Transit Worker Contract Talks Stalled

Contract talks between the transit workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority are stalled amid reports that the city is developing contingency plans in case of a strike, a top union official said yesterday. The two sides met officially for a fourth time last week, and have until the contract expires on December 15 to hammer out a deal.“There was no progress,” the secretary-treasurer of the Transit Workers Union Local 100, Ed Watt, told The New York Sun. “People are talking about issues, but there’s been no substantive response.” The union, representing 38,000 transit employees, is pushing for a wage increase and improved health benefits. Mr. Watt said the union has yet to specify its monetary demands. Citing safety concerns, the transit workers also want assurances that the MTA won’t cut back on staffing by taking conductors off subway trains or removing station agents from ticket booths.An MTA spokesman, Tom Kelly, said in a statement that meetings “are taking place all the time.” The agency, he said, is “confident a settlement will be reached before the contract expiration.” The MTA and the union exchanged verbal jabs last week when the union president, Roger Toussaint, berated the agency for its holiday discounts and for allocating most of its $1.04 billion projected surplus before beginning substantive negotiations with the union. The MTA called Mr. Toussaint’s charges “ludicrous.”As negotiations proceed, officials at the city’s Office of Emergency Management confirmed yesterday that city agencies were working on a contingency plan if the transit workers walk off the job. Under the plan, first reported yesterday in the Daily News, the city would respond to a mass transportation shutdown by requiring multiple passengers in automobiles entering Manhattan; urging increased ferry and commuter rail service; creating staging areas for car pools at Shea and Yankee stadiums, and permitting taxis to pick up extra paying customers. The details are based on plans developed in 2002, when negotiations between the MTA and the transit workers union carried into the night after the contract expired before an accord was reached. A walkout by the transit workers would be illegal under state law, but Mr. Toussaint told reporters last week that union members applauded transit workers in Philadelphia, who struck for a week earlier this month.

Transit Worker Contract Talks Stalled

Transit Worker Contract Talks Stalled

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