Demonstrate with DC 37 and
Civil Service Technical Guild, Local 375

Wednesday, April 24, 12 Noon
Thursday, April 25, 4:30 p.m.

In front of Transit Authority Headquarters
2 Broadway, in lower Manhattan.

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Local 375 wants to torpedo the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's plan to farm out the engineering plans for the biggest expansion of the subway system in decades.

Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 charges that the MTA would squander millions of taxpayers' dollars by contracting out the project rather than assigning the work to its in-house engineering staff.

"It doesn't make sense, in the middle of this major budget crisis, for any agency, including the MTA, to be wasting taxpayers' dollars," said Local 375 President Claude Fort. "Our members know the subway system backwards and forwards; that is a knowledge base that no outside contractor can match."

"Unfortunately, the 2nd Avenue subway seems to be turning into a boondoggle," said Local 375 Treasurer Robert Mariano, who is president of the local's chapter at MTA New York City Transit, where an estimated 150 engineers would be assigned to the project if it were done in-house.

"Our members would be able to bring in this work more quickly at a much lower cost than a private firm," Mr. Mariano said.

In November, the MTA, whose board oversees MTA New York City Transit, approved a $200 million contract with DMJM+Harris ARUP (DHA), an engineering firm, to do the preliminary design work for the 2nd Avenue subway. The project would provide service between the 125th Street area and Lower Manhattan.

Typically, the firm chosen to do the preliminary plans also gets the contract to draft the final plans. That means that DMJM stands to earn $600 million.

Leon Soffin, a Local 375 retiree and adviser on privatization, estimates that the Local 375 members would be able to complete both phases of the planning work for $250 million less than DMJM - saving 42 percent of the total consulting fee.

Mr. Soffin analyzed the project while working closely with a team of Local 375 engineers at MTA New York City Transit. The profit factor, higher salaries at DMJM and in-house oversight explain the difference between the costs of contracting out the work and doing it in-house, Mr. Soffin said.

"The public should be outraged by this. It's a real waste of our tax dollars," Mr. Soffin said. "The savings our members would generate could pay for five new high schools at $50 million apiece. By keeping work like this in-house, the MTA could help keep subway fares down."

Transport Workers Union Local 100 is supporting Local 375's effort to derail the privatization of the 2nd Avenue subway work.

Both unions have registered their opposition with top MTA officials, and they are working together to inform politicians about the waste of tax dollars.

The DC 37 Legal Department is studying whether the MTA violated federal contracting guidelines when it awarded the contract to DMJM.

Mr. Fort, Mr. Mariano, Mr. Soffin and Mitchell Feder, chair of the Local 375 Anti-Privatization Committee, have met with U.S. Congress member Jerrold L. Nadler and a top aide of U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer to criticize the privatization scheme. The local also has written U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly member Catherine T. Nolan, who sits on the Capital Program Review Board, which must sign off on the project.

"We are going to keep the pressure on," Mr. Fort said.

"Our members have the expertise and dedication to do a more efficient job than the private sector. It's in the public's interest to bring this work in-house."