Pa. Turnpike workers get new contract after 4-year impasse

After more than four years of negotiations, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has reached agreement on a new contract for about 1,100 unionized maintenance, toll collection and administrative employees.

The new deal, reached late last month and approved by the commission’s board on Tuesday, grants workers pay increases of $1.50 an hour over three years as well as a $500 signing bonus. The employees had been working under a contract that expired in October 2011.

The raises include 50 cents an hour retroactive to Nov. 1; 40 cents an hour on Oct. 1; and 30 cents an hour on Oct. 1 in 2017 and 2018. Wages before the new contract ranged from $19.86 an hour to $23.32 an hour and at the end of the contract the highest hourly wage will be $24.82 an hour.

Teamsters Local 250 in Pittsburgh represents maintenance and toll collection workers in the western part of the state and Teamsters Local 77 in Philadelphia represents those workers in the eastern part of the state as well as administrative employees at the turnpike’s central administration building in Harrisburg. Neither union could be reached for comment.

Turnpike Commission Chairman Sean Logan issued a statement in which he noted the lengthy negotiations to reach what he called a “cooperative outcome.”

“The new contract represents a fair deal for both the PA Turnpike Commission and our unionized workforce including modest wage improvements, operational flexibility, better management of healthcare cost growth and provisions designed to clarify portions of the contract language and avoid conflict and confusion,” Logan said.

One key area the new agreement doesn’t address is the turnpike’s ability to reduce the work force as it moves toward a cashless fare payment system without toll collectors. The previous contract allowed for the number of toll collectors to be reduced only by attrition and there was no change in that provision, said turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo. — (AP)

The turnpike is developing two new areas that will use a cashless toll system — relying on EZ Pass or bills mailed to drivers based on photos of their license plates — but DeFebo said that Logan has told the unions no toll collectors would lose their jobs as a result of those projects.

The employees will maintain their commission-paid health insurance coverage as long as they agree to participate in a wellness program that will include a phone interview the first year, a comprehensive blood workup the second year and a routine physical the third year. Beginning in October, employees who chose not to participate in the wellness program will pay 5 percent of their health insurance plan.

Source: The Philadelphia Tribune