A Maryland congressman says he was insulted by a letter from a transit union president Monday calling his bill to overhaul Metro “heartless” and “cruel.”
Hanley denounced Delaney’s bill, the WMATA Improvement Act of 2017, which would overhaul Metro’s board and labor practices in exchange for $750 million in federal matching funds over 10 years. Hanley said the bill targeted wages and benefits to union employees and represents a push toward privatization.
At one point, Hanley called the bill “among the most outrageous proposals ever put forth by a Democratic member of Congress in recent memory.”
In his response Tuesday, Delaney said Hanley’s letter was rife with misrepresentations.
“My legislation does not touch any union protections,” he said. “Let me say that again for an abundance of clarity: my legislation does not touch any union protections, contrary to what you allege both directly and indirectly in your letter.”
In a phone interview Tuesday, Delaney expanded on his position, saying that while he believes Metro should be allowed to outsource maintenance work where possible — as it already does in some cases — his bill doesn’t target the agency’s workforce. He noted that his legislation preserves safeguards on wages outlined in the federal Davis-Bacon Act. The bill also requires smaller labor concessions than likely legislation from Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), who is expected to present her Metro overhaul bill in coming weeks.
“I don’t mention arbitration,” Delaney said in an interview. “I’m not supporting changes there. I’m saying that the management team, the board and the unions need to figure out how to improve this system because it’s failing my constituents.”
Delaney’s bill does not outline a stance on the issue of binding arbitration, which Comstock, other Republicans and some business leaders seek to eliminate to cut labor costs. Delaney says he would leave the issue up to the new board.
Hanley said in his letter, “The bill holds hostage hundreds of millions of sorely-needed dollars from WMATA until our collective bargaining agreement is changed to allow the transit authority to ‘implement all necessary operational changes required’ and lower costs by outsourcing our work.”
Delaney rejects that characterization.
“You make a wildly inappropriate claim that my bill is cruel and heartless,” the congressman said in his letter. “If you think that a bill that reforms Metro’s board, provides $1.5 billion of new funding and that protects labor rights, but simply encourages management and labor to work together for the good of my hard-working constituents is cruel and heartless, then you don’t know the meaning of the term.”
Delaney also takes issue with Hanley invoking the lawmaker’s family history in his letter.
“Finally, since you mentioned my recently deceased dad, who worked his ass off for 60 years as a construction worker, I will tell you what his simple view on Metro would be: work together to fix it,” Delaney wrote. “That’s what I’m trying to do. Are you?”
Despite Delaney’s objections, however, the union reaffirmed its position Tuesday night that the congressman’s bill targets workers.
The legislation “clearly places blame on the current workers for the problems of service, safety and reliability at Metro without pointing to a single word in their contract that actually impacts these problems,” ATU International spokesman David Roscow said in a statement. “Delaney’s bill puts downward pressure on Metro by offering hundreds of millions of dollars to the agency on the condition that it makes unspecified changes in the collective bargaining agreement, pretending that these mystery changes have something to do with the issues at Metro he raised.”
ATU International, the parent chapter of Metro’s largest union, said it planned to issue a lengthier response to Delaney — in letter form — on Wednesday.
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