After six days of hearings, a state-appointed arbitration panel has come no closer to reaching an agreement between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the transit workers’ union to end their bitter and protracted contract dispute, and a resolution to the dispute may not occur until a new governor takes office in January, said experts who have followed the negotiations.þþThe three-member arbitration panel began hearings on Aug. 4, but on Friday afternoon, the panel’s chairman, George A. Nicolau, announced that the hearings had been recessed until sometime this fall with no conclusion. “I have directed the parties to use this break in the hearings to reflect on their positions and discuss ways among themselves to narrow the disputed issues in this proceeding,” Mr. Nicolau said.þþThe start of the arbitration proceeding had seemed to signify a small step forward in the struggle, which has lasted months, over a new contract for 34,000 subway and bus workers, members of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union.þþThe union went on strike from Dec. 20 to 22 — its first walkout since 1980 — before its leadership reached a tentative agreement with the authority. In January, the membership rejected that deal by a margin of 7 votes out of 22,461 votes cast. þþIn April, the president of Local 100, Roger Toussaint, was jailed for his role in the illegal strike, and the union took a second vote on the same contract proposal, this time approving it, 71 percent to 29 percent. þþThe authority’s chairman, Peter S. Kalikow, refused to recognize that second vote and repeated his call for binding arbitration, a course of action that the union has resolutely opposed.þþAlong with the size of wage increases, the two sides have disagreed on whether and how much union members should contribute toward their health-insurance premiums and whether the workers should have to wait longer, and contribute more, before being able to collect their pensions.þþIn May, the state’s Public Employment Relations Board selected Mr. Nicolau, a former arbitrator for Major League Baseball, to lead the arbitration panel. þþThe two other members are the chief negotiators for the two sides: Basil A. Paterson, a labor lawyer who represents the union, and Gary J. Dellaverson, the authority’s director of labor relations.þþThe union has suggested that it wants to wait until a new governor is elected to replace the incumbent, George E. Pataki, who is not seeking a fourth term. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a Democratic candidate who is considered a front-runner in the polls, supported the second vote on the contract and has vowed to try to oust Mr. Kalikow, who was recently reappointed to a six-year term, if he is elected.þþ“It’s not unusual for municipal unions in New York to go a year, or two or even three, beyond the expiration dates of their contracts, but it’s very unusual for the T.W.U.,” said Joshua B. Freeman, a labor historian at the City University of New York Graduate Center. “The T.W.U. has had a tradition of ‘no contract, no work.’ ” þþThe start of arbitration proceedings does not preclude the two sides from reaching a deal on their own. Dr. Freeman predicted that pressure to do so would build once Mr. Nicolau — as the only neutral member of the panel — begins to suggest the shape an arbitration order might take.þþIn a statement on Friday, Mr. Nicolau said the arbitration panel could not consider all the issues until the state labor-relations board ruled on petitions by both sides concerning the proper scope of arbitration. þþ“Those questions will not be resolved by PERB until later in the year,” Mr. Nicolau said. He said the arbitration panel would resume its hearings in the fall.þþ
Source: NY Times
