Four MBTA unions agree to a one-year freeze in wages

The unions represent about 500 administrative employees, electrical workers, engineers, and welders. Their one-year wage freeze will save the cash-strapped Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority about $1.66 million - or 1 percent of the deficit.

Twenty-four other unions have not reached agreements with MBTA management on the wage freeze, include the largest bargaining unit, the Boston Carmen's Union, which represents drivers.

While Governor Deval Patrick and MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas thanked the unions for their "shared sacrifice," officials acknowledged T riders should still expect to see significant changes in service, and possibly fare increases.

If unions representing all of the more than 6,000 unionized employees accepted a wage freeze, it would save $17 million, about 10 percent of the total deficit. As a result, Grabauskas said, he has not been able to assure union leaders that a wage freeze would forestall layoffs.

"When you're $160 million in the hole, there's not a lot you can offer," Grabauskas said in a telephone interview yesterday.

He said he is hoping that enough unions will accept wage freezes to demonstrate to lawmakers that the agency is committed to keeping costs down as the T seeks additional state revenue.

"We need to do everything we can to try to put our house in order and show that we have brought to the table as much as we can to balance our budget," said Grabauskas, who makes $255,000 a year and is not accepting a raise for the second-straight year.

The T appealed directly to the Carmen's Union yesterday to accept the wage freeze. The 3,200-driver union is currently battling the T's new policy prohibiting drivers from possessing cellphones while on the job. Grabauskas issued the policy, which goes into effect today, after a T driver admitted that he was sending a text message when he rear-ended a Green Line trolley two weeks ago, sending about 50 people to the hospital.

Union officials called the all-out ban "profoundly unfair" and suggested in a grievance filed Friday that a rule prohibiting drivers from turning on cellphones would be more acceptable.

Grabauskas said the T would begin enforcing the ban today, saying stickers have been affixed to vehicle dashboards as a final warning to drivers to ditch their cellphones before beginning a route.

Stephan MacDougall, president of the Boston Carmen's Union, did not return a message seeking comment.

One of the unions to accept the freeze was the seven-member welders union, which is the smallest bargaining unit in the sprawling agency. The members all make $70,200 a year in the blacksmith shop at the T's main repair shop in Everett. Their unanimous decision to forgo $2,808 raises next year will save the T just under $20,000.

"If we all give it up, it's a substantial amount of money," said Michael DiClemente, business agent for the welders union, Local 651.

"When times are good, we obviously want to get as much as we can. If you go on that premise, then you should also, as a good union member, say that when times are bad, members should share in the losses."

The T's unions are entering the final year of a four-year contract hammered out by an arbitrator. Under the contract, unionized employees received 3 percent raises in each of the first three years, and they are due a 4 percent raise in the final year. The unions that agree to a wage freeze are agreeing to delay the fourth year of their contract for one year.

Members of the Office and Professional Employees International (Local 453), Welders (Local 651), and Professional and Technical Engineers (Local 105) have voted in favor of the wage freeze. The board of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (Local 717) has endorsed the freeze but has not yet taken the plan to its membership for a vote.

John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com