Public Employee Press

New Local 1655 members enjoy union benefits

About 20 Drug and Alcohol Technicians at the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority joined DC 37 Local 1655 in January and are now enjoying the security and benefits of a union job.

They are enrolled in the DC 37 Health & Security Plan, which provides the popular prescription drug benefit and vision, podiatry, legal and dental coverage. And they will be covered by the new economic agreement the union expects to negotiate with Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio.

"The union is there to represent me, so it's a good thing that we are in the union," said Keisha King, a Drug and Alcohol Technician Level 1.

The workers are stationed at bus depots, where they administer drug and alcohol tests to bus drivers in compliance with agency and federal regulations.

Before they were represented by DC 37, the Drug and Alcohol Technicians were at-will employees, which meant they could lose their job at a manager's whim. They got no premimum pay for holidays and had fewer paid holidays than DC 37 members. Now they will receive time-and-a-half and a comp day for working on a holiday.

"Many of our new members have already used the union benefits a lot," said Jonathan Gray, president of Metropolitan Transportation Authority Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1655, the workers' local union. "Their voice will be heard through the collective bargaining agreement."

At the beginning of the year, the union, New York City Transit and MaBSTOA signed an agreement outlining the workers' pay and benefits. Lisa Riccio, an assistant director of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept., said an important gain is that the workers are now entitled to a 10 percent night differential.

"These folks work rotating shifts, but they were not being compensated for putting in nighttime hours," she said. "The extra 10 percent means a lot to them."

Besides Gray and Riccio, the team that participated in the union's successful organizing effort included Organizer Nicole Laing, Council Rep Melroy Slowe and Assistant General Counsel Aaron Amaral.