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Breaking News: Transit Workers Reject Contract Agreement

Friday, January 20, 2006

(New York - WABC, January 20, 2006) (WABC) -- The city's 33,000 union transit workers, one month to the day after they stranded 7 million riders with a crippling three-day strike, voted Friday to reject their new three-year contract.

The news is just coming in to the Eyewitness Newsroom the TWU 100 union workers rejected the package that was offered during negotiations that ended the three day transit strike in December.

Of the 22,451 votes cast, Eyewitness News is told that there were 11,227 yes votes, and 11,234 no votes.

Union President Roger Toussaint announced the surprising, and extremely close vote at a Manhattan news conference.

Shortly after 4 p.m., Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued the following statement: "The rejection by the TWU's membership of the contract agreement between its Executive Board and the MTA is disappointing news to all New Yorkers. I encourage both the TWU and the MTA to work together on an amicable resolution to their contract dispute."

The Dec. 20 strike, right in the middle of the holiday shopping season, shut down the nation's largest mass transit system for three days. It was the first union shutdown of the mass transit system since an 11-day strike in 1980, and left New Yorkers scrambling to find their way around the city.

But it was an illegal walkout, violating the state's Taylor Law and putting the union's members at dire financial risk. TWU Local 100 was already fined $3 million, while TWU workers were hit with $35 million in fines - two days pay for each day on strike.

A Brooklyn judge has yet to determine exactly how much of those fines the union and its employees will pay. Toussaint could also face jail time over the walkout; a hearing scheduled for Friday was postponed.

The agreement would have provided workers with raises of 3 percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent over the next three years. But it would have required them for the first time to contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health care premiums.

The MTA agreed to pull a proposal that would have raised the retirement age for new hires from 55 or required new employees to contribute more to their pensions.

The deal was worked out in a late-night session with mediators after talks had broken down three hours after a midnight deadline.

The no vote means that the matter now goes into binding arbitration.

We'll have the latest here as it's available and on Eyewitness News starting at 5:00pm.

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