Results tagged “thetransportworkersunion”

Wow. The Transport Workers Union's headquarters on West End Avenue was sold for $60 million. Back in April, it was reported that the headquarters were worth $39 million, but that there was a $60 million offer. And clearly, the TWU decided the cash out. One source tells the Post, "This amounts to yet another miscalculation on the part of the MTA and Governor Pataki. They thought they could bust this union, but we are now stronger than ever and we're ready to fight." It'll be interesting to see how the money is used, after paying the fine and getting new headquarters.

The Transport Workers Union president Roger Toussaint will kick off his ten-day jail sentence - for last December's three-day transit strike - by having a rally outside King's County Supreme Court at 4PM. Then Toussaint and his supporters - including the Reverend Al Sharpton and John J. Sweeny of the AFL-CIO - will march across the Brooklyn Bridge and head over to the Tombs, where he needs to report at 6PM. But supporters will also hold sit-ins outside the jail. Toussaint tells the NY Times that his jail sentence is stupid, "It's one thing if you threaten a jail sentence while a strike is on. t's another thing to send someone to jail three months afterward." And he tells the Daily News that he's not worried about jail, but he's worried about his family worrying about, like his 10 year old son. The Post's reporter got threatened when he observed Toussaint's "last day of freedom" while eating in Boerum Hill ("curried chicken, accompanied by rice and beans and spicy cabbage at the West Indian home-style favorite Stir It Up on Atlantic Avenue").

The Transport Workers Union is having its members re-vote on the striked-for contract that was ultimately rejected in January, but there are still some TWU members who want workers to reject the contract again. According to the NY Times, the dissidents claim that a revote "undermines the union democracy" but the TWU's stance has been that some workers misunderstood (or were deliberately mislead) about what the contract included. Overall, the TWU has been trying to rally support for a revote that supports the contract because they'd most likely get a bad deal in binding arbitration, and an explanation about the 1.5% sticking point about members now contributing to their medical gets a huge typeface on the TWU website. Of course, the MTA says that the old, rejected contract isn't even on the table anymore, but Gothamist imagines that if the union were to vote yes, the MTA would have to come around in some way, or else be spun as unreasonable by all sides.

- People snuff out a hoaxy press release that claimed Will Ferrell died in a freak paragliding accident

The Transport Workers Union opposes the binding arbitration that the MTA has requested in order to actually hammer out a long overdue contract, so they filied their papers explaining why they oppose and offering their proposals for a contract. One of the chestnuts the TWU pulled out was for raises near the 24% over three years (that the MTA rejected and the TWU executive board later agreed to much lower ones). It seems that binding arbitration usually sticks it to the unions, so it's quite the gamble, but we suppose there wasn't much else the TWU could do, after the union voted down the proposed contract by seven votes. It's our hope that the MTA and TWU work out an agreement- or that the next strike would be some time in the summer, so we can walk amongst smelly garbage wiliting in the heat.

Today's transit contract vote dealine was at noon. And from the AP:

The workers, by a seven-vote margin out of more than 22,000 votes cast, opted to reject Transport Workers Union local president Roger Toussaint's call for ratification and follow the lead of a dissident group urging rejection. The voting ended at noon Friday.

Seven votes! That's almost too close to call! Does this mean there will be another walkout? The Transport Workers Union's management said that workers who oppose the contract would be fined...but the management is facing fines themselves. While we await news, Gothamist will look for our sneakers.

“This contract has got too many loopholes. We ask the questions and we’re not getting any answers." Well, in other contract news, the NYPD's new rookie class will be paid $25,100, down from the old starting salary in the mid $30K range, thanks to binding arbitration.

The Transport Workers Union executive board agreed to a new contract with the MTA. The raises are 3%, 4%, and 3.5% raises over three years that the MTA had offered a week ago; the new thing is that workers will be paying 1.5% of their salaries towards health care. While the vote was 37-4 (plus one absention), one dissenter told the Post, "We're paying 4.5 percent for medical [benefits] over the course of the contract. That means we're only getting a 6 percent increase in pay." But there was no inclusion of the MTA's pension demand that essentially broke the TWU's back and made them strike. Now, the members of the union need to vote on the contract, but Newsday points out that there are some other issues are yet to be detailed, such as "cost of fines for the strike and other factors such as work rules, deployment and other possible improvements for the workers." Well, Gothamist is glad the strike is over. We can't believe it's been a week since the middle of the strike, but that's what a lot of eggnog and latkes can do you to.

- The Transport Workers Union says the strike will end if the MTA gives up their pension demands

Dunh dunh dunh? The Transport Workers Union's Roger Toussaint met with a mediator this afternoon, but in the meantime, according to the NY Times, "Justice Theodore T. Jones of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn raised the possibility of jail terms for top officials of the Transport Workers Union and ordered them to appear in his courtroom for a hearing at 11 a.m. on Thursday." Basically, jail would be because the union leaders had not called off the strike. Will there be a transit-filled Christmas weekend? Hundreds of transport workers crossed the picket lines yesterday, to get assignments from the MTA, which isn't much given the TWU's 33,000+ membership, but still [The NY Times also spoke to workers with mixed feelings]