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MBTA unions file lawsuit to block benefits cuts

E-mail|Link|Comments () September 17, 2009 11:17 AM

By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

The MBTA’s unions have filed a lawsuit to block the state from cutting worker benefits, which are considered among the most generous in the country for a transit agency.

To read the lawsuit, click here.

The reduction in MBTA benefits is a cornerstone in a sweeping transportation law passed this year that was a top priority for Governor Deval Patrick. No other single change is expected to bring as much savings to the state.

The law requires MBTA workers and retirees to join the state health care plan beginning in July. That plan is less generous and the change is estimated to save the state $30 million a year. Retired workers who have long received free health care will have to begin paying a portion of the costs, for example.

The new law also ends the MBTA’s “23 and out” retirement provision that allows workers to collect substantial pensions after 23 years on the job, regardless of age. The change in the law will affect only new hires, but it will require them to work 25 years and reach the age 55 before qualifying for regular pensions.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday afternoon in Suffolk Superior Court, seeks to overturn those provisions in the new law. It argues that they violate existing labor contracts, which the state promises to protect when it seeks federal grants.

“Massachusetts and the T have taken billions of dollars from the feds over the years,” said Douglas Taylor, one of the lawyers representing union workers. “To get that money, they had to promise the feds and the unions and the employees that they would protect the employees.”

The Boston Carmen’s Local 589 Union newsletter, posted on the union website, explains the impact of some of the changes in announcing the legal action. It said the impact of moving to the state plan, known as the GIC, would vary for existing employees.

“However for each retiree, who must begin paying part of their pension toward the premium for health insurance or who live out of state (where little or no GIC coverage is available) the economic impact can be potentially devastating,” the newsletter states.

A spokesman for state transportation secretary James A. Aloisi, Colin Durrant, said the office only received the suit yesterday and would not immediately comment.