By GREGORY N. HEIRES

MTA New York City Transit has pledged to spend $750 million for union members to manage construction of the planned 2nd Avenue subway.

The agency has also given Local 375 a less ironclad commitment that it will assign city architects and engineers major responsibilities in the final design phase. Local 375 President Claude Fort estimates this job at $250 million, bringing the total value of the work the local has won to $1 billion.

The union local won the pledge after it waged a campaign of several months to protest the contracting out of preliminary design work.

"Because we made our voice heard in a big way, Transit has apparently backed off turning this important project into a gold mine for contractors," said Mr. Fort. "We will make sure Transit sticks to its word on keeping a significant portion of the work in-house."

In the fall, Local 375 leaders were outraged over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's approval of a $200 million contract for preliminary design work with the firm DMJM+Harris ARUP (DHA).

Because firms chosen for preliminary design typically also win the contract for the final plans, Local 375 was worried that the decision of MTA, New York City Transit's parent agency, meant that members wouldn't participate in the job.

Local 375 launched a campaign to show that keeping the design work in-house would save taxpayers' money at a critical time, with the state and city facing major budget problems. A Local 375 study shows that doing the work in-house would have saved $250 million out of the total cost of $600 million for the preliminary and final designs.

In the campaign, Local 375 worked with Transit Workers Union Local 100 to reach out to politicians. The Public Employee Press ran a major article about the possible waste of taxpayers' money, and the local media covered the story as well.

In April, Local 375 held two major demonstrations in front of New York City Transit's 2 Broadway office."The publicity and demonstrating forced Transit to listen," said Local 375 Treasurer Robert Mariano, who heads the local's chapter at the agency.

On April 30, Mr. Fort and Mr. Mariano headed a Local 375 delegation at a meeting with Mysore L. Nagaraja, senior vice president and chief engineer at MTA New York City Transit. After expressing his displeasure that the local's campaign put the agency in a bad light, Mr. Nagaraja said Transit was willing to assign a significant portion of the 2nd Avenue subway project to city professional workers.
Specifically, he said that Transit plans to use in-house engineering staff for program management during the design and construction phase. The estimated cost of that work is $750 million.

At the meeting, Mr. Nagaraja said that the agency would also use the in-house staff during the final design phase instead of contracting out all of that work. These responsibilities would include design work on signals, electricity and stations.

In a May 1 letter to Mr. Fort, Mr. Nagaraja reaffirmed the agency's plan to keep the $750 million design and construction management in-house.

But regarding the final phase, Local 375 is concerned that Nagaraja's letter said only, "final design components will be considered for in-house design."

In a follow-up letter to Mr. Nagaraja, Mr. Fort underscored his concern about the apparent backpedaling. "With respect to final design it is our understanding that agreement was reached that the in-house engineering staff will perform major parts of the final design, such as signals, station design, electrical, etc.," Mr. Fort wrote in a letter to Mr. Nagaraja on May 20. "These design services should not be in a 'will be considered' category as mentioned in your letter."

The 2nd Avenue subway construction, which would cost about $15 billion, isn't approved yet. The project would extend the subway line from the 125th Street area to Lower Manhattan.