates went from $58k to 124k, Assistant Captains went from $63k to $138k, and Captains went from $71k to $180k! Maybe TWU Local 100 leadership should have a sit-down with MEBA leadership and find out how they were able to pull that off for the entire workforce.

In 2012 TWU Local 100 demanded that the MTA pay the prevailing wage to titles who perform construction-like work (https://www.twulocal100.org/story/local-100-demands-prevailing-wage-rates-members-working-capital-construction) .

According to the prevailing wage law, NYS labor law 220, jobs that perform construction-like work are entitled to be paid the prevailing wage, which is much higher than what we are currently being paid. For example, work train operators on the diesels at a worksite (who currently make $41.0125/hour) would be entitled to the wage paid to operating engineers, which is $73.45/hour in 2023.

What happened to that demand? Did the union file a complaint with OATH the way the MEBA did for the ferry workers? Of course the MTA would never agree to such a wage increase. This kind of stuff has to be imposed on them by a higher authority. The only reason the city agreed to these wages is because they were forced to. Local 100 has some questions to answer. I have searched and couldn’t find any rulings from OATH in regards to Local 100. If the union honestly believed these titles were entitled to the prevailing wage, why have they given up the fight? Or if they’ve been doing their job, should we be expecting a ruling from OATH in the near future? I hope it’s the latter.