Labor Dept. Withholds $30 Million As MBTA Faces Yet Another Problem

Representatives of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) and the Amalgamated Transit Union meet Thursday with federal Department of Labor officials to try to resolve a dispute that has held up $30 million slated for the T.

The Labor Department told the Urban Mass Transit Administration Friday to delay a $30 million stipend to the T because MBTA officials altered the language in the grant contract, possibly qualifying the terms of the grant's certification.

Under the Urban Mass Transit Act, the Labor Department must first certify that the rights of the employees are protected, Ellis Rottman of the Labor and Management Services Administration explained yesterday.

Meanwhile, MBTA spokesmen yesterday called the Labor Department's decision "a squeeze play" and said the effect of the fund withdrawal on the Red Line Extension project was "uncertain."

The contention centers on the arbitration procedures the MBTA and the union would follow if contract negotiations stall--a distinct possibility given the history of feisty bargaining between the two parties. The present contract of the union--which represents the city's carmen--expires December 31.

A 1978 state law mandates that in any arbitration process, the arbiter must consider in his decision the "ability of cities and towns" to allow wage increases. Until the latest set of negotiations, MBTA spokesman Paul De Natale said yesterday, the two parties did not bargain under the new law.

But the MBTA decided to negotiate under the 1978 law this time, a move that did not sit well with either the union or the Labor department, which certified the grant under the provision that the T follow the old collective bargaining procedure.

One MBTA source said yesterday the T's Advisory Board had pressured the T to follow the new law. Since the law passed two years ago, the union received an arbitration award because the arbiter found direct conflict between the state law and the parties' adopted bargaining procedure.

The MBTA subsequently brought suit in state court to have the arbiter's decision overturned. One union source said yesterday, "The T knew it would get a good break in the state courts." According, the source added, the union took the case to a federal court--where it is still pending.

The MBTA has invited James Smith of the T's Advisory Board to travel to Washington along with general counsel Joseph Elcock. Recently, MBTA chairman Barry Locke has come under fire from the Advisory Board, which refused to increase the T's operating budget by a requested $40 million.

DeNatale said Red Line construction "will not immediately be affected" by the Department of Labor's move.

Washington Decision

Larry Yud, chief of the division of employee protection in the Department of Labor, will hear the discussion between the parties in Washington Thursday. He said yesterday, "The union claims the T is no longer honoring their bargaining commitments--that negotiators suddenly stopped complying with the certification of the grant."

The grant contract stipulates that regardless of the 1978 state law, the T must follow the old procedures until a federal court decides whether to accept the union's challenge, Yud added.

The MBTA's DeNatale saw the problem in a different light. "We're caught in a bind--damned if we obey the state law, damned if we don't."