Subway-Surface Supervisors' Carrube wins third term

The head of the Subway-Surface Supervisors Association has been re-elected to a third five-year term by acclamation after facing no challengers for the union’s top post. Mike Carrube, who has run the 4,200-member union since 2015, is currently negotiating a new contract with the MTA. 

Carrube said he would dedicate the term to protecting SSSA members’ and retirees’ health care benefits. The union’s most recent contract expired in July, and Carrube said the current round of bargaining has been slowed by a proposal by MTA and New York City Transit Association negotiators to switch his members from their current Medicare plan to a privately administered Medicare Advantage plan, something he vehemently opposes. 

"I refuse to take that, I will never take that,” Carrube said in an interview. “We have to make sure this doesn't happen.” 

He said the two sides are far from a tentative agreement because of the benefits issue, but he expects that once that obstacle is cleared, an agreement will be within reach. 

David Steckel, a spokesperson for the MTA said in a statement that the agency is "committed to reaching a negotiated settlement with our labor partners and do not negotiate in the press.”

Last year, Transport Workers Union Local 100 leadership agreed to a three-year contract that switched retiree health care from Medicare to a Medicare Advantage program. The local’s retirees, though,  have challenged the health care plan alteration in court and its implementation has been on hold. 

Carrube said he is determined to prevent a similar fate from befalling SSSA members, and has proposed a change to the union’s constitution that would prohibit any president from bargaining away lifetime health care coverage. Earlier this year, members of the Transit Supervisors Organization/Transport Workers Union Local 106 unanimously approved a change to their own bylaws to include such a safeguard. 

SSSA members will vote on the constitutional change in the coming weeks. "No president should have the right to negotiate any retiree's Medicare plan away because retirees in most unions don’t vote for ratification of contracts,” Carrube said. 

'I don’t plan on stopping'

The union’s executive vice president, financial treasurer, and recording secretary — all Carrube allies — were also re-elected by acclamation. Of the 40 other executive board spots, there were competitive elections for just six positions. Half of those were won by independent challengers.  

Carrube called it an “honor” to be re-elected, with the election reflecting the union's strength and unity.

"We did many many things in my 10 years as president, so the election was really a nice pat on the back,” the union president said. “It sends a big message to the MTA that the membership is behind me and this leadership. I can't thank my members enough. This gives me the extra boost to keep going and I don’t plan on stopping." 

Carrube said he’s happy to work with all three of the new executive board members.  

The union leader first won the SSSA’s top job in 2014 by ousting three-term incumbent Anthony Gammone by just 136 votes. Carrube ran  as a reformer, pledging transparency and speaking out against Gammone’s high salary.

Carrube reduced pay for the union’s top officers once he was in office and also tightened the prerequisites for the SSSA’s elected positions, by pushing for a change to union bylaws requiring candidates to have at least five years in the union at top pay. 

Carrube was then re-elected by 3 to 1 margin by the nearly 2,000 members who cast ballots, despite facing opposition from a slate of challengers. Since then, he has secured lifetime health care coverage — including dental and optical care — for SSSA retirees, and successfully lobbied the New York State Senate and Assembly to pass the “Death Gamble” bill in June. 

The legislation, which awaits Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature, ensures that the spouses of transit workers over the age of 55 who die before they retire will receive the worker's full pension payout in the form of a lump sum payment. Firefighters, police officers and teachers in New York have that benefit, while transport workers do not. 

hfreeman@thechiefleader.com