One Year Later

Remember that whole Transit Strike thing that happened, oh, like a year ago? There actually may be some movement towards a new contract:

A year after the transit contract expired, union workers could learn today whether they finally have a new deal and whether their leader survived a bruising re-election battle.

Their 60-hour strike began last Dec. 20, crippling the city at the height of the holiday shopping season.

Once the strike ended, the union’s members rejected the contract negotiated by their leaders, throwing the matter into binding arbitration.

Gary Dellaverson, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s director of labor relations, said the arbitrator’s decision could be delivered as early as today.

The president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, Roger Toussaint, has said he expects the final contract to be very similar to the original deal negotiated after the strike.

That includes a first-time health insurance premium of 1.5 percent of workers’ gross pay.