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Quiet Gain for Transit Workers Under TWU Contract: Right to Swap Shifts

By RICHARD STEIER
Posted 2/3/20

The recently ratified Transport Workers Union Local 100 wage contract included a little-mentioned clause that could help accomplish a key New York City Transit objective of increasing worker availability—allowing employees system-wide to trade shifts.

The practice, commonly referred to as “mutuals,” has long been popular in the city’s uniformed agencies, so much so that when a threat to it loomed during an arbitration 30 years ago involving the Uniformed Firefighters Association, union delegates predicted it would not be touched because it was the key to smooth operations in the Fire Department. Although the union lost other key rights in that arbitration process, including staffing guarantees, that prediction held up.

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