Transit union officials threaten to ‘tar and feather’ MTA chief Pat Foye

Transit union members threatened to “tar and feather” MTA Chairman Pat Foye on Wednesday, while beefing with the agency amid tense contract negotiations.

At the MTA’s monthly board meeting, Transport Workers Union Local 100 surface division chief J.P. Patafio asked fellow union members in the audience what they’d do if Foye shows up to a planned rally next week.

“We’ll have some tar and feathers for him, right?” Patafio said. “That’s what you do to a fool — you tar and feather him.”

Tensions between management and labor have intensified since the expiration of TWU’s contract in May. Agency officials want to cut back on worker overtime and vacation accruals, and increase worker healthcare contributions — proposals labor leaders call “insulting.”

TWU filed a six-part complaint Monday to the state Public Employee Relations Board, charging the MTA with instituting work-rule changes that are supposed to be made through collective bargaining.

The complaint, obtained by The Post, ticks off recently-instituted policies the union asserts must be agreed to at the negotiating table — including changes to pay rates for training days and compensation for travel time after offsite overtime shifts.

New York’s Taylor Law prohibits public sector workers from going on strike — and requires management to negotiate any changes to worker pay or work rules.

“Our efforts at good faith bargaining have collided with a barrage of contract and past practice violations,” Local 100 Vice President Erik Loegel said in testimony before the MTA board Wednesday.

“Transit has… engaged in repeated, provocative unilateral changes to the terms and conditions of employment of Local 100 members,” he said, alleging that the MTA “attempted to impose its bargaining goals without actually bargaining.”

Last week, union officials blasted Foye for an Oct. 13 email accusing Local 100 President Tony Utano of attempting to “scam” workers by promoting a program offering discounted prescription drugs.

Foye signed the letter with “have a peaceful Columbus Day,” which Utano took as a direct knock on his Italian heritage.

“Don’t come asking for giveback, giveback, giveback in the contract. You’re not getting them,” TWU Maintenance-of-Way Vice President John Chiarello told board members Wednesday. “The president of Local 100 has a name — an Italian name — and he comes from good stock, and he’s honest as the day is long.”

The union will protest outside the MTA’s Lower Manhattan headquarters next Wednesday, in a rally Utano has promised will “cause havoc” to traffic.

Speaking to reporters after Wednesday’s meeting, Foye said he did not find the union’s attacks on him out-of-line.

“If I wanted a job where I was universally loved I would have done something else,” he said.

The state Public Employee Relations Board did not return a request for comment.

MTA rep Andrei Berman said the agency has yet to receive the complaint and remains “focused on negotiating a fair contact.”

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