MTA Negotiator Says Life Might Be Left in Rejected Proposal
Posted on: Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 15:00 CST
By Pete Donohue, Daily News, New York
Mar. 22--The MTA has not ruled out reviving the deal narrowly defeated by bus and subway workers in January, the agency's top negotiator said yesterday.
The comments by Gary Dellaverson, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's director of labor relations, gave new hope that a union plan to put up the rejected contract for a revote could bring labor peace.
Still, Dellaverson called on the state Public Employment Relations Board to certify the dispute for binding arbitration. That would officially start a process that could take months and potentially lead to a panel dictating the terms of a contract.
Dellaverson told the Daily News the MTA will still entertain other routes toward a contract -- including negotiating a new package -- once the "orderly process" of binding arbitration is officially launched.
"It wouldn't be unprecedented, and it wouldn't be unusual, for the TWU and MTA to reach a new agreement thereafter," he said
When asked, Dellaverson said a new agreement could mean reviving the contract -- without changes -- that bus and subway workers rejected by just seven votes following an illegal three-day strike in December.
"We never ruled out what ultimate outcomes are possible," Dellaverson said.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint is planning a second vote on the December agreement.
Ratification could increase the public and political pressure on the MTA board to seal the deal with its approval, experts said.
"I'd be very much surprised, if the union ratifies the contract ... that the Transit Authority doesn't stand by its previous offer," veteran labor lawyer and mediator Theodore Kheel said.
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Source: Daily News
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