Reinvent Albany Joins Jobs to Move America to Demand Transparency on MTA’s Multi-Billion Dollar Kawasaki Rail Car Contract

December 18, 2024

Janno Lieber, Chair and CEO
METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY
2 Broadway, New York, NY 10004

Dear Mr. Lieber:

We, the undersigned transit advocates, community organizations, environmental groups, and good governance organizations, are writing to urge that you exercise full transparency with regards to a public records request relating to MTA’s contract with Kawasaki Rail Car Inc. We are deeply concerned by your current position of refusing to disclose documents with information on working conditions at a major rail car vendor with a contract worth billions of dollars in public money. The public has the right to know if a company is adequately compensating its employees while under contract with a government agency, and we strongly rebuke Kawasaki’s claim that disclosing this information would “unnecessarily agitate” its workforce. By repeatedly rejecting public records requests for this data, the MTA is effectively shielding Kawasaki from accountability to its employees, to the public, and to the agency itself.

When the MTA awarded Kawasaki a $3.6 billion contract to manufacture the R211 rail car, the company submitted a series of documents detailing the number of  US jobs that it would create in our communities, along with the wages and benefits it intended to provide for each job. In these documents, Kawasaki, along with its subcontractors and suppliers, committed to creating 470 quality American jobs in Yonkers, NY and Lincoln, NE at an estimated value of $125 million in total compensation for workers, with that figure potentially rising to more than $270 million if the MTA exercises options for additional subway cars. To hold the company accountable to its commitments, the contract also requires that Kawasaki provide interim reports to the MTA with actual jobs data, supplier data, and additional information related to its compliance with these regulations. At the time of drafting this letter, the agency has refused to disclose to the public  the details of Kawasaki’s original commitments or the  interim reports, claiming they are “trade secrets.” 

The community members working to manufacture Kawasaki rail cars hold crucial jobs that ensure that millions of Americans can be transported every day wherever they need to go. Disclosure of the compensation and benefits for these jobs is essential to holding Kawasaki accountable to its job creation commitments, which are supported by billions in federal dollars received from this contract.   

We urge you to do the right thing by making documents already provided to the MTA publicly available. 

Sincerely,

Rachael Fauss
Senior Policy Advisor
Reinvent Albany

Stephan Edel
Executive Director
NY Renews, A Coalition of 350+ Organizations

Lucas Shapiro
Deputy Director
ALIGN: The Alliance for a Greater New York

Kevin Garcia
Senior Transportation Planner
New York City Environmental Justice Alliance

Click here to view the original press release on Jobs to Move America’s website.

Click here or below to see the full letter.