The MTA will be bolstering its staff of in-house tradespeople as part of the agency’s next five-year capital plan, transit officials said Monday.
The plan would staff up New York City Transit by about 300 additional workers and bring some $6 billion of work in-house rather than bidding it out to external contractors.
David Soliman, NYCT’s vice president of facilities, told the MTA’s board Monday that giving the work to transit employees would save the agency between $50 million and $100 million over the course of the five-year capital plan.
The work will be so-called “component work” — smaller pieces of larger contracts — and is expected to include subway station staircase renovations, improvements to station mezzanines and employee facilities, the construction and installation of platform barriers, and structural work at substations, shops and yards.
“We will hire more people in-house to do that work, and we will save money by doing it,” MTA chairman Janno Lieber said.
John Chiarello, president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union — which would count the 300 new workers as members — said he welcomed the decision, which he said came after lobbying efforts by the union in Albany.
“This is a big victory for Local 100,” Chiarello told the Daily News.
“We in the union have been fighting for work to come in house forever,” he added. “We can do it faster, we can do it cheaper.”
The MTA’s $68 billion capital program still requires approval — and significant funding — from lawmakers in Albany.
The plan also relies on roughly $14 billion in funding from the feds — at a time when President Trump’s transportation secretary has threatened to pull money over congestion pricing and an incorrect assertion that crime is on the rise.