Update On The Transit Strike: Headed To Court

With a promised strike less than 48 hours away, the Transport Workers Union was planning to seek a court order Sunday against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — claiming that the agency was breaking state law by demanding changes in pension benefits for new hires, a union lawyer said.

There were no reports of progress following talks between the two sides on Saturday, and commuters were making plans for a possible shutdown of the nation’s largest mass transit system at the height of the Christmas rush.

According to Walter Meginniss Jr., the union planned to file the complaint with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, The New York Times reported on its Web site Sunday.

Meginniss argued that a state law covering public-sector workers allows negotiators to discuss pensions during contract talks, but prohibits them from including them in their final offers. Only essential points like pay and hours are legitimate sticking points, he said.

The MTA’s head negotiator dismissed the complaint, saying that an official impasse would have to be declared before the suit could be considered valid.

“This is a one-day press tactic, but it’s not meaningful,” Gary Dellaverson told the Times.

If the labor board rules in the union’s favor, it would take a major issue off the negotiating table. The transit union has opposed an MTA plan to raise the age of full-pension eligibility for new employees to 62 from 55.

Ed Watt, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said that Saturday’s talks were exploratory but limited.

“Both sides are in what seems to be intractable positions,” Watt said. Neither union head Roger Toussaint nor MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow took part in Saturday’s discussions, he said.

Negotiators began meeting at about 10:30 a.m. Saturday. After breaking at 2 p.m., two union officials said there was no progress, declining to otherwise characterize the negotiations.

The two sides failed to agree on a new deal before the expiration of the union’s contract early Friday, but the trains kept running as the union set a strike deadline for 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

The new deadline gives negotiators at least a few more days to reach agreement, but Kalikow insisted Friday that the authority’s last offer was its best.

“There is no more,” he said.

The offer called for a 9 percent wage increase, phased in over three years. The union demanded annual 8 percent raises for three years. Currently, train operators, station agents and cleaners earn an annual base salary of between $47,000 and $55,000.

Transit workers are prohibited by state law from striking the buses and subways, at the risk of heavy fines and lawsuits.

Toussaint announced a selective strike to begin Monday against two private bus lines in Queens that are in the process of being taken over by the MTA, but are not yet covered by the law outlawing strikes by public transit employees.

The two lines have about 50,000 riders and 750 workers.

A citywide bus and subway strike would be New York’s first since an 11-day walkout in 1980.