Holy Crap!!! TWU Votes Down Contract!

NYC Transit workers reject new contract
By David B. Caruso
Associated Press

NEW YORK --One month to the day after it stranded 7 million riders with a crippling three-day strike, the city's transit union announced Friday that its members had voted to reject their new three-year contract.

The margin of defeat was just seven votes, out of 22,461 cast.

The vote was a sharp rebuke to Transport Workers Union local president Roger Toussaint, who convinced his 33,000 workers to walk off the job last month but could not muster enough support for the deal that he reached with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

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NYC Transit Union Rejects Contract Offer by 7 Votes
Bloomberg.com

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- New York's 32,000 bus and subway workers, who shut down the U.S.'s largest transit system for three days last month, rejected a new contract by seven votes.

The proposal, offering raises of 10.5 percent while requiring workers to pay part of their health insurance premiums for the first time, was rejected 11,234 to 11,227, said Roger Toussaint, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100. He said the union would seek to open negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

"We will go back to the drawing board," Toussaint said.

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NYC Transit Union Rejects Contract Offer by 7 Votes
Bloomberg.com

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- New York's 32,000 bus and subway workers, who shut down the U.S.'s largest transit system for three days last month, voted down a new contract by seven votes.

The proposal, offering raises of 10.5 percent while requiring workers to pay part of their health insurance premiums for the first time, was rejected 11,234 to 11,227, said Roger Toussaint, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100. He said the union would seek to open negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

"We'll try to recognize what the differences are and hopefully we can build a bridge," said Ainsley Stewart, a union vice president who had opposed the agreement. "If that fails, we'll have to bring in the mediators again."

Stewart said it was "premature" to discuss the possibilities of a resumption of the strike.

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