NYCTWU: Transit Bosses Say Keep Voting Till You Like

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NYC-TWU: Transit Bosses Say Keep Voting Till You Like

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More on Toussaint's "vote until you get it right" movement

New York Daily News - Mar 1, 2006

Let 'em vote, says MTA official

BY PETE DONOHUE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

A top MTA official yesterday backed calls for a second vote on the narrowly rejected transit union contract as a do-over campaign sparked by bus and subway workers seemed to gain momentum. Union leaders should hold another vote - in part because the pact was defeated by just seven ballots and thousands of bus and subway workers didn't participate, Barry Feinstein, a veteran Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member, said.

MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow said the decision on a new vote was union business, but he added: "I liked the deal. I wish they would accept it."

The comments followed a Daily News report yesterday that pebreastions requesting another round of balloting have been circulating among workers.

"I get the sense that something is building here," said John Paul Patafio, union chairman of the Gleason bus depot in Brooklyn.

At just two Brooklyn bus depots, some 1,000 workers signed the pebreastions in recent days, organizers said. Pebreastions also have circulated among subway workers.

Ed Watt, secretary-treasurer of Transport Workers Union Local 100, said top leaders would have to gauge the support for a revote and obtain executive board approval.

The deal that TWU and MTA officials reached in late December, after a three-day strike, was a 37-month pact. It called for 10.9% pay hikes, pension refunds for many workers and worker contributions toward health insurance.

"I don't believe it's possible to get a better deal," Feinstein said.

Feinstein said the do-over issue was "academic" at this point because TWU officials have not brought up the idea of a second vote, and the MTA is seeking binding arbitration.

But the MTA board has overwhelmingly approved similar contracts negotiated by smaller unions representing MTA bus workers.

*** The New York Times March 1, 2006

Amid Deadlock, Transit Workers Start Pebreastion for 2nd Vote on Contract Rejected in January

By THOMAS J. LUECK

A transit workers' pebreastion drive seeking a second vote on the contract that was narrowly defeated in January is gaining broad support, and could provide an opening to resolve a bitter standoff with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, according to union members and a member of the authority's board.

The pebreastions, put into circulation about a week ago by disgruntled members of Transport Workers Union Local 100, had been signed by thousands of bus and subway workers by yesterday, according to J. P. Patafio, the local's chairman for the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

"It is spreading, and I think there will be enough support" to pebreastion for a second contract vote, Mr. Patafio said. So far, about 500 of the 800 union workers at his depot have signed the pebreastions, he said.

Mr. Patafio said most union members viewed the contract terms � rejected by a margin of only seven votes in January, with 22,461 workers casting their votes � as preferable to any agreement that would be produced by binding arbitration, as is being sought by the transit authority.

The union yesterday released a copy of a 22-page response it filed last week with the Public Employment Relations Board to oppose the authority's request for arbitration.

In the document, the union called for annual wage increases of 8 percent over three years. The union omitted any mention of the volatile pension issues that are at the crux of the labor dispute and that fueled its strike in December.

The union has maintained that pension issues cannot be legally discussed under the state's collective-bargaining laws.

Walking briskly out of a closed session of the authority's board yesterday, Peter S. Kalikow, the authority's chairman, would not say whether he would consider a second round of voting on the January contract terms. The pebreastion drive was reported yesterday by The Daily News.

But Mr. Kalikow did not foreclose the option of another vote.

"I liked the deal," he said, referring to the January contract proposal. "I wish they would have accepted," he said, but added that any proposals for a new vote must come from the union.

"It's their business," he said. "They run their own union."

The contract proposal endorsed by the authority and backed by the leaders of Local 100 in January came after a three-day strike that shut down the transit system, the nation's largest, for the first time in 25 years.

It called for a 37-month agreement that would have given transit workers raises averaging 3.5 percent a year, reimbursement of $130 million in workers' pension contributions and improvements in health coverage. In a union concession, workers were to pay 1.5 percent of their wages toward health premiums.

After the workers rejected the offer, the authority proposed a harsher contract, eliminating the pension reimbursements and demanding increased pension contributions by new transit workers.

Barry Feinstein, another member of the authority's board, said a second vote on contract terms that had already been rejected by the union and revised by the authority would be "something most unusual" in labor history.

But he said he had hoped a second vote would be called by union leaders immediately after the unexpected defeat in January, and that he still thought it an option.

"Sure, I think it would be good," Mr. Feinstein said. For union members, "I don't believe it's possible to get a better deal," he said. "It's all down from here."

A union executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Roger Toussaint, the president of Local 100, and other top union officials were aware of the pebreastion drive, but had not been approached by its organizers. The executive said it remained unclear whether Mr. Toussaint would agree to a second vote.

"You would have to be sure it really represents a legitimate and large number of members," he said. Local 100 represents 33,700 subway and bus workers.

Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the authority, said yesterday that there had not been any negotiations between the authority and the Local 100 for several weeks. The authority has applied to the state's Public Employment Relations Board for arbitration.

At its board meeting yesterday, the authority ratified contracts with two union locals of the Amalgamated Transit Union, representing bus workers in Queens and on Staten Island.

Those locals, representing about 3,000 workers, agreed to terms almost identical to those rejected by Local 100, except that pension contribution reimbursements must be approved by the Legislature in Albany, and are not guaranteed by the authority.

Mr. Feinstein and Mr. Patafio at Local 100 both pointed to the smaller bus workers' contracts as models for Local 100's rank and file.

"With the A.T.U. contracts signed, people will realize they can't do better," Mr. Patafio said. "Members know that arbitration would be a bad alternative."

Sewell Chan contributed reporting for this article.

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