Onorato rejects transit union's offer of concessions

Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato this evening again rejected a cost-cutting proposal offered by the union representing Port Authority workers in hopes of averting layoffs and transit service cuts.

The rejection made it highly likely that the layoffs and cuts will take effect as scheduled on Sunday.

The union offered immediate pay cuts of 10 percent for its workers and to forgo a scheduled 3 percent raise next January -- concessions that union president Patrick McMahon estimated were worth $18.6 million.

Mr. Onorato's office would not comment on the rejection, or confirm it. Spokeswoman Megan Dardanell said it was a matter of ongoing labor negotiations.

The union said it would not consider two alternate cost-cutting proposals that Mr. Onorato presented Thursday night. Both call for wage freezes, pension and health care givebacks, and overtime and work rules changes.

"We're not going forward with those," AFL-CIO spokesman Marty Marks said this evening. "They are disingenuous."

Officials of the Port Authority, union and Allegheny County had scrambled all day to reach an agreement to head off scheduled service cuts and layoffs on Sunday.

The union-drafted proposal was rejected this morning by Mr. Onorato at a meeting with Mr. McMahon, who then stormed across town to ask the Port Authority board to postpone the service cuts.

After going into private session for an hour, the board announced that authority staff and Mr. Onorato's office would vet the union offer to determine its true value, and notify the union by 5 p.m. today whether it was acceptable.

If that had happened, the union would have had until 3 p.m. Saturday to have its rank-and-file take a ratification vote.

Both of Mr. Onorato's plans, in addition to union givebacks, also called for a 25-cent increase in the authority's $2.25 base fare on July 1 and a $9.2 million increase in the county's annual subsidy payment to the authority, which currently stands at $27.7 million.

Mr. Onorato's proposals use the mixture of union concessions and new revenue to boost the authority's financial position by about $30 million a year.

The authority board meeting became tumultuous, with opponents of the service cuts shouting vulgarities at board members and CEO Steve Bland. One person was ejected by police.

"We're doing what's in the best, long-term interest of our customers," Mr. Bland said amid a chorus of catcalls before the board recessed. "Nobody wants this to happen."

The meeting was halted before the board voted on final approval for a contract with a private bus line that wants to provide some North Hills service to replace routes on the chopping block. That matter will be on the agenda when the board reconvenes at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Before the board meeting, Mr. McMahon angrily emerged from a meeting with Mr. Onorato at the County Courthouse, saying the executive had shot down the union's cost-saving proposal.

As he headed to join a rally outside Port Authority headquarters on Sixth Avenue, Mr. McMahon yelled, "They want to throw the labor movement under the bus. They want to bust this union."

Outside the headquarters, about 150 people carrying signs and sounding horns gathered to protest the impending cuts.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

First published on March 25, 2011 at 8:35 am