Miami-Dade County transit workers wait for backpay promised in October

They were supposed to get their lump sum payments this week, hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of dollars in back pay owed to them since 2017. And just in time for the holidays, too.

But Miami-Dade transit workers found out Wednesday that most of them will have to wait until early next year. And they’ve lost faith.

Transit Union Workers President Jeffrey Mitchell wrote a letter to Department of Transit and Public Works Director Alice Bravo blasting the administration for breaking a promise to make 1,100 or so employees whole with 5% longevity steps owed from 2018 and 2019 by Dec. 18.

Then he posted it on twitter.

“The latest embarrassing administrative excuse and questionable logic behind this continuing delay is simply unacceptable,” Mitchell wrote.

What questionable logic? Well, apparently the Human Resources department wants “100% accuracy” on the payouts, “a virtually impossible goal which everyone knows has never been attained yet is now being used as the latest official excuse to renege on your commitment,” the letter says.

“You know very well that every pay period, these departments make hundreds of mistakes, no matter how careful they are, and adjustments are simply made on the next checks,” Mitchell wrote to Bravo. “This is completely unacceptable.

“We are approaching yet another pay period which is critical to our members and their families, many of whom have been set back by COVID-19, health issues, and other stressful factors,” he wrote. “TWU bargaining unit members need their money now, and not two weeks from now.

“I implore you to act like it is your money during these trying times.”

It’s a laughable excuse that really doesn’t pass the sniff test. Ladra has confirmed with sources who know that, yes, mistakes are made every single pay period. It’s unavoidable in an organization of about 28,000 employees. Errors are corrected by the next pay period. Or the next.

Mitchell says he doesn’t believe it. “I just think it’s more of the leftover attitude from Gimenez and the way he ran things,” he told Ladra. “He did things out of spite.”

The new mayor, La Alcaldesa Daniella Levine Cava, doesn’t have that same reputation. Not yet, anyway. But she also has not moved to replace Bravo.

“The ineptitudes and abuses of [transit] Director Alice Bravo must be addressed by Mayor Daniella ASAP,” the TWU tweeted.

But it’s probably not about Alice. It’s probably not about Gimenez. It’s probably about money.

Truth is, it would cost the county many millions to honor their promise and catch up on the backpay for the eligible workers. The 2017-2020 contract agreement ratified by the union in September and approved by the commission in October, which also includes a 1% increase in hazard pay only during the COVID pandemic, has a total value of $8.6 million.

To pay for the concessions, the city identified $4.298 million from the General Fund Wage and Separation Reserve, $2.4 million from the DTPW departmental reserves and $507,000 from federal transit CARES dollars, with the remaining balance to be absorbed by the DTPW operating funds.

Maybe they don’t have that much in reserves. Maybe they need more time to come up with the dough. Meanwhile, they’ll pay just a little, though — enough to shut the union up.

Because after the tweet on Wednesday, Mitchell did talk to Miami-Dade’s new Chief Operating Officer, Jimmy Morales, who told him that there would be backpay paid to about 275 of the transit workers, or about a quarter of those who are owed, Mitchell said.

Morales, who did his best to bust unions when he was the city manager in Miami Beach, did not return a call for comment and confirmation.

Ladra can’t help but wonder how that’s gonna fly with the other 75% of the department employees.

“That leaves almost 900 people or so left in the wind,” Mitchell said Wednesday evening. “And they’ve been stringing us along since October.”

He said more than 350 transit workers — Metro bus drivers, Metrorail train operators and mechanics — have been quarantined at one time or another since the COVID crisis began in March. There are still more than 100 who haven’t come back to work.

“These are people who haven’t been getting a check for a while,” Mitchell said. “They were expecting it [the backpay] to be there now, before Christmas.”

Yeah. And we all were expecting to have Metrorail extended to Homestead by now.

Alice Bravo, Jeffrey Mitchell, transit

Miami-Dade County transit workers wait for backpay promised in October added by Ladra on December 17, 2020
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