Yesterday, a judge ordered the MTA to reopen 38 token booths closed as part of the agency's cost-cutting measures. This ruling from Justice Saliann Scarpulla comes a week after her earlier one finding that the MTA's layoffs and booth closings were illegal because they occurred without public hearings.
It unclear if the laid-off workers will return to work, but TWU Local 100 President John Samuelson was confident, telling NY1, "They don't have enough manpower right now with the station agents to cover the booths they have. They're scrambling, they're robbing from Peter to pay Paul right now they simply don't have the resources to cover the existing booths. So there is no doubt when we win this the station agents who were laid off are gonna come back to work, they have no choice."
Now the MTA will be holding public hearings—where and when TBD— about the booth closings. The MTA said it "continues to disagree with the court's ruling," emphasizing, "These closures were necessitated by the MTA’s dire financial situation, and the need for the savings they generate remains. We believe the prior public hearings fully conformed with the legal requirements and will be appealing the judge’s order as soon as it is entered. The appeal triggers an automatic stay of the lower court’s order, and the MTA therefore should not be required to re-open the recently-closed kiosks at this time."
