Concluding that negotiations were going nowhere, a state mediator recommended yesterday that the dispute between the city's transit union and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority go to binding arbitration.þþRichard A. Currieri, the chief mediator for the Public Employment Relations Board, called for arbitration just two days after Roger Toussaint, the president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, said he was seeking a revote on the contract deal its members rejected by just seven votes in January.þþThe labor relations board is expected to vote to follow Mr. Currieri's recommendation and set up an arbitration panel, a move that the authority has eagerly sought and the union has vigorously opposed, saying it would deny the membership a vote on the final deal. þþIf the board approves arbitration, the next step would be to name a three-member arbitration panel. After the union and the authority present their arguments, the panel would issue a decision dictating the terms of the contract, which both sides must accept. Officials involved in the dispute said it could take two weeks to two months or more for the panel to begin deliberations. The two sides can still negotiate a revised agreement even if the dispute goes to arbitration.þþThe call for arbitration made Mr. Toussaint's next moves unclear. In pushing for arbitration, the authority has signaled that the rejected offer is off the table. It has said the only proposals on the table now are new ones that it has recommended to any future arbitration panel.þþIf the union members approve the contract deal in a revote, the authority could face pressure to vote on the deal and remove the matter from arbitration.þþAlthough a revote would be an unusual step, many transit workers and some public officials have praised the idea, saying it would be a way out of the dispute.þþIn an interview, Mr. Toussaint said he had received a copy of a letter, sent yesterday by the authority's lawyers to the labor relations board, in which the authority sought to rescind its contract proposal.þþMr. Toussaint said the letter came in response to another sent to the state board on Tuesday by Local 100, in which the union presented its plan for a second vote.þþÿThey are doing this in retaliation,ÿ Mr. Toussaint said, adding that the union considered the authority's withdrawal from the contract terms it endorsed earlier to be illegal. ÿThis will play itself out in court.ÿ þþNonetheless, Mr. Toussaint said he would ask the local's 42-member executive committee to approve a revote at its meeting tonight. þþTom Kelly, a spokesman for the authority, said the position taken by M.T.A. lawyers yesterday was the same one communicated to the union in late January: that a contract, once rejected, is no longer on the table.þþThe contract called for a 37-month agreement that would have given workers raises averaging 3.5 percent a year and improved health coverage for retirees. It also would have required workers, for the first time, to pay 1.5 percent of their wages toward health premiums. The authority would also have reimbursed $130 million in workers' pension contributions, a provision that drew criticism from Gov. George E. Pataki.þþThe authority officials made it clear this week that they wanted any new accord to leave out that promise to pay the $130 million in pension reimbursements, even if the Legislature or governor blocked it. þþMany transit workers have signed petitions urging Mr. Toussaint to call a second vote on the contract. þþÿI think for sure it would be approved right now,ÿ said J. P. Patafio, the local's chairman. þþ
Source: NY Times
