(NEW YORK CITY) - Labor leaders were nearly unanimous in lauding Governor Kathy Hochul’s directive to “indefinitely pause” the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Congestion Pricing Plan, which was designed to alleviate traffic bottlenecks south of 60th Street in Manhattan.  However, the plan, which was set to go into effect later this month, was criticized by Unions as raising revenue off the backs of the Working Class. 

“Working People (have been) saved by Governor Hochul’s decision to indefinitely postpone congestion pricing.  We would have paid the price which many of our members could not afford,” said Local 237 Union President Gregory Floyd, who Union represents some 20,000 Workers across City Agencies. 

Patrick Hendry, the head of the city’s largest Police Union, said: “Forcing Cops to dig deeper into their pockets just to report for duty will send even more of them running for the exits.” 

And in a statement posted on the Transit Workers Union (TWU) Local 100’s website, its President - Richard Davis, doubled down on his steadfast opposition to the plan.

“Our Members refuse to be taxed for simply coming to work and they've made this abundantly clear at shop-gates across the system,” he said. 

But the postponement - which the MTA in effect complied with - could cost the very Workers that Davis and the Local represents. 

According to an analysis last October by the Open-Government Group Reinvent Albany, MTA Tradespeople were to get $3.2 billion of the $15 billion the agency was required to raise for the agency’s 2020-2024 Capital Plan.

It’s unclear how much of that work could now be jeopardized by the postponement, but according to a letter to contractors and consultants earlier this year, the President of the MTA’s Construction & Development Division - Jamie Torres-Springer, said the $15 billion represented more than 50% of the funding for the 2020-2024 Capital Program.

Among the projects included in that five-year plan were accessibility upgrades at stations in all five Boroughs, signal modernization on subway and commuter rail lines, and bus electrification and work on the second phase of the Second Avenue subway.

Other capital projects now compromised by the postponement are power substations with advanced technology, enhanced passenger information systems, bus electrification, cameras with direct feeds to Transit Bureaus, track intrusion technology and elevator and escalator upgrades.

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