Union Board: Transit Strike Is Over

(New York- WABC/AP, December 22, 2005) (WABC) -- Eyewitness News has learned that the TWU executive board has voted to end the transit strike. Thirty six members voted to end the strike, five voted against ending the strike and two members abstained from the vote.

Union board members who emerged from the organization's headquarters said workers will return to their job sites starting with the next shifts. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of returning to work, and resuming negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

It was unclear when the city's buses and subways would again start running, although transit officials said it would take a minimum of 12 hours to get everything restarted.

The announcement of the vote came outside union headquarters about 3 1/2 hours after state mediators said a possible deal was worked out. It puts the nation's largest mass transit system back in operation while negotiations resume on a new three-year contract.

Roger Toussaint, the combative president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, had recommended that his union's executive board accept the deal.

Richard Curreri, Mediator: "Both parties have a genuine desire to resolve their differences. They have agreed to resume negotiations while the TWU takes steps to return its membership."

Most of the 6,300 subway cars have been placed in underground tunnels or in train yards, one next to another. Supervisors have been running empty trains over the rails to keep the rails polished and prevent rust. The 4,600 buses have been stored and guarded at 18 depots.

Employees would have to return to their shifts, tracks and signals would have to be inspected, and subway cars and buses examined before the subways and buses could run.

This plan allows Gov. Pataki to save face because the final negotiations would not take place until the strikers return to work.

It would allow the union's president, Roger Toussaint, to save face because the authority's pension demands - which are at the crux of the deadlock - have been significantly scaled back.

The tentative deal came without the MTA pulling its pension proposal.

There would be a news blackout during further negotiations, as agreed to by both sides and there were no immediate plans for the two sides to sit down, although mediators were immediately available to help forge an agreement.

The mediator working on the framework were appointed by the state's Public Employment Relations Board on Tuesday afternoon after the union declared a strike at 3:00 a.m. that day and the authority said the talks had reached an impasse.

The head of the mediation board, Richard Curreri, met with lawyers for the union Tuesday that afternoon.

Curreri also invited two veteran mediators - Martin Scheinman and Alan Viani - to join him. All three met with both sides for hours at a time yesterday, and into yesterday night.

MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow, and Toussaint both participated in the talks yesterday and this morning. At one point, MTA Chief Negotiator Gary Dellaverson and TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint were in the same room.

Meanwhile, State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones postponed until 4:00 p.m. a hearing in Downtown Brooklyn, during which he was to consider jailing Toussaint, secretary treasurer Ed Watt and recording secretary Darlyne Lawson.

In Albany, Governor Pataki hailed the progress, and credited the Taylor Law, which requires mediation once an impasse is declared.

Gov. George Pataki: "I just am pleased the Taylor Law, that sets up this process, was in this case followed by both sides and moved things forward in a positive way," Mr. Pataki said in a televised news conference.

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