City Transit Workers Ratify Contract by a 60 Percent Majority
Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint yesterday announced that the 34,000 New York City transit workers represented by Local 100 have approved the tentative contract agreement reached with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority less than a month ago (see WIT for Jan. 7, 2003). Despite the first-year wage freeze contained in the contract, and attempts by Mr. Toussaint's critics inside the union to defeat the contract, sixty percent of the close to 20,000 members voting approved the agreement. Among the victories that Mr. Toussaint cited as the reason for the contract's approval (see WIT for Dec. 6, 2002), were a one-time $1,000 payment to workers in the first year of the three-year contract, three percent raises in each of the following years, a long sought overhaul of the MTA's draconian discipline system (see WIT for Sep. 9, 2002), and an almost $400 million increase in MTA contributions to the workers' health insurance.
See "City Transit Workers Ratify Contract by a 60 Percent Majority", STEVEN GREENHOUSE, The New York Times, January 23, 2003